Zachary Ayotte will be in conversation with Gendai Collective about their work around alternative art economies and how arts work is a core investment in our civic structures. Finding parallels between their work and Artist Civil Service, the conversation will tease apart the importance of structural critique and collective change through artistic practice.

Gendai is a collective based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Throughout its twenty-five-year history, Gendai has supported experimental curatorial and organizational practices, whilst creating space for East Asian artists and artists of colour. As Gendai’s newest stewards, Marsya Maharani and Petrina Ng are dedicated to building a more equitable art sector through collective research with BIPOC artists and arts workers. Using gossip as a methodology to trace the contours of institutional power, Gendai builds relationships with emerging and mid-career arts practitioners of colour to learn about current workplace dynamics in the sector. By offering peer mentorship and access to Gendai’s platform, resources, and network, they invite collaborators to support each other in pursuing non-institutional futures and imagine “off-ramps” from the linear expressway of traditional, capitalist, and institutional career progression in the arts. Gendai also participates in Guidance Council, a bi-monthly casual drop-in organized by Alexandra Hong and Peter Rahul for racialized arts workers to share stories and solicit advice from each other. Gendai has published their research in the Gossip issue of C Magazine, titled “We Should Talk: Obvious Truths About Working in the Arts.”