Hana Balaban-Pommier
Dinner for Poseidon
Exhibition at the
Living Arts Gallery
Mississauga
Sanguine
September 11 – October 28, 2018
1. Here is a recent email I sent and the resulting correspondence:
On Fri, Oct 26, 2018 at 6:29 AM reclaimbeauty@gmail.com
Dear Potters,
It is a real pleasure to view your work, which I have done at several exhibitions. Most recently, I went several times to your current Sanguine Exhibit at the Living Arts Centre.
But last weekend, October 20 and 21, I couldn't enter the gallery space because there were school programs under the the Living Arts Centre's children Art Lab program which filled the gallery with young children (perhaps as young as 5 years old and as old as 7) who were brought in by their art instructors to view your work, and also to sketch your pieces.
I was shocked to see such a large number of young children fill that small, long and narrow gallery space. And although they were supervised, there were one or two who were running around unobserved, and some even touching the works.
The damage they could have caused to the delicate clay pieces is unimaginable, especially as some were perched on blocks and were easy to knock over.
I made this observation officially to the gallery receptionist, but she is not at fault since she had to follow what these LAC staff members had decided to do. And she is simply an volunteer, and not a professional art gallery personnel.
Besides the damage that could have occurred, these children also came during gallery hours and prevented the public (people like me) from entering and viewing the works. Firstly, there was no room to do so, and secondly if there had been room, they were so loud as to prevent a quiet viewing that these pieces merit.
I have since returned to the gallery twice (on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week) and bought your lovely catalogue as a memento and also as a contribution towards your artists who have put up this show free of charge. I also hope to visit your studio in the near future to start collecting my Christmas gifts.
I am an artist myself working with textile design, and understand the how delicate, and even fragile, most artworks can be.
All the best, and looking forward to your future exhibitions,
Kidist Paulos Asrat
Artist/Writer/Designer
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On Saturday, October 27, 2018, 9:43:21 AM EDT, Andrea Poorter
Hello Kidist,
Thank you so much for visiting the Exhibition.
We're very excited about it an proud of our work.
Thank you also for bringing forward your concerns. I'm sure it's difficult for the LAC to find a balance for kids programs and gallery works. It's great that children are brought into the gallery to look and see what's going on but understanding the fragility of ceramics (or any artwork) also requires some education.
We are having our Fall Sale November 17 and 18 right beside our studio. It would be great to see you there. Please introduce yourself if you can make it. www.mississaugapotters.com/sales
It would be great to meet you.
Best,
Andrea
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Andrea Poorter
President
Mississauga Potters' Guild
www.mississaugapotters.com
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On Sat, Oct 27, 2018 at 2:07 PM reclaimbeauty@gmail.com
Dear Andrea,
I hope I gave some useful insights.
The problem was threefold:
1. The very narrow and long setup of the LAC gallery makes it very difficult for such a large number of people to be present at the same time in the gallery, and especially if it children (there were at least twenty present when I was there).
2. The natural inability for children (and especially boys) to remain still for a long period of time makes it difficult to control their behaviour and to keep an eye all all of them all of the time, and especially in such a large group.
And this in turn made me nervous that I would witness a breakage or some harm done to the works. I couldn't enjoy my visit, and even later when returned to a quiet gallery, I was worried that there might be many other sessions in the gallery with such young children present.
3. And finally I had to reschedule my visit twice, and finally caught on that I should come during the week (and not the weekend) in order to view the show.
I am saying this because I have taught young children arts and crafts. There are many pedagogical tools to teach young children "live" art, which includes using prints of works by famous artists, or for a 3-D assignments, to bring in a pot from a garden shed or the kitchen cupboard. Again prints of ceramics and pottery can be viewed to compare and learn from famous artists.
If visiting a gallery is a the teacher's strong desire, then the visit should be very carefully planned. For example: only 5 children at at time at a place like LAC gallery, with the children that are waiting to do assignments in the much more child-friendly hallway.
For some reason, the teachers at the Art Lab couldn't use these pedagogical tools such as these (at least in this case), and they felt that bringing a large group of children into the gallery was not a problem.
Thanks for your reply. I wish you and your group all the best.
Kidist Paulos Asrat
Textile Artist/Cultural Writer