CFCR COMMUNITY CONNECT – OCTOBER 2024
Welcome to CFCR Community Connect – where we help to connect you with local community organizations in Saskatoon.
PAVED Arts is the Community Connect feature for the month of October 2024!
PAVED Arts is a non-profit, artist run centre for production, presentation, research and dissemination of contemporary media arts. The word PAVED is an acronym signifying the integration of media art forms addressed by our mandate: photographic, audio, video, electronic, digital. PAVED Arts exists to support artists who work in the media.
PAVED Arts came into official existence on March 31, 2003 with the legal amalgamation of The Photographers Gallery (TPG) and Video Vérité (VV), the former photography resource and exhibition centre, the latter a media access centre. This union joined two organizations with a combined history of over 40 years and the new centre continues to build upon groundwork laid separately and jointly by them, uniting dedicated presentation space with media production facilities as well as independent and collaborative program initiatives.
Their mandate is to support local, regional and national artists working in the ‘PAVED’ arts by operating an access and production centre for media and new media creation, while simultaneously operating a presentation centre that exhibits and disseminates contemporary visual, media and new media art in time-based, gallery, and off-site modes.
What types of programs or activities do you offer? What’s your most successful program?
PAVED Arts presents free exhibitions in the main gallery, media gallery, window gallery, and billboard. PAVED Arts also offers community programming such as Mic Drop, our drop-in youth program for writing and recording spoken word, rap, and hip hop in our audio suite, and our Darkside of the Room: Darkroom and Donut Club where artists interested in analog photography, beginner or advanced, meet monthly through the winter to learn new methods from an experienced mentor. PAVED Arts offers year-round technical workshops for free to our members delivered by artists from across the country.
PAVED Arts also has a production centre where artists can rent media art equipment at affordable rates and book time in the Photo Suite (with scanners and a large format printer), Audio Suite (with isolation booth and control room), Video Suite (with the latest video editing software) or Darkroom (set up for 35mm and medium format developing and printing). We help artists and independent producers make and exhibit their work!
Are there specific demographics of communities you primarily serve?
PAVED Arts primarily serves artists working in Photographic, Audio, Video, Electronic, or Digital media at any stage in their career and any member of our community that would like to explore these media by attending performances, exhibitions, or workshops.
How have you seen your organization’s work make a difference? Can you share any success stories or provide examples of positive outcomes directly impacted by your organization?
PAVED Arts breaks down barriers by engaging various levels of accessibility, in an effort to democratize the means of production and empower our grassroots register to tell their stories in a variety of media. Part of this effort involves offering professional grade production workshops for free to our membership. This attribute of our activities is unique in our sector nationwide. Concerning our presentation stream, PAVED Arts continues to pay better than the CARFAC recommended minimum to artists who exhibit, perform, screen or otherwise present. A talented staff continues to compliment these offerings with further technical support to artists at every stage of their respective careers.
A recent example of how this commitment to our immediate community has made a difference was showcased in three projects bridging 2022-23. Inspired by the rise of artist collectives that have proliferated in Saskatoon during the pandemic, PAVED Arts produced a series of exhibitions dedicated to these collaborative initiatives. The first initiative involved a collaboration with the Unheard Sound Collective, pertaining to the audio art festival entitled Sounds Like. PAVED Arts produced one evening of the festival with performances by Scott Fitzpatrick, Victoria Shen and DJ Olive (a.k.a. Gregor Ashe). However, the lion’s share of resources were dedicated to a project that saw Gregor Ashe working closely with PAVED staff to stage an improvised, multi-media art installation involving 21 Saskatoon area artists who responded to an open call for submissions. The “Future Collective” was led by Ashe and involved a week-long production period, transforming PAVED Arts gallery spaces into a multi-media sensorium that combined live performance, installation and a wide array of artwork. The second reemergence project was an installation staged by the Biofeedback Collective, with artists Kelsey
Ford, Emily Zdunich, and Lauren Warrington. Their project, entitled “Feedback with Biofeedback: a [digital] gardening project,” was the first such exhibition/residency staged in one of our shared (with AKA Artist-run) studio spaces. The third artist collective project was staged by Kyuubi Culture. Mandated to support BIPOC voices, the collective is led by artists Xiao Han, Qiming Sun and, for this project, invited guest artist Negar Tajgardan. The level of support allocated to this initiative in its production phase was comprehensive, including materials and facilities to fully realize all new media art works. Taken as a whole, the thematic of “reemergence” was crafted into a showcase for emerging talent, allowing PAVED Arts to promote and celebrate the energies of local emerging artist collectives.
Do you collaborate with other non-profits, agencies, or businesses to provide programs or resources? How do these collaborations enhance the effectiveness of your programs?
For several years now, we have teamed up with AKA Artist-Run to offer free community studios for six months at a time to artists or collectives at any stage in their careers. The studios have seen a lot of activity through open studios, performances, drop-ins, and special events. PAVED Arts has collaborated with Chokecherry Studios to offer the Mic Drop drop-in program and Cypher Connect Camp Week for youth to create, produce, and record spoken word, hip-hop, and rap at Chokecherry Studios and the PAVED Arts audio suite. Both programs culminate in performances by the youth in our event space and have become well-attended performances for our community to see the exceptional talent
that comes out of these programs.
What are any challenges or obstacles your organization has faced? How were they overcome?
Operating on a grass-roots register with a small global budget enables a certain capacity to engage marginalized voices, certainly an aspect of our reason for being. Having said this, the challenge that comes along with operating at this level has to do with staff retention and succession planning. PAVED Arts endeavours to retain staff by first protecting the value of “artist run” insofar as we strive to make the work environment conducive to having a life in art. Employees have access to “art time” as a means to foster artistic growth within our own numbers. While burn-out runs high in our sector, PAVED Arts has adopted policies around the work week and access to production resources that offset these hazards and make it possible to be a cultural worker and an artist at the same time.
Do you have a long-term vision or dream for your organization?
Over the last few years we were able to pay off our mortgage to the building that we share with AKA Artist-Run. We have also been working towards making our building fully accessible through a number of improvements including wheelchair accessible washrooms, automatic doors, improved lighting and sound enhancements in our shared event space. We hope these improvements will ensure that we are able to serve a wider community and everyone will feel comfortable and welcome. In the next few years we intend to continue expanding our facilities to better serve our membership, presenting artists and the larger community that we are situated in.
How can the community help your organization reach its goals?
We welcome our community to come see what’s on view in our galleries/on the billboard and join us at events and exhibition openings! See what’s happening at PAVED on social media @pavedarts or at pavedarts.ca. We also encourage artists to come by to view our production centre to see if any of our equipment or facilities could help them in the creation of their upcoming projects!
What volunteer opportunities are there within your organization? How can individuals or groups get involved and support your organization through volunteering?
PAVED Arts offers production centre credit to members in exchange for volunteering at exhibition openings, community events, and fundraisers. If you are a leader who shares our commitment to exploring media arts, you might consider joining our Board of Directors!
What about fundraising or donating opportunities?
PAVED Arts hosts fundraising parties, Pet Portraits, media fairs, and other fundraisers throughout the year. We also accept donations through Canada Helps. Donations go toward our community programming, rental equipment repairs and purchases, and photography/audio/video suite upgrades which we keep up to date with the latest software and equipment at affordable rates for artists. Every little bit helps and we are thankful for the support of our community.
What is something you wish more people knew about your organization?
“I wish that more people were aware of the fact that membership at PAVED Arts is very affordable and available to anyone in Saskatoon wanting to explore photography, audio, video, electronic and digital arts– and at every level, from beginner to advanced.”
– David LaRiviere, Artistic Director, PAVED Arts.
“I wish that more people knew that PAVED Arts has a fully functioning darkroom that they can use to develop film or make prints. No more waiting till sundown to make a semi-functional darkroom in your bathroom!”
– Emilie Neudorf, Communications Coordinator, PAVED Arts.
“I wish that more people were aware of our fabulous art gallery and studio program at PAVED Arts. We partnered with AKA Artist Run to alternate shows in the main gallery and offer free artist studio spaces in the secondary gallery space. We have a sparkly new window gallery that is always open with art to view from the street!”
– Rachel Broussard, Program Director, PAVED Arts
To find out more info, or to check out what PAVED is up to, click below!
