In June 2009 I attended a symposium entitled “Art Work - Work in Art: Immigrants and the Arts” which was organized by CERIS (Ontario Metropolis Centre) in downtown Toronto. The presentations focused on the challenges that immigrant artist have in Toronto, as well as on some of the solutions that the presenters have developed for this challenges. There was discussion on the paradoxical differentiation between high-art and crafts and on how this differentiation shaped the value assigned to an artist’s work in Canada. There was also a presentation by a charismatic woman who openly discussed the discrimination and tokenism encountered by many newcomers and by well established immigrant artist. The discussion, that day, seemed to be centered mainly on how to generate opportunities for newcomer artists and on how to help this people gain access to the services and founding agencies available when their work may not be considered fit for founding. I found the arguments presented during the presentations were very valid and I was able to observe how they generated a lot of reflection on the audience.

            I would like to follow up and maintain the spirit of the symposium’s discussion by presenting here a short commentary on the role of social networks on which artists rely in order to acquire and share knowledge as well as to disseminate and sell work and to address new possible means of integration. I will focus primarily on the situation of Latin American artists living in Canada but I aim to open a discussion that could also apply to other immigrant groups.

            I consider the social network an essential factor in the process of integration of newcomers because it generates opportunities that help artists to advance in their careers or, in some cases, to maintain their practice as professional artists. Cultural organizations were born as intuitive strategies in order to deal with the need for social networks. For the past 10 years in the city of Toronto, Latin American artists have been successful in establishing and maintaining an active number of organizations, collectives and artists-led initiatives such as the ALUCINE (a Latin American media festival), E-Fagia (publishes art and digital image theory and web art projects), LACAP (Latin American Canadian Art Projects) and LCCA (Latino Canadian Cultural Association). These organizations have contributed to local culture through festivals, exhibitions, exchanges and collaborations with other minority groups, cultural institutions and community centres. The wide range of their activities would be a good topic for a whole new (and much needed) essay. In this text, I will just limit myself to point out that all these organizations present a considerable percentage of artists of Latin American heritage and that, at the same time, they advocate for the interest of newcomers and of young emerging artists. The artists leading these initiatives are well aware that they are contributing to the shaping of “Latino-Canadian” identity, and most importantly, they provide a social network that new immigrants can access to begin participating in the broader local arts community.

            Latin Americans are by no means a homogeneous group of people (nor are the people that we generally refer to as “immigrants”). Even though the initiatives discussed above are all run primarily by Toronto based Latin American artists, each organization has its own artistic interests, aspirations and goals within the field of cultural activity. The fact that the four organizations mentioned above identify themselves with the same minority group (Latin American living in Canada) could easily mislead to think of this group in homogenous terms and to forget the difference that exists within each minority group.

            As we have explained, registered organizations constitute a strategy to deal with the need of newcomer artists for the right kind of social networks and it is important that they continue their valuable work. However, one may still ask: what other strategies are out there? What can newcomer artists do to help themselves?

            I would broadly define the right kind of social network for artists as one that allows them to integrate into the local artistic communities, to become an acknowledged participant/contributor, to present their work and also to improve their skills.

            A recent immigrant artist trying to find out how to present her work to a Canadian audience might, for instance, ask herself the following questions: how can I generate interest among those Canadians who don’t see my work as their own, how can I help this people understand that my work, even though influenced by my experience in a different country, is still a product of their/our culture?

            What piece of advice could we offer to this artist? We know that many artists have found a balance in presenting themselves both as an artist from a minority group and as a Canadian. This negotiated identity usually develops after some years if the artist integrates into a social network in which s/he genuinely participates in the city’s arts community. It would come useful if more established immigrant artists could share their experiences on this matter by documenting it and making it accessible. The symposium seems to be a good tool for this purpose.

            Among the problems faced by newcomer artists, I would like to draw attention to the case in which a failed integration into a network becomes a decisive factor to abandon a professional practice. It is unquestionable that the withdrawal of these artists and of all their knowledge and experience from our artistic communities represents a great loss for everyone in the trade. How can we avoid this loss and how can we contribute to make their knowledge visible and to present it as valuable?

            This commentary is an attempt to maintain an open dialogue with who has similar concerns and to draw attention to what a good social network may be and to what strategies may be employed to generate artist’s access to it, although a much longer text (and a much elaborate research) would be required to face the issue in depth. I here wanted to suggest that a diversity of tools could be made available to generate a fuller integration of immigrant artists into our communities. This would be important not only for Latin-American artists but for every other minority – especially for those minorities that do not have ‘the numbers’ to have a more visible representation.

Rodrigo Hernandez-Gomez
Toronto – July, 2009

If you wish to respond, add or challenge this comment please write to Rodrigo Hernandez-Gomez to the following email address: newbecomer@yahoo.ca