With the premise of “art meets the general public”, I once went about writing a proposal for a project that involved sponsorship from the city of Toronto as well as the engagement of its citizens and visitors, especially commuters and travelers. The plan was to have one of Louise Bourgeois’ standing figures such as “Friendly Evidence” shown in one of the lobbies at Union Station. The sculpture was to be displayed along with a short artist statement. My reason for considering this artwork as an ideal one for this project is that I find it magnificent, both its concept and its formal qualities. I thought that lots of people would find a strong connection to this artwork, and from there, start to develop an interest in the arts. Anyway, I wrote this proposal as part an assignment for a Curatorial Practice course. My professor said I should pitch it.

Have you ever had a project planned out which for one reason or another you’ve forgotten about or postponed indefinitely?

Anyhow, about a year later, with the objective of “engaging and exposing the general public to contemporary works of art through an existing routine activity”, BANK on ART was launched as a project that s to showcases works of art by contemporary artists in a sort of unusual fashion. Located at 952 Queen St. West, an ATM machine displays works by over 50 different artists, each of them being showcased on a weekly basis. Digital photographs are screened on ATM machine monitors and the content varies from straight-up photography to documentation.

Somehow I feel that the approach taken by BANK on ART as well as its ultimate purpose in which “art meets people”, is similar to the one I had proposed for my Curatorial Practice class. Yet, I was very happy when I recently found out about this project, which I think can benefit from more exposure and recognition as an original idea that tries to involve the general public in a less informal way. I really like the idea of taking art outside the context of the gallery, and more so, creating a window of opportunities for new artists to present their work to the public.

In that light, Work by OCAD alumni Michele Crockett and Diane Soares was featured from November 23 to 30; work by alumnus Walter Segers, also from OCAD is featured from December 1 to 7.