Image courtesy of Kristy Trinier.
Do It Yourself is a short and effervescent survey highlighting artists participating within a selection of the emerging and shifting new artist collectives and creative hubs in Edmonton. Over the past five years, a series of collaborations have developed between individual artists and independent curators/project organizers.
Most of the artists involved work together to pool collective resources, combined with support from local artist centres, to create artworks and interdisciplinary exchange. For the most part the artists are working within entrepreneurial spaces and initiatives that were inspired by previous incarnations of historically notorious local art experiments.
These creative connections are either loosely defined or tenuous in nature, reflective of and responsive to common threats to artist collectives: opportunities from outside that draw away creative activators, rent fluctuations from a booming economy and few artist-run gallery spaces for emerging practices. This exhibition highlights the artists’ responses to these challenges and features the work and energy of artists who participate in these experimental and newly formed local artist collectives while also profiling new studios and artist hubs across the city.
The University of Alberta Museums Galleries at Enterprise Square is an initiative of the University of Alberta and the City of Edmonton, managed by the University of Alberta Museums. The AGA at The University of Alberta Museums Galleries at Enterprise Square exhibition series is supported by the City of Edmonton, the Art Gallery of Alberta and the University of Alberta