Thinking outside the white cube.
That’s what the incoming director of the Richmond Art Gallery (RAG) is planning to achieve when he starts his new job next Monday (Oct. 24).
Shaun Dacey, who replaces the outgoing Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, told the News he wants to build on the gallery’s fine reputation for showcasing works inside the Richmond Cultural Centre by reaching out to other areas in the community.
Lafo is moving to Portland, Oregon, returning to the city where she worked years ago as associate curator at the Portland Art Museum.
“In my previous position at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Downtown Vancouver, I developed an offsite artist residency program at a local marina with support from the Vancouver park board among others,” Dacey said in an email. “Through this, I hosted artists, local and international, to develop projects that existed in public, beyond the walls of the gallery. There was also an element to the work that considered active participation and collaboration with non-arts focused publics.
For instance, one artist I worked with, Keg de Souza from Australia, has produced a series of workshops and collaborative installations considered local food culture within the context of urban development and displacement.
“This included inviting participants to develop a collaborative map of local histories in Chinatown and leading an indigenous foraging and jam making workshop, to name a few,” he said.”
Dacey added an important aspect as a public institution is to also devise ways to become more accessible.
“I view the gallery as porous,” he said. “We have a physical location in which to see exhibitions, attend art-making workshops, artist talks, etc. But we can also exist out in our local communities. RAG has the opportunity to nurture artistic practice in a plethora of ways. Through residencies, offsite exhibitions, and community-based/socially-engaged projects, we have the chance to engage larger communities.”
He added that many artists are also thinking beyond the white cube of the gallery, developing work in the public realm.
“It’s important for us as an institution to create space for these innovative ventures.” he said.
On coming to Richmond, Dacey said he sees it as an opportunity to work within the energy of what he termed “an emerging city.”
He said that Richmond is a place that is, “informed by integral indigenous, immigrant and colonial histories, while also being a very contemporary site, connected to a broad range of international communities.”
“I’m very excited to join the team at the RAG,” he said. “Richmond reminds me of the city I grew up in, Mississauga, Ontario. Both are young diverse cities emerging alongside and connected to the urban centres of Vancouver or Toronto.”
