MARY E. BLACK GALLERY CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Mary E. Black Gallery History

Mary E. Black, O.T.R. was the province’s first craft administrator who ran the Handcraft Programs from 1942 until her retirement in 1955. Mary Black was a noted weaver and author who, until her death at 92 in 1988, maintained an active and lifelong interest in craft.

The Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture named a gallery in her memory at their craft facilities at 1521 Grafton Street, Halifax. The Gallery was moved to 1683 Barrington Street in 1990 at the creation of the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design, NSCCD. In 2006 NSCCD moved its facility to shed 21 and the Via Building at Halifax’s Seawall Development Project.

Exhibition Planning Process

The Exhibition Review Committee is composed of professional members of the Nova Scotia craft and design communities. The Committee meets yearly.

Annual deadline for proposal submission is Tuesday, March 15, 2011.

Careful consideration is given to each proposal. Proposals that are selected for programming are considered on the artistic merit of exhibition proposed, on the quality of the applicant’s work to date, on an assessment of the ability of the applicant to bring the exhibition to fruition. Careful consideration is also given to a balanced programming for the upcoming year (2013) considering a healthy diversity of media including contemporary and traditional approaches to fine craft.

Exhibitions scheduled for the Mary E. Black Gallery are for approximately 6 weeks’ duration.

Contents of the proposals and the proceedings of the Exhibition Review Committee meetings are strictly confidential.

Mary E. Black Gallery covers:

Artist’s Fees based upon the recommended CARFAC rates
the cost (determined by NSCCD budget) of an opening reception
a colour invitation
a catalogue published in-house
inclusion in the NSCCD standard publicity program

We welcome any sponsorship suggestions.

Artists and curators who are HST registrants must inform the Gallery of their status in order to collect HST on any applicable fees.

The curator or organizing group is responsible for selecting the works and making all the necessary arrangements with artists or craftspeople to prepare and deliver the complete exhibition to the Gallery on the agreed-upon date. All pieces selected for exhibition remain at the Gallery for the duration of the contracted period and are not to be removed prior to the end of the contracted period. This may not necessarily apply to work brought in specifically for demonstrations or workshops in conjunction with the exhibition. The curator or organizing group is expected to provide written information to the Gallery before the exhibition and to supervise disassembling and packing up the exhibition, which must be removed from the Gallery at the end of the contracted period.

The Mary E. Black Gallery is Nova Scotia's only public gallery with a fine craft mandate. It is a public gallery whose purpose is to give exposure to the work of artists, craftspeople and designers, to give focus to the quality of work and achievement of practitioners in the province, and to exhibit curated, juried and travelling exhibitions from the region, from across Canada and from around the world. Proposals for the period commencing January 2012 are welcome from community groups, cultural groups, guilds, artists/craftspeople, and curators. Proposals from community and cultural groups should provide a brief description and mandate of their organization. Exhibitions can be solo or group.

Typed proposals need to include the following:

clearly describe your theme or idea and the type of work whether defined by medium, technique, membership or function (maximum 500 words)
proposed or working title of exhibition
a list of participating artist/s and justification for their inclusion
works to be in the exhibition (include artist, title, medium, dimensions in metric, date of work) OR if not yet created, a list of what is planned for inclusion and images of existing work to enhance the Committee's understanding of quality and/or diversity of work
support material which can include any material relevant to the application such as images on CD, slides or photographs (maximum of 20), promotional materials, reviews, catalogues - do not send original artwork
a list of the support material provided including the title and type of material
a résumé of the principal organizer/curator

Regarding images:

only PC-compatable files are acceptable
jpg files
72 dpi
1024 x 768 pixel files
Do not submit compressed files or hyperlinks to Internet sites
Clearly mark each CD-Rom or DVD with nominee's name
Label each file (image) with a number and title. Start the numbers of the first nine images with zeroes (e.g. 01 title.jpg, 02 title.jpg. etc) to ensure they are presented chronologically and follow your image list
Do not put any special characters, symbols, or quotation marks in the file name
If you are submitting via email, do NOT send files exceeding 5 MB

Proposal evaluation is based on:

the artistic merit of the exhibition proposed
the quality of the applicant’s work to date
the ability of the organization/individual to bring the exhibition to fruition

Proposals and support material must have a postal date of March 15, 2011 or be delivered by 4 pm to:

Mary E. Black Gallery, Exhibition Proposals
Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design
1061 Marginal Road, Suite 140
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3H 4P6
or be emailed to director@craft-design.ns.ca.

Late submissions will not be accepted. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.

For any additional information about your proposal please phone 902.492.2522.

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