Media Releases

Museum Launches Call to Artists
Posted by Children's Museum Admin (cmadmin) on Friday, 9th July, 2010 at 2:00 PM
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To complement their winter exhibition, SEARCHING FOR TOM | Tom Thomson: Man, Myth and Masterworks, The Museum in downtown Kitchener is launching an official call to artists to submit proposals for inclusion in the show. The first ever Gamble Family Award will be granted at the end of the summer for the project with the strongest proposal.

The Searching for Tom exhibition, which is primarily based on the famous Canadian painter Tom Thomson, will explore his life, his work and the mysteries around his death at a time that a young Canada was searching for its own identity. It is being jointly created by The Museum and award winning curator Virginia Eichhorn. Eichhorn is the current Director and Curator at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound.

Among many works by Thomson and members of the Group of Seven, part of the show will include works by contemporary, multi-disciplined artists to help demonstrate how Thomson’s iconic status and influence still resonates with Canadian artists after almost one hundred years. Due to the generosity of Museum Board Member Murray Gamble and his family, one artist will also win the first ever Gamble Family Award which includes an honourarium of $10,000 and inclusion of their piece in Searching for Tom, which opens early in February 2011.

"It's exciting to be involved with such a unique project," said Murray Gamble. "The vision for this award was to offer an opportunity for artists to take some creative risks and produce truly exceptional art, while at the same time supporting the Museum and the much anticipated Thomson show. We are really looking forward to seeing what kind of ideas and work come through in this experience."

The Museum is looking for a unique proposal with a digital media component which creatively interprets, through a contemporary Canadian lens, an aspect of Tom Thomson: Man, Myth and Masterworks. The jury, made up of Museum and community representatives, will consider works from Canadian artists in all media including sculpture, performance, video, audio, installation, photography, painting and drawing.  The work is required to have some digital media component and interactivity will be considered an asset.

"This is the first such project for The Museum," explains David Marskell, Museum CEO, "and we are so proud to be able to offer an opportunity for artists to get creative. We’re also very grateful to the Gamble Family who recognized our efforts in trying to establish a festival strategy and made this a possibility for us. It’s the perfect way to augment an already wonderful show and the fact that we’ll have artists out there working around Thomson is a testament to the show’s mission."

The full call for the Gamble Family Award is available at www.TheMuseum.ca. For more information about The Museum or to become involved with SEARCHING FOR TOM | Tom Thomson: Man, Myth and Masterworks, please email Tom@TheMuseum.ca