Vtape
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Vtape is a Canadian artist-run centre located in
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Ontario. It is Canada's largest distributor of video art, and the world's largest distributor of Indigenous and First People's film and video. The organization is run as a
not for profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and non-profit organizations (NP ...
and is known for
video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...
distribution,
media preservation Preservation of documents, pictures, recordings, digital content, etc., is a major aspect of archival science. It is also an important consideration for people who are creating time capsules, family history, historical documents, scrapbooks a ...
, exhibition programming, and training programs. Vtape's collection features more than 1500 artists and consists of conceptual art videos, video art installation, performance-based works, and social issue documentaries. In January 2024, there were almost 10,000 titles in distribution. All artists distributed by Vtape maintain full ownership of their work, and the organization does not require exclusive distribution rights. This model is seen in other Canadian video art distribution organizations Video In Video Out and Videopool.


History

Vtape was established in 1980 by artists
Lisa Steele Lisa Steele (born 1947) is a Canadian artist, a pioneer in video art, educator, curator and co-founder of Vtape in Toronto. Born in the United States, Steele moved to Canada in 1968 and is now a Canadian citizen. She has collaborated exclusivel ...
, Susan Britton, Rodney Werden, Clive Robertson, Colin Campbell and
Kim Tomczak Kim Tomczak (born 1952) is a Canadian artist known for his work in performance art, photography and video art. Born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1952, he graduated from the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Desi ...
with the mission to improve the distribution and dissemination of video art and to compensate artists fairly for their work. It was incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1983. Vtape provided organizational assistance for independent art exhibitions throughout the 1980s and 1990s during conditions of intensive censorship of artists' film and video works by the Government of Ontario.


Aboriginal collection

Vtape began a dedicated collection of video works by Indigenous artists in 1994, after being approached by Zachary Longboy. It is the only specialized collection within the organization, and the only collection at Vtape that will accept works on film and works by first-time artists. Longboy helped develop the collection as Vtape's Aboriginal outreach coordinator, and was succeeded by Cynthia Lickers-Sage. As outreach coordinator, Lickers-Sage broadened the collection's reach through the establishment of the imagineNative Film Festival in 1998. The foundation of the Aboriginal Digital Access Project in 2012 broadened access to this special collection by allowing curators from around the world to preview video and film works online, rather than at the archive in person.


Notes


References and further reading

* Gale, Peggy, Lisa Steele, George Elliott, Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, John Greyson, Marie-Hélène Cousineau et al. ''Video Re/View: The (Best) Source for Critical Writings on Canadian Artists' Video.'' (1996). * Ghaznavi, Corinna. "Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak." ''Canadian Art'' 17.4 (2000): 68. * Koostachin, Jules. "Remembering Inninimowin: The Language of the Human Beings." ''Canadian Journal of Law & Society/La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société'' 27, no. 1 (2012): 75–80.


External links


Official website
Film collectives Arts organizations established in 1980 Arts centres in Canada Film archives in Canada Video art {{art-org-stub Archives in Ontario