Announcing Arts Commons Incubator – Fostering Mentorship, Growth, and Amplification in the Arts
The seed of the Arts Commons Incubator - an interdisciplinary-focused professional development program for Calgary artists - had a long cultivation period; it demanded planning through slow, measured intentionality in order to find the best individuals possible to bring the original concept of Incubator into reality. But now that they’re here, Incubator is about ready to blossom.
The Incubator Fellows, a rotating selection of invited artists that will guide the overall vision of each edition of Incubator from season to season, are central to the success of Incubator. Arts Commons approached local artists, mentors, and curators Jae Sterling and Contra to be the inaugural Incubator Fellows for the 2021-2022 season - and if you know their work, you can see why. Jae and Contra's legacy in Calgary arts is expansive and multidisciplinary, from creating dance and visual art, to founding impactful grassroots artist collectives.
“If we are going to be serious about real and lasting change, we need to leverage our platforms and privileges to empower others. In our case, that’s best done through the exchange and amplification of knowledge, skills, and networks,” says Alex Sarian, President and CEO of Arts Commons. “Jae and Contra represent the kind of artistry the world is calling for: urgent, intentional, and boundary-expanding. I can’t think of anyone better to lead our inaugural cohort, to influence a generation of Calgary artists, and to help redefine our role in supporting, and learning from, Calgary’s vibrant artist communities.”
While there have been numerous mentorship programs in the performing arts, few have provided support to a group as broad and interdisciplinary as the Arts Commons Incubator program. As a season-long performance, exhibition, and professional development opportunity, Incubator will create fertile room for artists moving between practices, and particularly those from diverse equity-seeking communities. Arts Commons Incubator is the natural progression of the kind of work established by TD Amplify Cabarets, visual and media arts galleries, and the teaching artist programs linking local artists with Calgary classrooms. Uniting under the Incubator program, these efforts will now go even further to support our artistic ecosystem.
“Calgary artists know what they need to get to their next step, to reach their next stage. And it’s impossible to design a one-size-fits-all program to help them,” says Jennifer Johnson, Vice President of Programming at Arts Commons. “That’s why Incubator is designed to respond directly to our artists, putting as few restrictions in their way as possible. We’re following their lead.”
To learn more about the Incubator program, visit the Arts Commons Incubator web page. Applications for the inaugural cohort of Incubator participants will open this summer, so please stay tuned for details.
The Fellows
Jae Sterling’s exhibition, Riding Horses with White Men, opened in July of 2020 when traditionally, the Stampede would be in full swing. Instead, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that was in full swing and artists were exploring different ways of presenting their art.
Riding Horses with White Men challenged a number of assumptions around Western culture, including the driving question: “Can a history of violence be dissected through art?” Sterling’s work energized discussion and inspired reflection around how we treat individuals in our community who don’t fit into the image of the white cowboy, an image that Calgary was quite literally built on. As a visual artist, writer, and musician, Jamaica-born Calgarian Jae Sterling was surprised when he was approached by two members of Arts Commons’ staff to guide the Arts Commons Incubator program.
“The clarity of vision of both Jae and Contra is undeniable, and I think that became really clear to both Sanja Lukac [Arts Commons Visual and Media Arts Associate] and I at the Riding Horses with White Men exhibit,” says Josh Dalledonne, Associate Director of Social Impact at Arts Commons. “We had both seen and heard their work before, but in speaking together what really stood out was their commitment - yes, to their work and practice - but more importantly to this place and the artists working in the underground scene here.”
Contra of Cartel Madras who were recently signed to the storied Sub Pop label, is deeply involved in the Canadian arts and culture landscape as a musician, art director, visual producer, and creative strategist. Her passion for the guidance side of the arts perfectly dovetails with Jae’s applied creative skills.
“Earlier this year, Sanja and Josh approached us with the idea for the program. They were looking for two artists who could operate as curators and fellows who would really set the tone for the program,” says Contra. “It’s very exciting. It feels like we do this in our own ways in our own spaces, but we’ve never been invited to formally curate a season.”
“And that’s kind of the point of why they invited us,” says Jae. “You don’t usually see people, artists like ourselves, in these spaces. That’s what makes this organic, that’s what made them think of us.”
The Heart of Incubator
Guiding the program as they’ve guided the artistic collectives SANSFUCCS and THOTNATION that they’ve been founding members of since 2019 in Calgary, both Contra and Jae have high hopes for what they can accomplish through the Arts Commons Incubator program. Calgary is a thriving hub for young artists looking to develop their craft and share their stories, but few enjoy the invitation to work in traditional presentation spaces.
“What's important to me is to create these spaces yes, but to also make sure it's a safe space, especially for the QTBIPOC community,” says Jae. “Very bluntly, if you want the reason for why we were asked to join the program it’s because we understand the language of these communities much better than most people. There’s a delicate way to make an artist better that comes natural to us. If we can show other artists how to deal with certain kinds of criticism and how to avoid certain kinds of criticism, how to learn the language of these spaces, it would mean a lot to me.”
For Contra, the opportunity to mentor artists to tease out their very best selves is an exciting prospect.
“I see myself within the Incubator project as that someone who is going to be very good at understanding how an artist wants to tell their story, how to brand it, how to bring it forward, and how to bring their vision to life. I think that's really where I shine,” says Contra.
Both Contra and Jae are successful artists, not just in Calgary, but across Canada and internationally. It’s their commitment to Calgary that allows them to be so successful elsewhere, and it’s certainly a big factor in how they will define their success in working with Arts Commons Incubator.
Just in Time for the Calgary Cultural Renaissance
So, what does this mean for Calgary? As a city, we’re facing a significant moment – one that will determine how our future is laid out. The oil patch employment that defined Calgary for decades has changed forever, and new technology-based industries are being fostered with the hope of creating new prosperity. An energized, educated, and young workforce is looking to raise their family here, and if they can’t find what they’re looking for, we’ll lose them to cities with better opportunities. We are also facing a social reckoning that is working to dismantle structures of oppression with the lofty goal of a more equitable tomorrow. Arts Commons Incubator is at its core about professional artist development, but it’s also an experiment in innovation, creative thinking, and looking for different ways to lead, inspire, and solve problems in our communities.
“This program is a call to action for new behaviors, mindsets, and ways of working. It is a reminder that sometimes the best way to disrupt the power dynamics that lead to inequality is to stand back and create space for a more equitable paradigm - in our world, that’s taking a step towards artist-led and community-based development,” says Sarian.
This moment could be the tipping point of a cultural renaissance as a generation of local artists find their voices, and a new generation of audiences search for stories that speak to their experiences and history on the stages, galleries, and public spaces of our city.
“This wasn’t by design for me personally to be the one who has to run over the hill first. I was hoping it would be someone else,” says Jae with a laugh. “But life is strange, and it lines certain things up in certain ways, and the narrative you choose to latch on to might be the leadership or guiding role.”
“It’s an ambitious thing to suggest that maybe we can be one of the big art cities in Canada,” adds Contra. “But we have the talent. I think this country needs to ready themselves for it.”
The Arts Commons Incubator Program will be accepting applications for the 2021-22 season starting later this summer. For more information on how you or someone you know can get involved, visit artscommons.ca/incubator.
