Local accessibility to art has barriers

GINA ROGERS

Anew course, introduction to museum and curatorial studies, is coming to Langara College in the spring of 2020 on how museums are “complex social and cultural institutions”, with students exploring the history and theory of curating art.

Vancouver Art Gallery, unlike many art galleries in the city, operates by donation every Tuesday between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Art Gallery of Ontario made admission free for anybody under 25-years-old earlier this year.

Students in a visual arts program get a $5 annual membership to the VAG, compared to the standard $48 per year membership price. The drop-in student rate is $18 per ticket.

The Museum of Anthropology offers a group rate for reduced admission.

The National Gallery in London, United Kingdom, is free at all times.

The Musée du Louvre in Paris is free to all visitors who meet certain criteria, including being under the age of 18, in possession of certain passes, or persons with disabilities.

Lynn Ruscheinsky has been curating art for 35 years and will be teaching the new course at Langara. Ruscheinsky says entrance fees are like the other costs of schooling. She said making art free to view for all is “just not realistic”.

“The government has cut back funding in the arts so much," Ruscheinsky said. “Who’s going to support the arts if we don’t encourage young people to get involved."

Ruscheinsky said that countries with free art have patronage, where “wealthy people donate the works and donate the money in perpetuity to maintain those works.” With costly upkeep covered, this art will be accessible to a wide audience.

Local artist, Ian Horsfield, said he would support free viewing of his art if someone were to buy it and then show it for free.

Langara computer science student, Wayne Navarrette, said that if the gallery were near campus, and free, he might consider it for date night.

Navarrette enjoyed walking around the Imaginus poster fair on campus, saying that “people were drawn to it”

From the early days when the group of comic writers and artists created their first anthology, or collection, of comics, Cloudscape started publishing their comic books finances through crowdfunding.

Cloudscape Comics Society has published 10 anthologies of comics from local artists since its inception, alongside many other comic books. And more recently, it has published comic books and graphic novels through crowdfunding.

Their latest comic book titled Life Finds a Way, an anthology about stories where people find hope in a post-apocalyptic world, was published by the means of crowdfunding.

Two of their members pitched the story idea which Cloudscape then approved.

“We helped them launch the crowdfunding via Kickstarter. We have the shipping account, we have the relationship with the printers, [and] the infrastructure that they can take advantage of to facilitate the project coming together,” Ellis said.

Daisy Mak was new to Vancouver. She always loved drawing comics and wanted a way to socialize and meet other people who loved making comics. She googled and went to a comic meet-up where she met Ellis who encouraged her to try a weekly meeting at Cloudscape.

“[I] really liked it, so I just kept coming back,” Mak said.

Cloudscape hosts meetings every Wednesday, where comic artists and writers can work on their comics, get feedback, socialize and find encouragement.

“Coming here was a way of being okay with [it and] here’s a space where I can just focus on it and get it done,” Mak said.

"[Comics are] fulfilling literature and art in a way that no other medium is,” said Oliver McTavishWisden, treasurer of Cloudscape.

“We want to continue to be an organization that offers a [publishing] platform for people that maybe couldn’t find a platform,” Ellis said.