Historicist: Life in Wartime
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Tomorrow night, scores of arts collectives and community groups will be putting on impressive exhibits, performances, and workshops as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. The Toronto Public Space Committee thought it would be neat to do something, too, but guess which word in the event title made the TPSC uncomfortable.
So instead they bring you noncorporatized Not Blanche, "a pwyc all-night public-space thing," straight outta the Brunswick Theatre from 11:00 p.m. Saturday through 3:00 p.m. Sunday—sort of a Director's Fortnight to Scotiabank Nuit Blanche's Festival de Cannes. Come, go, stay a little while, or crash for an hour or two or more (there will be pillows!), the Brunswick will be Public Space home base for the night. Activities include all-night films from Streets to Screens and the NFB, poster-harvesting and button-making, an Illegal Sign Safari (conducted by, who else, IllegalSigns.ca), a 1:00 a.m. bulb plant by the Guerilla Gardeners, a 2:00 a.m. Human River-themed Art Attack, and a 3:00 a.m. graffiti tour (with help from Style in Progress). Sunday morning will bring "Nuit Brunch," ecology workshops, and a screening of the NFB water-doc Crapshoot. Crazy fun.
Photo of Guerilla Gardening's 2006 "Pitch Black Night Attack" by the TPSC's amanda! on Flickr. Jonathan Goldsbie, a TPSCer, wishes that Tree Tours had thought to call their event Blanche Du Bois.
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That basically sounds like the worst night ever. A sign safari..? Stop snitchin', as the kids say.
Um... I have to say, this bums me out. I'm usually a fan of TPSC, but objecting to corporate sponsorship of the arts seems really misguided to me.
In what way does Scotiabank's sponsorship of Nuit Blanche make the event a bad thing? The TPSC's site doesn't seem to explain why they have an issue with the corporate sponsorship. And as someone who's worked in nonprofits for many years, I can vouch for the importance of funds that come from sources other than traditional granting agencies.
If someone can give me an example of Scotiabank interfering in curatorial activities for the event, I'll be totally down with the anti-Nuit Blanche, but as it is I'm a little baffled and unimpressed. Nuit Blanche is a cool event that brings a huge number of people together in celebration of the city and contemporary art - why slam it?
I agree totally...ooh a corporation funding the arts! wow, that's really a bad thing?...misguided and juvenile...
Hi y'all. This is Chris, the campaign director for Streets to Screens, one of the TPSC campaigns that's hosting NOT BLANCHE.
To [2], let me first say that we're NOT slamming the concept of Nuit Blanche (or even Scotiabank, really). We're not "anti-Nuit Blanche", nor have we ever said (nor do we think) that Scotiabank is interfering in the curatorial activities of Nuit Blanche. Things don't always have to be "pro-" or "anti-". What we are doing is simply offering a noncorporatized alternative.
Personally, I work in the arts too, and I totally understand the importance of funds that come from corporations. Some of us are participating in Nuit Blanche outside of our work with TPSC. The TPSC is an activist organization, however, and a large part of what we do is work for the protection of public spaces from commercial influence and privatisation. Our event this weekend is our way of showing that you can participate in all-night arts activities in public places WITHOUT having to have a large corporate logo plastered over everything you do.
Finally, you can still be a fan of TPSC without agreeing with or participating in everything we do.
To [3], what's misguided is your assumptions of what we do and why we're doing it. What's juvenile is mistaking sarcasm for intelligent discourse. (And all from behind an anonymized guest posting.)
Hi Chris - poster #2 here (for what it's worth, I did register for a screen name before posting the first time, but still haven't received the confirmation, so it's continued guest-dom for me...). I appreciate your response, and I agree that I'm free to pick and choose which TPSC initiatives I support or participate in - this doesn't make me write off the organization entirely by any means. Unfortunately, though, saying that you're "not 'anti-Nuit Blanche'" yet calling your event "Not Blanche" is intentionally creating a dichotomy. The very creation of a "Not Blanche" suggests there's something wrong with Nuit Blanche that forces you to host an alternative event.
While I appreciate the idea of protecting public spaces from commercial influences, I guess I feel like Nuit Blanche provides a fantastic opportunity for people to interact with public space in ways that they usually don't. It feels like two different aspects of what TPSC is interested in - getting people engaged in public space, and defending that space from privatization - are at odds on this one. Perhaps you could pick a different time of the year to hold an event that is similar to Nuit Blanche but not privately sponsored, if you don't want to create the impression that you are slamming the original concept.
That said, I hope your event is a success tonight, and remain a supporter of TPSC - just a slightly disappointed one.
Kim
Hey folks,
I signed in as a guest, cause it's easier and I always forget passwords. haha.
This is Dave Meslin, i founded the TPSC a little while back, although I'm not involved with the group any more. I just want to say that I think the Not Blanche thing is great. In fact, over breakfast this morning, I said to my breakfast companion "I think the Not Blanche thing is great".
A few comments:
1) According to the Star today, Scotia Bank kicked in $300,000 while the City (us) kicked in a million. Essentially we've got our tax dollars subsiding a corporate advertising campaign. (yes, it's an advertising campaign. The money comes out of the banks marketing budget, not their "let's do something nice" budget)
2) As far as "interfering in curatorial activities", I think the point here is that strings are not always visible. This goes for all forms of grants, be it corporate grants, foundations, whatever. What I mean by that is, if McDonalds is funding a theatre group, they won't put in the contract that "you are not allowed to criticise fast food in your artistic work", but when that group is debating which scripts to use in their upcoming season, you can bet they will avoid any scripts that do contain criticism of fast food. Why piss off your funder, when there are so many other scripts to choose from? The corporate sponsorship of any art form, in an age where large corporations are directly and indirectly connected with acts of human rights violations and environmental destruction is a bad idea. The arts has historically been a medium where opposition voices and criticism can flourish.
3) Please keep in mind where these "grants" come from. It's nothing more than a hidden tax that companies incorporate into their prices, allocate to their marketing budgets and then offer back to us as some sort of gift. It's the largest corporate scam going. Nothing is free and money doesn't grow on trees (or at Scotia Bank) Every penny that the banks have, they got from us in the first place by charging fees above and beyond the costs associated with delivering their services. It's a tax. Personally, I'd rather just pay a real tax, that is handled by an elected government, not a corporate board of directors. Although then you have the invisible strings of government funding. The best scenario is for people to just pay for the damn art they consume. Over 425,000 people attend Nuit Blanche. The cost seems to be about $1,300,000. That's $3 each, no logos or strings of any kind attached. Not bad.
Hey Kim, thanks for remaining engaged in the discussion. We actually went through a number of ideas for a name for this event -- my first choice was "Night And Day", like the Billie Holliday song. We eventually chose "NOT BLANCHE" for its wordplay with "NUIT", but I can see your point that it makes us seem perhaps more "anti" than we actually are.
As for doing our own thing at another time of year, I think it's important that we are out and doing things at THIS time of year. We want to show people that there IS an alternative to having Scotiabank's name on your all-night art in public spaces event. We've designed our event to address some things that a few of us experienced at last year's Nuit Blanche:
I really don't feel that our desire to get people engaged in public spaces and our duty to defend those spaces from privatization are at odds with one another at all. NOT BLANCHE is in fact our way of reconciling those two dynamics. I appreciate your thoughts, though, and it certainly sounds like your heart is in the right place about public space. Have you ever considered running for a position at TPSC? We're having elections next week!
(And thanks for the comments, Mez!)
RE: Please keep in mind where these "grants" come from. It's nothing more than a hidden tax that companies incorporate into their prices, allocate to their marketing budgets and then offer back to us as some sort of gift. It's the largest corporate scam going. Nothing is free and money doesn't grow on trees (or at Scotia Bank) Every penny that the banks have, they got from us in the first place by charging fees above and beyond the costs associated with delivering their services. It's a tax.
Guess what else is just like that? Taxes. Yes, the ultimate burden of taxation is individuals through higher prices, etc. As noted, every penny these corps get comes from us spending our money.
The whole concept of corporate public arts events aside, I came back from Nuit Blanche a little while ago and was completely and utterly underwhelmed. I think the difference between the blurb about Deeparture and the actual video itself (what amounts to an overly long TELUS commercial) captures my disappointment perfectly:
Deeparture is an unnerving examination of conventional associations and psychological connotations. Cantor confines a wolf and a deer in a white-cube gallery space, in a deliberate manipulation of the natural terrain between this predator and prey. Set within this alien environment, Deeparture silently portrays an atmosphere of surveillance and potential danger in a captivating, disturbing and unexpected scenario that shifts between tension and ambivalence.
given the choice between an ad and that description of Deeparture, I might go with the ad.