MONTREAL — “Starving artist” is not a term that holds any romantic charm for Claudine and Stephen Bronfman.
The couple, who enjoy collecting art, have seen struggling young artists barely surviving or, more commonly, holding down jobs unrelated to their work, sacrificing the time they could be spending creating.
To help deserving new artists avoid that fate, the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation is supporting a program that will help two people each year, for the next five years, launch their careers.
The foundation announced a donation of $550,000, divided equally between Concordia University and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), to establish two-year post-graduation fellowships in contemporary art.
The fellowship will provide an annual living allowance of $27,500 to two visual arts post-graduates, one from each of the universities, for a period of two years.
These fellowships will be awarded through Concordia’s and UQAM’s fine arts faculties to a recent graduate holding an MFA, PhD or (in the case of UQAM) graduate certificate, starting next spring. A total of 10 fellowships are to be awarded through to 2015.
There is little existing support in Quebec for visual arts graduates at present and certainly nothing at this level, said foundation president Nancy Rosenfeld, yet the first few years after leaving university is a critical period in an artist’s development.
With two years of not having to worry about making ends meet, the young artists can develop their talents and build up a portfolio of work that may lead to gallery exposure and buyers. They also will be in a better position to apply for longer-term support, such as from the Canada Council for the Arts.
“The Bronfman family has had a long history of support for Canadian artists from donations to acquisition funds at major museums, the creation of the Saidye Bronfman Award in Fine Craft [now one of the Governor General’s Awards], and the purchase of works by emerging and established Canadian artists for their corporate and private collections,” Stephen Bronfman said.
“With this support, the artists will not have to hold down three jobs and do their art overnight.”
Claudine and Stephen wanted to do something that would help emerging artists specifically in Quebec, and they liked the idea of making a gift shared by an English and a French institution. Besides, Concordia and UQAM have two of the best fine arts schools in the country, they say, and they hope the program will lead to more collaboration.
The decision to establish the fellowships follows a year-long study by the foundation of how best to make an impact.
Last year, with their support, the public education program SeminArts, was launched to help demystify art collecting and introduce potential buyers to the local art scene, in co-operation with the SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art.
At the official announcement of the creation of the fellowships, held at Claridge Inc.’s art-filled offices in Le Windsor, UQAM rector Claude Corbo said the support is not only appreciated, but essential.
The foundation’s involvement “confirms the place of art in our society,” and recognizes the quality of art instruction at the two universities, which have a reputation of being accessible to everyone.
Concordia provost David Graham congratulated the Bronfmans for coming to the rescue of the arts in the current difficult economic times when support for the arts is often deferred or cut entirely.
He noted that at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Quebec Triennial last year, nearly half of the 38 artists exhibiting were Concordia graduates.
The two universities will also contribute to the fellows’ resources by helping sponsor exhibits, travel, catalogues and, in the second year, teaching courses, up to a value of about $12,000 to $13,000, and play a mentoring role.
The winning artists will be selected by an independent jury.
Guests at the announcement were given a tour of Claridge, where almost every available space is used to display the hundreds of pieces of Canadian art, mainly of the decorative variety, in the collection, which was started by Stephen’s father, Charles, and is continued by Stephen and his wife.
