As the pandemic continues to severely compromise the lives and work of artists across the world, new initiatives — thankfully — continue popping up to try and help. And one of the latest is Connecting Perspectives: A Cross-Border Art Initiative, a spinoff of the Social Distancing Festival (which was one of the first projects CBC Arts highlighted when COVID-19 first hit Canada).
The project aims to pair up 13 Canadian artists with 13 American artists, all of whom identify as Black, Indigenous and/or people of colour — communities that have been particularly impacted by the turbulence and uncertainty of the crisis. Each pair will create new, collaborative works of art together, drawing inspiration from the theme “Art Today.” It’s the kind of symbolic gesture we could certainly use right now as the physical border between the two countries remains closed.
“Something that I’ve been moved by during this lockdown is the possibility of connection over long distances,” says Nick Green, the creator of the Social Distancing Festival. “I think for a long time, there’s been this feeling that meaningful and authentic connection can’t happen unless you’re face to face, breathing the same air. [But] in the past eight months, I can’t even count how many incredible moments of connection I’ve had over the phone or through a screen. And a huge amount of those times have been in the process of experiencing or creating art.”
“I’m really hoping that this opportunity can facilitate even more connection across long distances during a particularly scary and discouraging time.”
The Connecting Perspectives logo. (Social Distancing Festival)
The project is being produced and presented by the Social Distancing Festival in collaboration with Canada’s diplomatic missions in the United States. They are looking for visual artists, choreographers, poets, composer/musicians, and spoken word artists who are “enthusiastic about collaborating on new work that will be presented online.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the art world, while at the same time revealing just how important art can be in times of crisis,” says Khawar Nasim, Canada’s Acting Consul General in New York. “This initiative is a great opportunity to support our artists, who are often our best ambassadors, as well as to show the power of art in amplifying important voices, bringing people together and generating hope.”
The deadline for applying to the project is January 22nd, or once they have reached 400 submissions in total. Given that they are seeking to include participants from across Canada and the United States, they may need to stop accepting applications from certain areas if they have received a large amount of submissions.
“We’ve developed an application process that, I think, will give the artists an opportunity to show the jury who they are and what kind of art they love to make, while not having to take a day off work to fill it out,” Green adds. “So far the submissions we’ve reviewed have been astounding. I have no idea how the jury is going to choose.”
This initiative is a great opportunity to support our artists, who are often our best ambassadors, as well as to show the power of art in amplifying important voices, bringing people together, and generating hope.– Khawar Nasim, Canada’s Acting Consul General in New York
All participants will receive a fee of $1000 USD, as well as $200 USD for expenses. These artists must have a minimum of two years professional experience and be available to work on the project between February and the end of April 2021.
“I’m excited to see who steps up to this challenge and which cultural backgrounds are represented,” says Tawhida Tanya Evanson, the project’s Artistic Associate. “I expect to see applications from emerging artists, but also mid-career artists who are seeking to widen the breadth of their practice and expand their network. This is a great opportunity at a time when communication and acts of bold unity are vital.”
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
