Feminist Art Museum (FAM), one of our six Community Arts Space partners, is led by local curators Xenia Benivolski and Su-Ying Lee, who gave us insight into their project and the power of involving the public in the art-making process.

Why is it important for public spaces to make room for “art making”?

We like to imagine what a society would look like if making art was something everyone understood that they could do. Not to eliminate the professional practice of artists, but to propose that all have this avenue of expression. Perhaps akin to the way that there are professional chefs, but anyone can make food and think about what satisfies and nourishes them.

One aspect of FAM’s project is live rehearsals by Christopher Willes and his collaborators in the exhibition hall. This is a space that normally presents completed works. Drawing the public into the process of art-making like this proposes that they can make art, they will be implicated, they can involve themselves.

This is one way to refuse the hierarchical structures and classism that can be found in the contemporary art world.

What is the significance of having access to a downtown cultural institution to present your work?

The Feminist Art Museum is particularly interested in rural and remote places and will strive not to be urban-centric. That said, there are resources and relationships here that are key to helping us get this project off the ground. Downtown is the environment we know and can speak in an informed way about. Until we have the resources to do more research in rural and remote areas, we don’t want to helicopter in and make assumptions about what ought to happen there. Access to a downtown cultural institution means we can get the conversation started with many audiences including our own cultural communities, Torontonians, and those from out of the city.

Art needs to be ____, _____, and ____ in order to incite change.

Revealing, provocative, and unforgettable.

Those qualities will be differently defined for everyone. It might be a big spectacle for some and a quiet work for another, something wholly offensive or totally agreeable.

Describe the intended impact of your project in one sentence.

To deeply consider the idea of holding space through an intersectional feminist lens.

How do art and change intersect?

Art is tied to humanity. Humans create within social and political conditions. To make art is to shape and manipulate materials and ideas, to transform, to change.

FEMINIST ART MUSEUM is one of this year’s Community Arts Space: Art is Change partners. They will be presenting a series of free programming from August 9 to 17 at the gallery. Learn more here.