When I was presented the opportunity to write a piece on whatever I wanted. I was stumped. I’ve been longing for a chance to write about something I care about for three years, and when the time came, I had no idea what to do.
What I did know was that I wanted to tell a story about someone or something that’s enhancing its community.
Thankfully, I found BAND.
BAND stands for Black Artists’ Networks Dialogue. It is an art gallery and a cultural centre located in Parkdale.
BAND gallery’s mission is to bring visual arts by black Canadians to the centre stage.
“The idea is to push forward the representation of black artists and cultural workers. It’s showcasing their work, supporting it, their development as artists, administrators, workers within the art industry – locally, nationally and internationally,” says Yao Togobo, BAND’s art director.
Here’s the story of a seeing a void and taking matters into your own hands.
2008.
Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, making him the first black president in U.S. history.
This was a monumental moment for not just African-Americans, but black people all over the world.
“Maxine and I determined it was an international black holiday. Literally. I left the office and never went back,” says Carter.
This motivated Carter, Maxine Bailey, Julie Crooks and Karen Tyrell to form BAND.
BAND hosted its first event called “Who’s Your Obama?” which talked about the hopes of black Canadians having their own political figure.
“The notion was who would inspire us to be politically active. Who would inspire us to not just sit on the sidelines making comments and judging but to actually roll up our sleeves and do the work,” says Carter.
Carter and BAND co-founders invited friends, colleagues and artists and raised almost 400 dollars to pay for incorporation fees.
Karen Carter discusses the impact of Barack Obama’s election from a Canadian perspective.
In 2010, BAND became incorporated which presented more opportunities for the organization.
BAND partnered with TD Bank in creating Then and Now, a series of events showcasing the accomplishments of black Canadians in the past and in the present.
After securing funding from TD, BAND reached out to Scotiabank to help promote visual arts.
“We knew we didn’t want one bank alone we needed two so we kept that balance. You have one backing; it kind of looks like, ‘Oh, we can’t go there because that bank is the one that’s funding that black culture organization,” says Carter.
That meeting ended up leading Scotiabank to giving BAND 10,000 dollars for gallery space.
“It allowed us to help visual arts show their work without having to worry about them paying a fee or making a bucket of money to sell work,” says Carter.
“When we looked around and did the math, we realized we could get a small office, but if we spent a little bit more, we could have a storefront space.”
Carter says the gallery element of BAND originally came about by needing office space to help staff run the black history month events, but then turned into having a space for visual artists.
Carter says one of the biggest challenges was finding a place for BAND to rent.
Karen Carter shares a story of finding gallery space.
With the money from the lease buyout, BAND found a house up on Queen Street to call home.
I’ve always dreamed of us owning something, I won’t lie…but I didn’t think it was this possible this soon,” says Carter.
Karen Carter talks stumbling upon BAND’s current location
THE GALLERY
Carter says having one black cultural space like BAND in Canada isn’t enough.
“We would love to see this replicated — getting a house out of the community, converting it into a gallery and cultural centre and opening it out to and for the rest of the community,” says Togobo.
“We need more to represent how diverse we are, so I’m hoping other people start stuff and if we can show how we did it and best practices that helps with that, that’s important,” says Carter.
