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Citation: 

Luka, Mary Elizabeth. “Mapping CBC ArtSpots.” In Diverse Spaces: Identity, Heritage and Community in Canadian Public Culture, edited by Susan Ashley, 124-47. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013.

Abstract/Summary: 

ArtSpots was a collaborative visual arts television and internet program produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 1997 to 2008. In this article Luka, founder of ArtSpots, reflects on its origin, its ability to be a cultural space and her personal relationship with its development. Despite a fair amount of theoretical work carried out on cultural spaces and creativity in general, there is minute amounts describing how arts and broadcasting intersect in cultural media production in Canada, making ArtSpots a prime example on how and why artists engage with the Canadian broadcasting and digital media system. In the 1990s, a unique set of financial and cultural conditions—including identity concerns—shaped the relationships among Canadian broadcasters and the arts. Despite a sometimes precarious future, ArtSpots can be situated as a forerunner and exemplar among the prolific number of new creative spaces developed in the early 21st century. This generated artist and viewer/user engagement with creative, visual works and stories. ArtSpots experimented with the budding internet technology by creating a website, and was allotted an irregular but generous number of unused 30-second advertising timeslots on television. These broadcastings featured artists who represented the local or regional artistic community from which their work emerged. Through this ArtSpots developed into a cultural space with the inclusion of pluralism and diversity; by 2008 half of the artists featured on CBC ArtSpots were women, more than 15% were First Peoples, and at least 12% were visible minorities. Many artists’ work dealt with feminism, race, identity, and social and political concerns. Despite ten years of success, expansion of artists using media on their own accord, and the low staff and budget allotted for ArtSpots, it was quietly cancelled in 2008.

Source/Credit: 
Kelsey Wood-Hrynkiw