Contemporary Canadian Glass

By Sally McCubbin

Here Today Gone Tomorrow, 2010 by artist Sally McCubbin installed at Earlscourt and St. Clair Ave., Toronto –for more on the project visit www.sallymccubbin.com

In 2008, the City of Toronto in partnership with the Toronto Transit Commission invited artists to apply for the St. Clair Avenue West Transit Improvements Public Art Program. The initiative was to provide visual art for the then almost-completed light rail transit line along St. Clair Avenue West in Toronto. The streetcar stops to be adorned with art panels would extend from Yonge St. to Keele St., making up a 6.2 km stretch of public art.

When I was approached about applying for the project, I was a resident in the glass studio at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre and my career was focused on that. The idea of making large public works wasn’t on the radar, but the conditions seemed right:

• I grapple with making art that is affordable and available to so few.
• I am a wholehearted supporter of the transit initiatives in my city.
• My work surrounds social commentary and I liked that it could live in the context it reflects.

Although I didn’t know how I would produce glasswork large enough (or safe enough) to meet the 3 foot by 40 foot criteria, I applied.

* * *

Corridor, 2010 by artists Jane and Kathryn Irwin installed at Glenholme and St. Clair Ave., Toronto

On a blustery winter day, about a half an hour late for the meeting, I burst into a North Toronto conference room snowy and out of breath … I had had car trouble. I was there for the project briefing, to understand better the scope of the project so that I could propose a design to be considered for inclusion into the transit line installation. This was stage two. All those that attended were very calm and collected. Many artists had brought an associate and the slideshow had already begun. About a minute after my inelegant arrival my cell phone rang, shredding the silence again. I spent the rest of the meeting acting invisible.

This memory, from over two years ago, is so vivid to me because of the inferiority I felt. To say I was nervous would be putting it mildly. Regardless of who was sitting around that table, arts-cultural-folklore had taught me that they were advanced in their artistic practices, had more experience and therefore more artistic merit and vocabulary than I.

Was I too unqualified to be there? If not, why did I feel that way?

Flatspace, 2010 by artist Sara Graham installed at Winona and St. Clair Ave., Toronto

I’ll skip to the end of the story, both to save you from the details of the next couple years and also to make my point. As it turned out, I was qualified to be there. I was awarded one commission on my own and a second commission for a collaborative design with Aaron Oussoren. We have since completed the projects, the pieces are installed along St. Clair Avenue and all twenty-five works by the city’s photographers, multi-media artists, metal and glass artists, painters and sculptors look great.

My question remains, why was I so intimidated? Why does the realm of public art reek of hierarchical greatness?

Meeting, 2010 by artist Panya Clark Espinal installed at Dunvegan and St. Clair Ave., Toronto

The GAAC conference in Montreal this past May was filled with artist lecturers who make their careers as public installation artists or have received periodic public commissions. Among their assortment of project types, scales, locations and varying degrees of success, I noticed some thematic congruencies from lecture to lecture:

• All the presenters are established artists and, having had long careers of making their work by way of personal mandate, each showed distaste for the commissioning criteria and selection process.
• As a common rule, it was agreed by most that an aspiring public artist must have previous large-scale/public experience to be selected for a subsequent project, which is a discouraging double-edged sword.
• And, finally, I noticed signs of disinterest for second, third or mid-career projects that may have been less stimulating for the artist. This apathy is sometimes evident in the work’s overall success.

It seems to me, in the greater context of public art, that in many cases mature artists are simply ‘graduating’ into the realm of large public art projects.  Are juries looking for visual artists with a long history and a reputation, or are they looking for qualities that fit the criteria presented for the project? Probably a combination of the three, but does that make sense? Could Canada’s art in public spaces be more engaging and treasured if new and unusual talent was a criteria? Where does the artistic integrity end and the addiction to a large, reliable, paycheque begin?

Scenic Route, 2010 by artist Carlo Cesta installed at Avenue and St. Clair Ave., Toronto

I ask these questions in the spirit of discourse.

In my own story, concerning my selection I’ve considered the following possibilities. Perhaps the TTC and the city did have the initiative to hire new and emerging talent, as I was not the only “newcomer” among the artists commissioned. Perhaps it was difficult to find glass artists who could make work to fit the safety and structural limitations of their project. Or, perhaps it was simply the quality of my work.

One Among Many, 2010 by artists Sally McCubbin and Aaron Oussoren installed at Arlington and St. Clair Ave., Toronto –for more on the project visit www.sallymccubbin.com

I poured my heart (and brain) into the design and I have to believe that that is why they selected my proposal. So for anyone interested in making art for a public forum, if you feel your work suits such an audience and surroundings you don’t need a foot in the door, previous experience, or a reputation … you need to be passionate about the work you dream up and the reasons you need to make it.  As always.

Sally McCubbin is Managing Editor of Contemporary Canadian Glass and  is also an instructor at Sheridan College. She recently opened a studio of 12 artists in Toronto, called Elevator Art Lab. Sally is passionate about thoughtful design and created a company entitled Timid Glass Toronto with partner Aaron Oussoren that reflects this enthusiasm as well as their shared interest in environmentalism and conservationism.