Sooner or Later
Its real name, corporate name, despite its more endearing moniker “Gallery X”, is, “The Existential Art gallery of Scarborough”. So far, it’s a virtual gallery rather than something concrete, and, we are very proud of the exhibitions we have mounted so far, which have been both local and international in nature.
The word “existential” has at least one meaning in the dictionary which is ‘pertaining to human existence’ and that is why it was chosen as part of our name. Personally, it would be my claim, and that of many others I’m sure, that all art galleries pertain to human existence. They are the one place in our lives where we share the intimacy of artistic creation. We may indeed see plenty of creativity elsewhere, but we are bound to have that experience in an art gallery. It is the very place where artists put their souls out for exhibition by creating art for audience consumption.
An art gallery could be conceived of as a treasury, a place where we most seriously present the meanings of our culture, a place where we can share our ideas, get new understandings about existence, and preserve what we have learned from the past. It is a profound place where the humdrum of daily life can be suddenly electrified with new meaning and great expectations, or perhaps silent contemplation and personal development. Whatever it becomes for any individual it is most often a shared expression of pride for the community, and a cultural meeting place for all.
In our fast-moving technical world, cultural ways and daily use of buildings and objects can become obsolete in less than a decade so one wonders about what the modern three-dimensional expression of an art gallery might be in this increasingly digital age. Perhaps the most obvious answer is don’t change from the traditional, just use the public space created in increasingly creative ways.
Gallery X hasn’t reached the juncture of bringing a bricks and mortar gallery into existence yet, even though the board has been in existence since 2018. It has been noted on more than one occasion that striving to get something like this accomplished is a very long journey, especially when we have no paid staff and everything that is accomplished is done by volunteers. From what I have read about the development of buildings and all the approvals that need to be attained to do such a thing it seems that those kinds of dreams are a long way off, however, a friend wrote to me recently, which I greatly appreciated, because she said:
“I’m thinking of you as I read that the Art Gallery of Toronto was incorporated in 1900 by the government of Ontario but had no physical existence until 1913.
Sounds like Gallery X doesn’t it? I hope you don’t lose faith in it.”
Well yes it does sound somewhat like Gallery X, but no, we are not losing faith, far from it. Despite progress being slow, and communications being few and far between, we should take note of this foregoing advice. On a similar time scale, we have progressed through six years, and we should be expecting something more substantial seven years from now. The big difference of course is that Toronto had a population of approximately 200,000 in 1900, and now just Scarborough is comparatively huge with a population of approximately 630,000. There is no doubt that the route to a gallery will be longer and more complicated, but the vision and the faith is strong for The Existential Art Gallery of Scarborough.
Peter Marsh BA CSPWC OSA SCA TWS August 2024
1 Comments
Brad
To everything there is a season, so I imagine your vision will come to fruition at some point. Meantime, the work and effort of all the volunteers is an accomplishment in itself…..a work of art in progress!
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