to inform our approach for Lands to Travel Through Dear delegates and followers, A working committee of the Alberta Association of Artist-Run Centres (AAARC) has continued meeting throughout the year to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on the gathering, and begin to reimagine Lands To Travel Through. AAARC remains committed to centering practices of care, especially during »»

In August 2020, the Alberta Association of Artist-run Centres ( AAARC ) will partner with Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference ( ARCA ) to host a transnational gathering of artists and artist-run organizations, meeting in Calgary on Treaty 7 territory. Titled Lands to Travel Through , this four-day event will centre practices of care, reciprocity and resource-sharing as critical responses to »»

Mustering the verve and warmth of an East Coast kitchen party, the Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic was host to the biennial gathering of artist-run centres from across Canada in Charlottetown, in September 2017. The event brought together artists, administrators, thinkers, curators and the public to consider the flexible, responsive and provisional forms »»

From November 12 to 14, 2015, Artist-Run Centres & Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO) hosted Artists at the Center: Moving from the Margins to Inclusion, a national conference focusing on diversity in the artist-run centres’ network.

Institutions by Artists surveyed institutional and para-institutional projects and practices by artists to measure the distance between the promise and the actual performance of contemporary artist-run centres and initiatives. It convened an international congress of artists, curators, critics and academics around the question: Is there a space for art outside of the market and the »»

Hosted by Le Regroupement des centres d’artistes autogérés du Québec (RCAAQ), the 2010 Conference The Americas: Independent Artistic Practices in the Era of Globalization examined the state of residencies in the Americas by taking stock of the experiences, local initiatives, and self-management models impacting methods of production and distribution, as well as the creative contexts for contemporary work. Our intention was to allow Conference participants to meet the most representative interlocutors from the Americas’ vast cultural scene and to understand the stakes and factors both distinguishing and uniting them.

Hosted by Artist-Run Centres and Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO), the Hot Buttons conference provided a stimulating forum that generated dialogue and debate on critical issues facing artist-run centres in Canada. An impressive and diverse range of panelists and keynote speakers at the forefront of artist-run culture focused on questions such as whether or not artist-run centres are successfully interacting with the younger generation of artists, serving the needs of newer artistic practices, or effectively reaching out to new audiences and increasing public awareness and appreciation and adapting to change.

Organized by Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC) PAARC, coordinated by Keith Wallace. Although this conference precedes the official creation of ARCA, it was following the InFest conference that representatives from centres across the country agreed to form the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference / La Conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés (ARCCC/CCCAA), a coalition of regional associations and specific caucuses.

Organized by Le Regroupement des centres d’artistes autogérés du Québec (RCAAQ), the conference emerged from a desire to examine the publishing activities of the artist-run network. The international meeting focused on the specific modes of production and distribution that define the milieu and their distinct contribution to the artworld and market.

An initiative of ARCCO, the Convergence conference ended a nine year professional development and networking drought in the artist-run centre community, a direct result of the demise of the national organization ANNPAC in 1994.  ARCCO was the first provincial organization to respond to this need by developing a  national conference specifically for the artist-run centre »»