March 2, 2010 Fringe Arts

Fêting esthetics

Concordia’s Art Matters festival turns 10, brings the party

by Madeline Coleman

Art Matters co-producers Jeremy Dabrowski, Natiea Vinson, Patrick Lloyd Brennan and Judith Mignault at the festival’s Nuit Blanche event, Nouille Blanche, on Feb. 27. PHOTO RILEY SPARKS

Art Matters is awfully precocious for a 10-year-old. This year’s incarnation of the art festival brings the work of almost 200 artists into professional galleries all over the city—and it’s all the work of Concordia students, from start to finish.

“What Art Matters does and has done time and time again has really forced people to pull it all together and act and be professional,” explained festival co-producer and fine arts student Jeremy Dabrowski. “You’re getting put into a setting that is a professional setting. You have to put on that suit, so to speak, and go to work and actually ask something of somebody.”
The festival was just a small, enthusiastic fish in a big art sea when it was founded by fine arts students in 2000. In the beginning, every department of the fine arts faculty kicked in a few dollars to show work in small venues like cafés. Since then, said co-producer Patrick Lloyd Brennan, it’s grown to become something “really special and really important.” Art Matters is now the biggest student-run art festival in Canada, encompassing almost three weeks of exhibitions and performances.

Brennan admitted that, cooped up in the basement office that serves as Art Matters headquarters, it can be hard to envision the sprawling art party to come.

“It’s hard to see how widespread this festival is, how far Art Matters reaches out into the community,” he said. “You see the results in the actual festival and even the media coverage. But before that it’s hard to gauge what kind of effect we’re having on students beyond the fine arts building.”

Inside that building, though, Brennan and Dabrowski think the festival comes with a big payoff: show curators learn the fine art of balancing their vision with that of the artists, and artists get to see their work in what is, for many, their first public exhibition. In other words, students finally get to walk the walk.

“[At first] you’ll hear people paraphrasing things they heard in class, but you’ll see that develop because you’ll see them put their own interests and own opinions in it,” said Dabrowksi of the festival learning curve. “[As an art student] you’re so steeped in all the theory and rhetoric, all the vocabulary. Then people start to become more comfortable, more colloquial.”

“I think Art Matters can prepare student artists for—I hate saying it—the real art world,” said Brennan, adding, “although at this point I do feel we’re part of the real art world.”
Art Matters kicks off with an opening party on March 5 at 8:30 p.m. at Theatre Plaza St-Hubert (6506 St-Hubert St.), featuring performances by The Lovely Feathers, Tonstartssbandht, Garçons and The Peelies. Cover is $5.

The festival runs until March 19. For full schedule, visit artmattersfesti