The Outset Partners Grants Programme 2023 awarded an Impact Award to the Art Gallery of York University, supporting their project At The Transit Bar: Visiting Curator Series.
Over two years, ten international curators will spend a week in Toronto each, conducting studio visits, giving public presentations on their research, mentoring young curators, visiting local art museums and galleries, and meeting local collectors and patrons. The aim of At the Transit Bar: Visiting Curator Series is to establish and further propel Toronto’s thriving contemporary arts and cultural scenes into a global network of artists, curators, art institutions, and art collections by bringing professional curators to the city for exploratory research visits. Toronto has rich and diverse art scenes and communities that are critically engaged in international conversations, using art to address, embody, and confront complex social, environmental, and political issues and structures. The drive behind this project is to reinforce these ties and to strengthen local connections to international art discourse. The series will also build an understanding of how Toronto is contributing to these global conversations and will ultimately form external and internal networks within Toronto’s art milieus.
Jenifer Papararo, Director and Curator of Art Gallery of York University said:
"We are thrilled to gain Outset’s support to present a two-year multi-institutional collaborative program At the Transit Bar: A Visiting Curator Series, which will bring ten international curators to Toronto to present on their research, conduct studio visits, host workshops, and meet prominent members of Toronto’s art community. Gaining one of Outset’s Impact Awards allows us to bring an incredible cohort of curators to Toronto, introducing them to the arts community and offering Toronto artists an opportunity to represent their work to individuals who are professionally engaged and nuanced in the field of contemporary while also building an understanding of how Toronto’s rich and diverse art scenes and communities are critically engaged in international conversations.”
