Exhibition Publishing at Cambridge Galleries 

Over the years, the gallery has published booklets and brochures to accompany major exhibitions. These publications generally contain essays on the works in the exhibitions, lists of works exhibited, illustrations, and short biographies or resumes of the participating artists.

Curating is not democratic. Curating is decision-making founded on informed judgement. The primary function of a written text accompanying an exhibition is to serve as a justification for choices made – why certain artists were selected to exhibit ahead of others, why this work and not that, why now and not then. A publication is useful when the exhibited artwork is in any way unconventional, in the hope that the text will shed light on the significant motivations, techniques, and trends influencing the artists. The text should describe what is unique about the art that has been chosen, and how it is representative or how it fits into larger patterns of social and creative activity.

Publications extend the life of exhibitions. An exhibition that is two years in the making, from first contact with the artist to the opening reception, can vanish without a trace without published documentation. Many people walk into the Preston gallery and the Library & Gallery and assume that the exhibition on view is characteristic of what is installed in the gallery at all times. In fact, in the last ten years close to 200 exhibitions have been organized by the Cambridge Galleries, and these exhibitions have reflected a vast array of media and themes, historical art and contemporary art, design, and crafts. Artists have been exhibited who are local and regional, from other parts of the province and other parts of the country, as well as from abroad. Publications are a record of the breadth and scope of this curating activity.

Publications also extend the reach of exhibitions. People who are unable to visit an exhibition at the gallery because of geographical distance or timing are able to view the images and engage the ideas behind the exhibition through a publication. This is a critical factor when applying to funding bodies based in Toronto or Ottawa, adjudicated by people living and working right across the country. Most of these jurors have never visited Cambridge. Moreover, funding agencies expect a commitment to publications as part of the granting criteria.

As well, artists who are in demand will often consider the advantages of exhibiting at one gallery   over another based on the gallery's commitment to publishing. For the artist, the effort and the expense involved in putting together an exhibition are often far in excess of the value of our standard exhibition fee, and the existence of a publication insures that their efforts will not vanish once the exhibition is taken down.

It would be impossible to document all of the exhibitions we do with a publication. Therefore we choose carefully both the exhibitions we document and the appropriate size of the documentation. Generally speaking, brochure type publications are published for the exhibitions of younger artists. Often, the text will be an edited interview with the artist and a resume. Group shows may be published in this format as well, with a text that defines the unifying theme behind the selected work. Catalogue booklets have been published for mid-career artists, artists who have already had a number of brochures published in conjunction with other exhibitions (Kai Chan: In Search of Paradise, 1996, Max Streicher: Sleeping Giants, 1998, John Armstrong: Sanguine, 1998/99), and for significant group exhibitions (Waves: Contemporary Japanese Fibre Art, 1994).

Brochures are produced for the most part "in-house." Layout and design is done by gallery staff, and the publication is paid for from within the program budget. Occasionally, essayists are employed to write for these publications. Since 1997, in order to stretch the publishing budget, all of the text has been produced “in-house” as well. The advantage of the “in-house” brochure is that it can be prepared quickly and cost-effectively to be available for the exhibition opening, as a hand list or guide to the show.

Booklets or “catalogues” have been produced less frequently. They are in fact small books. They involve professional graphic designers, photographers, essayists, and editors and can be complex and time-consuming to produce. Before changes to the Canada Council programmes for assistance to galleries and museums in 1998, grant applications to the Exhibition Assistance programme, made on a project-by-project basis, were the primary means by which the gallery funded such publications. Now that the gallery is receiving annual programming and operating assistance from the Canada Council, it is no longer eligible to apply for Exhibition Assistance funding. Future booklet publications will have to be funded through this on-going assistance.

In the course of interviewing Max Streicher for the exhibition at the Cambridge Galleries, I perceived him to be someone who was very conscious of his own historical development, as he often answered questions about his work by making references to earlier artwork and exhibitions. Writing about his development as an artist seemed to be the most natural path to understanding and talking about his art. Moreover, Streicher had been an important member of the Toronto-based art collective Nether Mind, which over the course of four exhibitions in the early nineties, significantly altered the face of Canadian art. Writing at length about this artist also became a way of documenting some of the important characters and changes that were taking place in the art of the nineties. It soon became apparent that this project would become an important historical document.

Finally, this catalogue was an opportunity to reflect and promote the values which the Cambridge Galleries, under the umbrella of the Cambridge Public Library, have come to represent contemporary culture in the community – accessible, interactive and stimulating to a wide cross-section of the public, discussed in print in a readable and hopefully, entertaining way. Max Streicher: Sleeping Giants, has been scheduled to appear at galleries in Canada and abroad through the year 2001, and the Cambridge Galleries' catalogue will be on sale at each exhibition site. The exhibition publication will become a significant contribution to the awareness of contemporary Canadian art in Canada and abroad, from the unique perspective of the Cambridge Galleries.

Gordon Hatt, Curator, 2000