Josh Schwebel <privatejosh@gmail.com> To: The Employee <employee@forestcitygallery.com>, Director - Forest City Gallery <director@forestcitygallery.com>
Dear Camille and Teresa,
Camille, I hope you are getting ready to go on your residency, and Teresa, I hope that the install is more under control.
I am just writing with a couple updates.
First, I am following up with the promotional material for the event.
The Employee
by Joshua Schwebel
Live performance online
Date: April 26
Time 10:30am - 1:30pm (EST/UTC-5)
Performed by Camille-Zoë Valcourt-Synnott
Teresa, if you would be able to set up another youtube livestream, that would be great. Also, Camille, do you want to meet on zoom half an hour beforehand just to make sure that the tech is working ok? Cause I forget how we had to jig it up last time, but I know that there was a bit of figuring out.
I think it will be fine if the facebook and instagram goes online Monday, that gives a week to promote it. I think we also posted it on the events page of the gallery website.
Finally, I know we all really love Camille’s image of the vinyl with the cats. I don’t think I have a copy of this image. Camille, would you be able to send that? Otherwise, I have the photos of you looking annoyed, but the cats image leaves a bit to the imagination.
Project description:
Conceptual artist Joshua Schwebel has hired a grant-writer whose task is to write funding applications on behalf of the Forest City gallery. "The Employee", the project’s title, is both a one-year employment contract and an artwork contributing to the structural support of the Forest City Gallery, an artist-run centre in London, Ontario, which, as one of Canada’s first artist-run centres, has been publicly funded for almost fifty years, yet only can support a single paid staff member.
The delegated set of tasks comprising the artist’s project are for the Employee to apply for grants and obtain additional funding for the Forest City Gallery. These tasks at once the performance of an artwork and productive work benefiting the gallery. Schwebel successfully obtained project funding from the Canada Council for the Arts to hire the Employee as a delegated performer of the artwork. Any funds successfully earned by way of the project will be incorporated into the gallery’s operating budget, and potentially used to augment its future workforce. The work externalizes grant-writing and the administrative-economic tasks associated with the financial survival of the gallery, rendering this unseen work into a supplementary durational performance enacted peripheral to the exhibition space.
The artist gratefully acknowledges support from the Canada Council for the Arts, without which this work would not be possible.
Second, I heard back from Filipp! They have invited me to speak about the project as one of their public events. I suggested that you both join me in this presentation, and have split the fee in three parts (we will each receive about $317 for this...).
The date they have proposed is Saturday June 5 at 1pm Vancouver time. Would that work for you? If not, it can also be on a Saturday in July instead. We can discuss the content of the presentation more in a future meeting, for now, I just think they want to fix the date, so just get back to me to confirm if June 5 fits your schedule.
Thanks both of you, and see you at the performance.
Warmly,
Josh