GALLERY 44 CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY

Mandate: Gallery 44 is a non-profit, artist-run centre committed to the advancement of contemporary Canadian photography. Our goal is to contribute to the national dialogue on contemporary Canadian photographic art practices and to foster its support, understanding and appreciation.

Main Objectives: To fulfill our mandate we:

(1) exhibit innovative and challenging contemporary Canadian and international photography;
(2) treat artists professionally;
(3) disseminate information in various ways which contributes to the understanding of contemporary Canadian photographic art;
(4) support emerging artists;
(5) support research on contemporary Canadian photographic art;
(6) support artistic production;
(7) maintain a centre for the active exchange of artistic ideas;
(8) provide educational opportunities for artists and the interested public;
(9) support photographic education for learners in elementary and secondary schools;
(10) make photo education available to young people outside of the school system;
(11) ensure our programs thrive by diversifying our income base and actively fundraising;
(12) work to broaden access to our programs.

Brief History: Gallery 44 began in 1979 with a small group of artists in need of production facilities who joined together to share darkroom and studio space. Forming a collective was an important step in making facilities affordable and in creating a supportive community of artists with common goals. In 1980, the collective began mounting exhibitions and in 1981, began offering photography workshops.
Gallery 44 moved from its original location on Niagara Street to Bathurst Street in 1986, where both the production and exhibition facilities were expanded to serve a growing membership. Because of a severe lack of photographic education in elementary and secondary schools, Gallery 44 began its Education in the Schools program in 1987.
In 1994, Gallery 44 moved to 401 Richmond St. W. to improve the centre's exhibition and production facilities and to widen its audience through a more centralized location. Moving to 401 Richmond was an extremely important new direction for Gallery 44, as the building houses a thriving community of artist-run centres, arts-based organizations, and artist studios. Sharing the building has fostered exchange, both in terms of resources and audience/event participation. 401 Richmond also hosts building-wide arts activities and events including Toronto Arts Week, Holiday Market Place, and the Festival of Sound, giving us further exposure to new audiences.
The fact that our membership has tripled since our move to 401 Richmond is a clear indication of Gallery 44's increased visibility and vitality in the community. We currently have 160 members and 45 supporting patrons. In the past 20 years as photography has become firmly established as an artistic medium, we have witnessed a growing demand for exhibition opportunities for photo-based art, as evidenced by the hundreds of submissions we receive each year.
In addition, Gallery 44 serves an important role in providing artists with affordable darkroom facilities, the only non-commercial one of its kind in Toronto. Despite the rapidly changing photographic technologies now available, we are finding a consistent demand for traditional black and white facilities, which we continue to monitor.

Structure: Gallery 44 is a non-profit artist-run centre and a registered charity (charitable number 119247310RR0001) that has remained committed to the principals of artist-initiated, artist-controlled, and artist-run centres. Gallery 44 is operated by a core group of Full (voting) Members who sit on a series of committees (Exhibition, Education, Special Events, Fundraising, New Members, Members Activities, Facilities) which determine every aspect of our programming. The nine-member board of directors, each of whom must have been a member for at least one year, is elected from the voting membership at the Annual General Meeting. Each serves a three-year term with three members stepping down every year.

Volunteers: One of Gallery 44's greatest strengths has been the energy and commitment of our members. As described above, every facet of our organizational structure and programming is designed by artist-members, with the support of staff. Full and Activities Members form our core volunteer base. As part of their membership agreement, members commit 3-5 volunteer hours per month on one or more of Gallery 44's committees, or assisting in special events or other Gallery activities. It is the members, with the support of the board and staff, who program exhibitions, design education programs, maintain the darkroom and production facilities, contribute to special fundraising events for the gallery, organize member's activities, and assist in developing new program initiatives for Gallery 44.

The Board: Gallery 44 is governed by a board of nine members elected by the membership. Legally and fiscally responsible for Gallery 44's operations, the board ensures that Gallery 44's finances are professionally maintained, and that our activities are consistent with the mandate and objectives outlined above. To support this structure, a board member sits on each of the Gallery's programming committees, actively participating in establishing their direction and program implementation. As the committee liaison, board members then keep the entire board apprised of plans and ideas which are developed by the various member committees. Board members attend a regular monthly meeting to discuss policy issues and to receive a report from the Director on all aspects of the Gallery's operations including programming and finances. The board also ratifies exhibitions selected by the Exhibition Selection Committee.
Gallery 44 Committees: Gallery 44's committees include: Exhibition Programming, Education, Equity, Special Events, Fundraising, New Members, Resource Centre, and Facilities. One board member sits on each committee to aid communication between members and coordination between programs. A staff member also liaises with each committee to offer ideas, help implement decisions, and ensure good communication between staff and members.

Staff Structure: Gallery 44 employs four practicing photographic artists (2 full-time, 2 part-time) to administer and contribute to our programs. The Director, works with the board of directors to oversee every aspect of our centre. As chief administrator, she is responsible for internal and external communications, finances, personnel, and community liaison. In her role as Director she helps facilitate the vision of the membership in terms of programming, community building, and financial stability.

The Exhibition Coordinator, (EC) works with the Director and the Exhibition Selection Committee to plan and mount exhibitions, publications and exhibition related programming such as artists' talks and panel discussions. The Exhibition Coordinator oversees Gallery 44's publication program, working with writers to edit texts, writing a number of texts each year and working with designers and printers to coordinate high quality publications. The EC also works with the Resource Centre Committee to develop and improve the quality of and access to our resources which include books and periodicals, slides, and a developing data base of our exhibition history (soon to be available on-line).

The Education Coordinator, works with the Director and the Education Committee to plan and implement education programs including our photography in the school programs, special education programs and Weekend Workshops. She liaises with the Toronto School of Art, Central Neighbourhood House, SKETCH, and other community groups, to plan short-term and long-term arts programming. She also works with the Facilities Committee to plan and execute improvements to the production.

The Development Coordinator, works with the Director, the Fundraising and Special Events Committees to plan and implement all of Gallery 44’s fundraising and special events. In conjunction with the Fundraising Committee, she develops new fundraising initiatives, solicits corporate partnerships, researches non-governmental foundations and makes applications. She organizes three special events per year in conjunction with the Special Events Committee.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Audiences Served: Gallery 44 serves a national audience of photographic artists, students, scholars, curators, teachers, collectors, and patrons, including arts & community groups, hobbyists and the general public. The variety of our programs, from exhibition and publication to education and production allows us to support the work of artists at every stage of their career.

Special Events: Since Gallery 44's inception, special events have been at the heart of our fundraising. Special events are an excellent revenue-generating source, and are also an opportunity to build community by bringing together members, friends and community supporters in an enjoyable social setting. For example our bowling fundraiser PHOTOBOWL, which raises money for photo education, attracts community based teams from throughout the photographic community, including photo stores like Henry's and Downtown Camera, Stephen Bulger Gallery, commercial studios like Lane Studios, Headshots and Steichen Lab as well as photo departments inlcuding the University of Guelph, Humber College and the Photo Educators.

Gallery 44 undertakes three special events each year including: PHOTOBOWL, Festive 44 (our Holiday show and sale) and Photopia (our Spring fundraising sale and lottery draw).
Mailing/ Emailing Our committees endeavour to use their creativity with limited means to market our programs and activities. Currently, we have regular monthly mailings to our membership, patrons, organizations and the media. Three times per year, we do a bulk mailing to an extended list of past program participants. We also post, fax and email information to a targeted list of venues and individuals. Each exhibition is promoted using a high-quality brochure. Weekend Workshops were marketed in a very effective post-card form listing both Fall and Winter workshops.

Website: Our website (www.gallery44.org) has been an excellent way to create a broader national and international presence. Since its launch we’ve received email from around the world. The site provides information on all of Gallery 44's programs, images of the gallery and exhibitions, call for submissions, membership information and most importantly makes our exhibition brochure texts available to a world wide audience. It also acts as a communication tool with our members and houses our new WEBlinks gallery. We plan to launch our new exhibition history database on our website in 2005. Visitors will be able to use this database to look up exhibitions by date, name of artist, subject matter, etc. making it an excellent research tool for students, curators, etc.

Gallery 44 Bookshop: In order to better market our publications, Gallery 44 opened a small press bookshop in the Fall of 2002. The bookshop carries Canadian small press publications which specialize in photography. The bookshop has helped to make people better aware of Canadian photography and provides the gallery with a small source of income.