A Space is proud to present CAB 2000, the first community arts biennale. For almost twenty years A Space has been seen as a space for the development of a curatorial practice that is inclusive of community issues. Since the early eighties much of the work shown at the gallery has been issue based, politically engaged and informed by diverse communities. During that time an art critic stated that the place looked more like a community centre than an art gallery. We took this as a compliment.

When A Space began planning for CAB 2000 over three years ago, we knew the biennale would evolve naturally from our past achievements. We are grateful for the initial encouragement from Melanie Fernandez at the Ontario Arts Council, and the people on the first steering and advisory committees, Angela Lee, Robin Pacific, Andrew Lee, Doris Sung, Andrew Harwood, David Zapparoli, Jean LeMaître, Florencia Berinstein, Elizabeth Cinello, Kil Young Yoo, Narain Subramanian, Natalie Wood, Bryce Kanbara, Rochelle Holt and all those who dedicated their enthusiasm, time and expertise to the first draft of a great vision.

Encouraged by a start-up grant from the Ontario Arts Council’s Community Arts Office, we hired staff and got to work. The path to success soon proved more jagged, with a few extra hurdles. The Canada Council thanked us for our valuable contribution to their community art consultation process. Artists wanted to know what was in it for them, would they put in endless hours at low wages and be challenged by amateurs? Community groups were suspicious of our motives and of artists who they thought would be telling them what to do. We expect that these questions and new issues will arise at the panel discussion.

Through questions and often painful discussions, CAB 2000 emerged as a festival that would take place wherever communities were based. During numerous meetings over the past two years we became aware of the great range of community art practices and disciplines. We are grateful for the input from community art centres like Art Starts in the former City of York and the Scarborough Arts Council. We overcame the urge to find a central exhibition space in the downtown area. We got to know the community side of many well known artists. A number of participants in CAB 2000 were already involved with community art projects and many had previous connections to A Space as exhibiting artists or members. Artists like Rochelle Rubinstein who had worked with women from a shelter at the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, and is presenting a project with Sheena’s Place in Toronto; Loraine Leeson whose Docklands Project showed at A Space in the mid eighties; Reinhard Reitzenstein (OKAnada) is working with ArtStarts; Phil Maurais (Sour Dough), Jamelie Hassan (Feminist Practices), Andrea Fatona (curated Across Borders), the Red Tree collective (Workshops on Violence), past and present members of the BOD - Carole Condé, Enam Huque, Amelia Jiménez, Peter Kingstone, David Cheung - are all listed in the programme.

Projects participating in this first community art biennale represent diverse approaches and goals. Some are artist driven, others come from a community group; some are celebratory, healing, commemorative, others denounce injustice or present a call for action. What they have in common is the process of collaboration between artists and community members. What participants take away is a sense of collective achievement, a coming together of many skills, experiences and ideas. Their challenge is to produce an outcome that evolves from a group of equal voices and demonstrates artistic qualities. During the selection process, CAB 2000 programming committee members had to consider not only A Space’s artistic vision, but the mutually established goals of each project. And then they had to mind the concerns raised by funding agencies: what are the measurable benefits to communities, artists, audiences?

The current political trend shifts the responsibility for social well-being from government onto communities. This has led to severe cuts in funding to arts and social services. Rather than accepting the appropriation of “community” for political rhetoric, we believe that participation in a collaborative artistic process will empower groups and individuals to support each other’s demands. The short term benefits to all participants in a community art project lies in the exchange of skills, sharing of concerns, and a sense of collective ownership of the outcome. The long term benefits can only be measured when the experiential knowledge of each artist and each community member is translated into lasting understanding of the ever changing issues in contemporary art and community.

CAB 2000 would not have been possible without the generous contribution of time and expertise from many A Space members and community representatives. We thank all those who sat on steering and advisory committees, the programming, personnel and executive committee, our dedicated CAB 2000 staff and volunteers. We thank the photographers who documented the process and we thank the Market Gallery for hosting the exhibition of those photographs. We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders and community partners, The Ontario Arts Council, The Trillium Foundation, The Canada Millennium Partnership Program, The Toronto Community Foundation, the City of Toronto Millennium Grants Program and Trinity Square Video.

Ingrid Mayrhofer and Rebecca McGowan