MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Summer 2019

40 words :: Colin Field With a steady population of about 2,600, Durham, Ontario is surrounded by agricultural land. The small town on the Saugeen River looks much like many of the other similarly-sized towns in the area. What’s surprising is its art scene: the Durham Art Gallery, founded in 1979, has centred the surrounding arts community for decades. “The fact that this tiny town has this gallery is phenomenal,” says the recently appointed curator Jaclyn Quaresma. “It’s such an anomaly. I don’t know how it happened. It’s so amazing that it’s here. And the fact that the community has supported it for so long is doubly amazing. So I find myself constantly in awe of the fact that we exist and we get to do this. And Jaclyn plans on making the DurhamArt Gallery even more impressive. Born in Toronto, Jaclyn grew up in Brampton and moved around a lot. She always had a cupboard in the kitchen that was her ‘art cupboard.’ Being the kid who could draw was her way of making friends every time she began at a new school. After high school, she went to a joint program between the University of Toronto and Sheridan College for her undergrad in Art and Art History. Then she and her husband (sculptor Dennis Lin) ran Gallery 47 in Toronto, while gradually moving to their off-the-grid home in Kimberley. She also began doing her Masters at that time. “I got to work with Barbara Fischer at the University of Toronto,” she says. “She’s a curator, but she’s a giant in Canada and just the most generous, gentle person. It was the hardest, and the best time.” In March of 2019, Jaclyn took over at the Durham Art Gallery. She’s a deep thinker and when asked what curating is, she’s pensive. “Curating has become such a buzzword,” she says. “Like Katy Perry curated nail polish. So curating becomes an aesthetically conscious decision. That’s one way to look at it. But the Italian root word of curate is cura which is, “to care.” Traditionally curators worked in museums and they were the caretakers of artwork. So they were making sure it wouldn’t fall apart. Then as the discipline evolved it became, you put pictures on the wall, but which pictures do you put there? Then curators became tastemakers and there’s a lot of power in that. As time has gone on, I think curation has become a discipline of relationships and building around that. So I can put pictures on the wall or I can put things in a room, or a space, or environment, that speak to that space or environment and bring out things for us to think about. And so it becomes a process of constantly asking questions that we can never answer… And I get to talk to really cool people about what they care about the most. Which is really cool. Because when do you ever get to do that?” While Jaclyn has never stopped making art herself, she feels her role as a curator suits her better. “I think ultimately my ideas translate better this way than through art-making. My art is me trying to figure stuff out, and curating is me helping other people figure stuff out.” Of course, there are challenges ahead, but the Gallery’s board of directors did a community consultation prior to Jaclyn’s arrival. The results of that consultation will influence Jaclyn’s focus. “I have this Christmas list of everything people want,” she says. “We couldn’t do the rave, but there’s a lot that we can do. Basically my job is trying to figure out how to get the people all the gifts on their list. We used to have a quote/unquote “professional” artist in the front space and local artists in the back space. Now we’re just bringing everybody to the front space. Local exhibitions and national exhibitions will happen in one area and in the other space we’ll have a community space. We’ll have workshops, programs, screenings, that’ll happen there. We have a really cool summer camp. It’s called Rock Paper Scissors. The other one is Volcano Camp.” The Durham Art Gallery is a public gallery with a small portion of their funding coming from the Ontario Arts Council, but the majority from donors and sponsors. Jaclyn plans on slowing down the number of exhibitions at the Gallery but for good reason. “There will be five to eight exhibitions a year,” she says. “If I have longer exhibitions, there are more ways to bring the community in. Then we can also do really cool programs.” For more on upcoming attractions and events, check durhamart.on.ca . THE NEW FACE OF DURHAM ART GALLERY Jaclyn Quaresma on curating the small-town gallery with big-town vision ARTIST PROFILE