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“We were told, ‘We’re taking everything into consideration, doing what we can, we’re taking this seriously’ — and to be patient, but that more was coming soon,” Kraven said.
(On Wednesday morning, after the publication of this article, a communications agency that works with Bradley Ertaskiran emailed the Gazette to say the gallery “has made the decision to stop representing the artist Jon Rafman.”)
Cheryl Sim, managing director and curator at the Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art, said she believes it’s important for art institutions “to be accountable for the choices they make, rather than doing what has been done in the past, which is this old guard, boys’ club, banding together, not examining what their responsibilities are to their audience, and to the community they serve.”
Roxane Halary, a coordinator at feminist art gallery Studio XX, was on the conference call when the Gazette spoke with Trépanier. She said the artist-run centre is holding a community discussion on abuse of power in Quebec arts organizations, titled We Are Not Surprised, Aug. 10 on Zoom.
“I see this as one incident in a system that is much larger,” she said, “that we have to take apart bit by bit.”
