Save The MOEG: Help CUE keep The Margin Of Eras Gallery open in 2020!
We acknowledge this sacred land on which the Margin of Eras Gallery operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River.
The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
Today, the meeting place of Tkaronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.
Additionally, we acknowledge that we continue to live on stolen land, and that reconciliation with Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island means working towards the return of unceeded lands.
CUE is a decade-young, radical & transformative community-centred arts organization dedicated to providing high-access grant, mentorship, employment, and exhibition opportunities for new-generation artists (15-29 years old) who live and work on the margins.
The Margin of Eras Gallery (MOEG), a 1300 square-foot multidisciplinary art gallery and cultural space in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, is a project of CUE, and we need your help to save it. Amid rampant gentrification and cuts to arts and culture funding, we’re calling on the community to help keep the doors open.
Scroll down to learn "Who We Are", "About The Cause (Save The MOEG!)", "What The Money Will Be Used For", and "How You Can Help".
WHO ARE WE?
About CUE
Founded in 2008, CUE is an award-winning arts initiative dedicated to providing high-access project funding, mentorship, employment, and exhibition for new-generation artists living and working on the margins in Toronto.
We are motivated by the immense creativity and innovation that is flourishing in marginalized communities and believe this is where much of the most relevant and important artwork is being created. We also recognize the barriers artists living and working on the margins face: mental health issues, diverse physical and intellectual abilities, involvement in the criminal justice system, precarious housing and homelessness, barriers to education and employment, literacy capacity, and poverty can preclude contribution to culture. This adversity often compounded by stigmatizations associated with racialization, immigration, Indigenous and/or LGBTQ identities.
CUE is dedicated to supporting these groups which have historically been excluded from our arts and cultural narrative, and face systemic barriers, particularly amid growing social, cultural, and economic inequalities in Toronto.
We are a resourceful, high-impact organization. Since opening the doors of the Margin of Eras Gallery in November 2017, we have:
- Produced 73 arts and cultural events
- Engaged 360 artists in publicly presenting their work at the gallery, and more than 800 in CUE’s programs
- Provided over 4000 hours of mentorship and support for artists
- Put more than $80,000 directly into the hands of artists to produce and present art projects
- Shared art with over 7000 audience members
Artists on the margins bring a powerful vision, insight, and talent that cannot be learned through curriculum, or manifested through social position or privilege. A better society is one that acknowledges perspectives across social, cultural, and economic gaps.
You can find more detailed information about CUE’s programs in the
“Learn More About CUE” section at the end of this fundraiser. CUE
operates on SKETCH’s shared-platform, under
its charitable umbrella.
WHAT IS THE CAUSE?
Save the MOEG!
The Margin of Eras Gallery (the MOEG) is a multidisciplinary arts space dedicated to showcasing the work of new generation artists aged 15-29 who live and work on the margins. We first opened our doors on November 24th, 2017 with our inaugural exhibition “ Welcome To Your Gallery”.
The MOEG was created as a space where communities that have been historically excluded within the arts can not only be recognized and represented, but build their capacity and gain the skills to plant the seeds of disruption throughout the city’s contemporary art scene — providing a platform for young artists to develop programming, curatorial practices, and community-engaged endeavours. We have strived to remain responsive to the needs of artists and communities, and to social and political issues that affect them.
Amid rapid gentrification and increasing cuts to core funding under Ford's Conservative government, we now find ourselves in the position of needing to crowdsource the financial support necessary to keep the MOEG open into 2020. We fear that o nce again, another space for marginalized communities is in danger of slipping through the cracks. But our work is far from over, and there are many talents, voices and conversations that continue to require the MOEG as a platform.
We’ve been blown away by the response to the MOEG since we first opened in 2017. After 7000 visitors and over 70 exhibitions and cultural events and 360 artists presenting, it’s clear there is a need for a space like the MOEG to exist in this city. We’re proud of the diversity of programming that has found a home in this space in the two years we have been lucky to occupy it — visual arts exhibitions, writers’ & musicians’ residencies, crochet workshops, healing circles, and everything in-between.
Performance by M.I. Blue at Habitat 2019, produced by Matthew Progress
We want to continue to be able to offer the MOEG as a high access cultural space to made be available for exhibitions, workshops, activist meetings, and other events that engage, support and sustain community within historically marginalized groups. We’ve spent a large part of the past year securing the resources to ensure this is a fully equipped space, and we believe that those living and working on the margins within Toronto’s arts community deserve continued access to those resources.
We want the MOEG to exist in 2020 and beyond, because there is a need for artists who live and work on the margins to have the space & resources to continue to create and exhibit work. Your donation would help ensure that amid Toronto’s rapid gentrification, there will still be high access arts spaces where marginalized communities can feel safe in — and take ownership of — to continue planting the seeds that will transform the landscape of contemporary art in Toronto.
"...but there are new suns" by amber williams king,
September 2018
"Through Rose" by Curtia Wright, April 2019
"Habibiz" by Way Past Kennedy Road, February 2019
"We Bathe Here" by Cat Lamora, October 2019
"Passageways" by Eli Howey, October 2018
"please wait...Loading Falasteen" by Shatha Al-Hussein,
January 2019
WHAT IS THE MONEY FOR?
If we are able to hit our goal of 75K , this money will go directly to paying our lease, utility bills and basic supplies through the remainder of 2020. This will allow the MOEG to function as a high-access, fully equipped DIY art space in a city that is rapidly losing affordable arts & cultural spaces to gentrification and funding cuts.
If we do not hit our goal , this money will be redirected back into the organization to continue to help CUE do what we’ve done for the past ten years — provide high access grants , mentorship, employment and exhibition opportunities for new-generation artists living and working on the margins in Toronto.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
We're looking to raise 75,000 CAD* . No gift is too small, and we are endlessly appreciative of any contribution that will enable CUE to continue supporting artists living and working on the margins in Toronto. Even if you are unable to give, you can still have an impact and help us achieve our goal by sharing on socials, tweeting at a news outlet, or telling a friend -- anything to get the word out and spread awareness of our campaign.
Even more importantly, we ask you to continue to support Toronto’s grassroots arts scene & marginalized communities. Attend shows & workshops, share the amazing grassroots programming you come across, share your resources, tell your friends, and strangers you’ve never met, when they’re doing a good job. Advocate for systemic change; ensure your local, provincial and federal governments how important the arts are to a healthy & vibrant society, and that cultural institutions support artists representing the real diverse make-up of our city, our province, and our country. .
*All donations will be eligible for a tax receipt through CUE’s shared platform partner, SKETCH (charitable registration number 85912 8332 RR0001).
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Thank you for taking the time to learn about what we do, and support this cause. To keep up with the progress of this campaign:
Follow The MOEG on...
Website | Instagram | Facebook| Twitter
Follow CUE on....
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LEARN MORE ABOUT CUE:
WHAT WE DO
CUE Grant Program
Project creation grants. Over $350,000 provided to support more than 350 art projects to date. Grant program is high-access and positioned to meet the unique needs of of young artists. Peer-mentorship is provided throughout every stage of the program. All artists participate in annual exhibition.
Margin of Eras Gallery Exhibition Program
High-access exhibition program: Artists selected from annual call-for-submissions; one major exhibition produced each month (group or solo shows, including performance and public programming). Artists receive fees, production fees, and a host of mentorship including creative development, curation and design, logistics coordination, marketing, custom hardware and installation of all works. The gallery also provides cost-free hosting and co-production of short-term and time-sensitive cultural events produced by young artists on the margins.
Story Reno Studio
Annual development program for literary artists which includes several months of weekly/bi-weekly development for writers' works-in-progress. Writers selected through call for submissions. Each receive bursaries while working on various elements of literary creation and critiquing each other's work. Literary Arts Coordinator facilitates curriculum, and writers connect with a publishing industry professional to receive in-depth developmental editing. Program culminates in a live reading and zine.
HABITAT
Annual music residency program where musicians conceptualize, develop, produce, and present multidisciplinary arts performances/exhibitions. Music Coordinator facilitates and provides mentorship and coordination, with mentorship from other senior artists. Musicians are paid artist fees, and additional production fees.
Sandbox Sessions
A creative writing drop-in at the Margin of Eras Gallery, facilitated by Whitney French. Writers get the chance to be part of a unique literary community, and stop by the gallery during drop-in hours to connect with other writers, experiment with new writing techniques and styles, receive feedback on your work and read, share or write on their own. Drop-in sessions are informal and organic — anything goes!
Curatorial Residencies
We have engaged several artists and collectives to lead curatorial endeavours, and supported them in conceptual development, curatorial processes and artist selection, contracts with artists, writing artistic statements, as well as logistics coordination, marketing, etc. Curators receive fees, and production budgets, as do all exhibiting artists.
High-access employment within the initiative
Almost all CUE team members are past CUE-grant recipients, themselves artists living and working on the margins. We are structured in a way that meets the unique needs and barriers of the team members and staff we engage.
