Gladstone Hotel’s fifth annual Grow Op exhibition, a four-day exhibition in conjunction with Earth Day, celebrating innovative ideas and conceptual responses to landscape, gardens, art, and place-making, is open for submissions for 2017.
#GrowOp2017 is seeking proposals that employ the tools of art, craft and design to reframe our understanding of the shifting boundaries between urban and wild, culture and nature. From community horticultural initiatives to experimental landscapes to disruptive art projects, the Gladstone is seeking proposals from individuals and collectives whose work engages with landscape, place and habitats with the goal of creating an experiential exhibition of high quality that is evocative and boundary-pushing.
The use of plant material is not a specific requirement. Submissions are encouraged from a wide variety of creative practitioners including the following: visual artists, fabricators, craftspeople, planners, historians, arborists, agriculturalists, landscape architects, cooks, ecologists, botanists, performance artists, musicians, filmmakers, scientists, sound artists, gardeners, writers, poets, designers, architects and urbanists.
There are many ways to participate:
- Room Installations: Room installations invite participants to design immersive projects in the various studio spaces in the 2nd floor Gladstone Gallery.
- Site-Specific Public Space Installations/Projects – Onsite: Hotel interior spaces include the public spaces in the first floor lobby, Queen Street windows/facade, second floor gallery walls and open areas including balcony, green roof, and stairwells, the Ballroom, bar area for opening night/media reception, art cafe, etc.
- Site-Specific Public Space Installations/Projects – Offsite: Exterior spaces include the vertical walls of the hotel, first floor green roof (south side), hotel entry, Dufferin Amphitheatre (north side of Queen Street, west of Dufferin), public lands by tracks on south side of Queen, TTC shelter (at hotel entrance) and others. City permits will be required for temporary constructed installations on public property. The process takes time and should be initiated immediately upon acceptance to the show. Consideration of how offsite work integrates into the main second floor gallery space and contributes to the hotel visitor experience is encouraged. Participants are welcome to propose projects for sites that are not outlined in the proposal.
- Public Programming Proposals that emphasize and explore the show theme ‘culture of landscape’ are welcome as integrated events, lectures, performances, kid-friendly activities, tours, etc. These may occur on one evening, focus on a school group audience during the weekdays, or take place over the course of the exhibition.
The deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2016. For more information, click here.
