Artist Civil Service
Co-Curated by Zachary Ayotte
May 1–June 27, 2026
Callum Beckford, Nicholas Hertz, Ken Khoo, Amy Leigh
May 1–June 27, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday May 1 at 7pm
Artist Civil Service is an experimental program that supported four Edmonton-based visual artists working part-time in civil service roles and part-time on their artistic practices over a four-month period. Organized by Latitude 53 and artist Zachary Ayotte, this initiative explores alternative funding models for artists while simultaneously investing in the civic infrastructure that sustains communities.
As a part of the program, artists were embedded in volunteer and self-directed community service projects—including health care, infrastructure, and senior care—to develop their creative work and their connections to the city's civic life. The project culminates with a public presentation sharing the participating artists’ work, reflections, and insights into how this model impacted the artists’ practices and how it might evolve and scale within Edmonton and beyond.
Latitude 53 invites members and guests to the opening reception, Friday May 1 at 7 pm.
About the Artists
“I am an artist and musician whose practice delves into the intersections of gender, race, sound, and place. My work spans a diverse range of mediums, from creating immersive video art that fuses surrealism and abstraction and explores cinematic narratives of dreams, self-discovery, and gender.
Beyond visual art, my sonic explorations are integral to my creative identity. I have contributed to the development of electronic instruments for Variable Oscillations and have a rich history of performing in various bands, alongside producing my own original music.” — Callum Beckford
Nicholas Hertz is a queer artist and researcher based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) whose work explores the slipperiness of perception. Working across print, photography, and installation, they alter source images to construct a visual language that reveals its own making. Hertz earned their Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta in 2019, where they received the Livia Stoyke Foundation BFA Best of Show Award and the Alumni Award. Their practice has been exhibited both locally and internationally, including the recent exhibition A mirror with no reflection at the Art Gallery of St. Albert. Their research-driven practice has been supported by multiple residencies, including the Emerging Artist in Residence at SNAP and the Love Lab at the Art Gallery of Mississauga (sponsored by Panasonic).
Ken Khoo is a self-taught artist. Without a structured art education, he looked to old world masters and golden age illustrators, whose works demonstrate the vital foundational lessons earned through long years drawing from life. His practice leans on that discipline of direct observational drawing, with a particular focus on people.
Amy Leigh (she/her) is a queer, disabled, settler of Scottish and Irish descent who graciously resides in amiskwaciywâskahikan via tkaronto. She is a maker, agitator, and arts administrator whose creative praxis centers on community + capacity building through printmaking, papermaking, and textile-based epistolary research-creation. From 2017 to 2020, Amy curated The Zine Machine Project — a roaming gold vending machine that distributes small zines. Amy holds a Diploma in Arts & Cultural Management from MacEwan University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Alberta, and yes, she would like to pet your dog.
About the Curator
Zachary Ayotte is an artist, writer, and editor based in Edmonton, AB/Treaty 6 territory. His work is grounded in publication projects, including I Wish U Were Here, Lines, and Notes on Digging A Hole. He is the co-editor of COI, a Prairie-centric publication about arts and culture, which he co-founded with Christina Battle. His writing has appeared in regional and national publications, including Public Parking, The Walrus, and Canadian Art.