Platform continues efforts to bring community art under collective roof after first AGM

Written by Josh Doyle

The Guelph Arts Platform turned a year-old last Thursday, Jan. 20, when they met for their first Annual General Meeting (AGM) to go over such matters as the platforms progress with ongoing projects, and to elect a new board. The board features a variety of involved artists and supporters from different disciplines and backgrounds, bringing together a healthy collaboration. The platform boasts over 100 members, with new requests incoming regularly.

The platform was incepted just over one year ago to address the issue of bringing together all the disciplines of art amidst our thriving community, in hopes that they may find ways to benefit each other. At present, the main goal of the platform is finding a space to call home, and much of the board’s attention has been focused on searching throughout the city for a building that would suit the group’s very eclectic needs.

“There’s been a movement amongst artists, and in particular performing artists, over the last year to develop an alternative creative collaborative space that can offer performance, rehearsal, workshop and studio space. Right now in the city there’s an awful lot of working artists, but the choice of venues for performing artists is either a bar room or something major like the River Run center, which is unapproachable for a lot of developing artists,” said Platform Vice President James Gordon.

Like many of the board members Gordon is also an artist, a factor that contributes to his vested interest in the success of the project. Finding a space, while it may not sound like the most difficult of tasks, has certainly been a long process for the platform, and it looks as though the road will not end anytime soon. For a long time the project was hindered by a lack of funding, allowing several spaces to come and go without the platform able to intervene. One of these spaces, according to Gordon, was especially ideal, a space that would have served the many needs of the platforms multi-genre focus.

“The group seems to have developed a mandate where we really want there to be that collaborative integration with different forms of art. We want to make sure that we have a place that dance can happen, theatre can happen, music and visual arts,” said Gordon.

The particular building that fell under the eye of the platform was a warehouse space downtown, which has since been bought up with plans of demolition to make way for the incoming GO station. Gordon articulated how unfortunate it was to see the building go, explaining that it even featured ideal wooden floors for dance, and enough space for every other discipline to have its own area for expression.

The platform however is not digressing from their goals to dwell on missed opportunities, and is making serious steps to ensure that the next time an opportunity knocks, they’ll be ready to answer. Building a tight relationship with City Hall is one method Gordon thinks will help them in the future.

“We’ve started to foster a more productive relationship with the city itself, so they know that we’re not just these pesky hippies who want a space to play. When they know that we’re crossing generational lines, a lot of different interest lines, and what we do would be of benefit to the non-artistic community in the city too just by drawing people downtown,” Gordon said, the city will be in a better position to back them.

Since becoming organized one year ago the platform has been expanding rapidly, with so many artists and enthusiasts applying for membership that they’ve been continually updating their directive. Gordon sees this not as an issue, but as evidence that the cause is worthwhile, and there really is a need for a collaborative space for artists to come together in the city.

“It’s sort of a nice problem to have because the great diversity just in our board members and the people who want to join are all looking out for each other, and trying to represent where they’re coming from,” said Gordon.

The platform continues to seek out adequate space, and spread the word for its cause through fundraising and events.

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