Melanie O’Brian speaks to The Peak
Melanie O’Brian has been appointed as director of SFU Galleries, including the Audain gallery at SFU Woodward’s, the Teck Gallery at SFU Vancouver, and the SFU Gallery at the Burnaby Campus.
O’Brian begins her position at SFU after a run as curator and head of programs at Toronto’s Power Plant. Founded in 1987, The Power Plant presents contemporary visual art by Canadian and international artists. It has featured exhibitions by notable Canadian artists such as Rodney Graham, Janet Cardiff, and Peter Doig, among many others.
Though O’Brian spent several years in Toronto at The Power Plant, she has deep roots in the Vancouver art community. She served as director of Vancouver’s Artspeak, a non-profit artist-run centre focussed on “contemporary practices, innovative publications, bookworks, editions, talks and events that encourage a dialogue between visual art and writing.” Artspeak is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary.
O’Brian has edited several books on Vancouver art and artists, including Althea Thauberger’s Carral Street, and Vancouver Art & Economies, an anthology essaying “the organized systems that have affected contemporary art in Vancouver over the last two decades.”
The Peak welcomed O’Brian to SFU and asked her a few questions about her career, art in Vancouver, and her new position at SFU:
How does it feel to be back in Vancouver, and specifically at SFU?
I am really pleased to be back in Vancouver — a city that has such an interesting and robust visual arts community — and at SFU specifically, with its nearly 50-year history of important visual arts programs. When I am reminded that Iain Baxter of the NE Thing Co. was running the gallery from 1965 to the early 70s, that Gordon Smith’s murals in the AQ were the first works to come into the SFU Collection in 1965, that Jeff Wall taught here and ran an amazing summer program up on the hill, that Allan Ginsberg (and so many other beats, poets, writers) read here, etc. I am excited to build on that history. So many great artists teach here now, great artists have been students here, the galleries (up on the hill, at Harbour Centre, and at SFU Woodward’s) have done amazing exhibitions and projects: this is a wonderful position to be in as director.
What did you learn from your time at Toronto’s Power Plant that you’ll apply to SFU’s galleries?
At The Power Plant I was programming across divergent spaces (exhibitions, talks, performances, publications, and other events) and engaging with new communities (art and otherwise). I will certainly apply that experience to how I approach the multiple locations of the galleries and approach the new audiences and communities at SFU’s various campuses across the Lower Mainland. While I was director/curator of Artspeak from 2004–2010, my program sought to work both on and offsite — and to continuously engage the intellectual, social and art conditions of the city.
Any comments on past or current SFU gallery projects or exhibitions that led you to accept this position?
As I mentioned above, the history of SFU as a university and its engagement with the visual arts is a key factor in my interest in taking this position. Also, the move of the School for Contemporary Arts downtown and the creation of the Audain Gallery give a different platform and visibility to the gallery’s activities.
SFU’s three galleries have three individual and different objectives. How do you intend to influence each gallery with your own personal style or sensibility?
Ultimately, I want to set up a dialogue between the spaces. The different objectives open up the possibility for cross-pollination, collaboration, and multi-part projects, while allowing the specificities of each space to remain strong.
CBC News recently ran a piece about how a dearth of affordable housing in Vancouver is pushing artists to leave the city and possibly even the province . . . any thoughts on this?
Studio space and housing affordability has been a long-standing problem for artists (and arts organizations) in this city. There are some current initiatives to grant live/work space (and just studio space) through the City and other arts institutions, but we certainly need more than that (and we need a freedom of innovation that comes with low rents). The climate shifts how artists can make work and has pushed many artists not only to move out of Vancouver but to leave Canada all together (particularly for Berlin). I saw similar pressures in Toronto due to high housing prices.
What hopes do you have for the coming general election in May, of course with regards to the arts?
Bolstering the B.C. Arts Council is hugely important. My hope is for renewed cultural (and by this I mean arts and culture) support at the provincial level. In addition, support for education. The erosion of support is alarming and goes hand in hand with the shifting climate of arts production in the city due to affordability.
