About MuchArt

Our Purpose

THE SHORT VERSION

MuchArt hosts a public catalogue and connection point to as many Edmontonian based artists as it can find and is always looking for more. This site is more like a digital community hall, art walk or festival rather than an art gallery. All visual art is welcome and we will do our best to accommodate others, such as performance, craft, writing, and others we have yet to know.  

All artists are 16+, diverse by nature, and part of your community if you reside in Edmonton. MuchArt explores the identity of Edmontonian art and their works for posterity to empower creative communities through the empowerment to make spaces, accessible representation and new connections.  Much art aims to promote solidarity between artists, and art lovers, for self-organized gatherings, events and collaborations. As a library for any Edmonton creator, MuchArt includes art from institutions, communities, schools, campuses, and wayward individuals. Much art offers its tools to help form connections between artists without mitigation by curators or search algorithms. Here, the viewer is the curator and MuchArt wants you to ponder what artists and enthusiasts can do together. We are all creators at some point but if you currently see yourself as just a viewer then help us develop our archive and nominate someone for this site so people can appreciate their contribution.

THE LONG VERSION

Modern cities and frantic social media can make it difficult to perceive each other authentically. If we have tools to notice our endeavours we create opportunities for openness and then community.  This reveals community to be and active choice and not just a natural occurrence.  Muchart is step one; seeing each other by creating a public library of local art in Edmonton and aims to identify many artists contributions to the mindscape. There are many more makers of art than can be represented by a exclusive gallery scene or fast paced festival circuit and social media’s priorities do not concentrate on the local and cannot be remedied by enough hashtags. Not including the barriers between internet, technology and demographics. This site’s goal  is to search and appreciate a locally sensitive repertoire of artists. If you know creators (yourself included!), please contact or connect us to them in order add their work for posterity. We would love to include you/them to show the diversity of voices out there.  

We are currently excluding 15 and under artists, not because it is in-valid, but because one should be afforded more time to develop and stabilize their style before recording it for the wider community. Please think of us when you turn 16 or feel comfortable showing a body of work.  Otherwise, all are welcome, from visual, to dance, to sculpture, performance and craft, so long as we can think of a way to note, Link or catalogue a bit of your work.  Young or old, if your work has changed over some time, we can update our snapshot of your work. Unlike other art sites we are not trying to replace the gallery or become some new market. MuchArt sees connection as the basis of those things but even more so for possibility and self organization in the art community.

Contact information or links to portfolios primarily act as communication if artists are open to it. But more than just consolidating artists from the anonymity of the internet and institutions, MuchArt wants to be a community discovery tool where you may find others making similar or inspiring things. You could try working on something together! If One of you knows “A” the other “B” Try to picking each other’s brains over a coffee. Share something or do an art swap!

These are vague suggestions but in the meantime this site is simply  a pet project by Riley Tenove (me) to get a better picture of creativity in the city because I believe our capacity has much more depth than what floats to the surface of your average venue. 

MuchArt is asking what Edmonton creators are making? What are they thinking? Where does culture come from? What Is the palette of contemporary Edmonton art? If we try less exclussive methods, aka, those without website presence, economically accessible creativity or gallery access, what ideas have we yet to notice? 

Take a look around this site to see what we have found so far and feel free to participate in events and culture others may broadcast on this site.  We do not vet every event but trust art facilitators to maintain an interesting and well meaning experience.

Creation Story

MuchArt was designed and commissioned by a strange little artist named Riley Tenove who was born in Dawson Creek, BC and has operated out of Edmonton, AB (the flat part of Canada) for most of his life. With the help of other local artists (special thanks to Maren Elliott, Taylor-Rae Foster and ABNWorks, this pipe dream was made a reality). The desire to make a hub of local art raised when he noticed a large amount of underutilize artists coupled with conversations with members of the community who had no easy, approachable way to connect with local artists and their creations. While many people wished to support artists and purchase art, they knew that they were not accessing everything their city had to offer through the limited galleries operating in urban centres away from many.  As an individual artist, Riley’s personal transactions with art enthusiasts led him to believe that many lacked the right tools and structures which would make sharing, selling and creating culture more comfortable, less awkward and more monetarily feasible. Art financing and local cataloguing is some of the first of these tools which will better connect art communities and allow them to become more organized and accessible.

What’s in a name?

Opinions aside, you might be thinking… what’s with the ridiculous name? Well, the name arose from a dark place in which all hope for a creative website name seemed lost. Screaming to the heavens, Riley realized that perhaps the most difficult part of creating anything… artwork, children, websites… is in fact the indecision surrounding naming. That day, a friend (Taylor-Rae) was looking upon a showcase of works they enjoyed when she exclaimed “MUCH ART, SO LOVE!” in an effort to express a simple sense of satisfaction. Whether from reckless resignation or blissful epiphany, the phrase transformed into the very name of this space. Please direct all complaints or suggestions for better names to Riley on the [Contact] form found on this site because nobody is perfect and we accept that (although we thank you in advance for your kind wording).