Professional Development Sessions – Archive

Art schools are effective at teaching emerging artists about a broad range of materials and technical skills, and how to refine subjects and themes. You spend hundreds or thousands of hours developing your aesthetic style and your promotional presence on the web and social media. But one of the most fundamental aspects of being an artist is scarce or absent in school: What to charge for your artworks?

After all, you take time to make unique objects, using diverse materials, imbuing each with your feelings and whimsy. And there is no adequate way to compare monetary “value” from artist to artist other than supply and demand. Or is there?

Mackenzie Sinclair is a Toronto based art enthusiast. She attended Western University and holds both a BFA and a MA from there. Having over a decade-long career in the arts, her main passions are in the Canadian art market and gallery relationships. She is an enthusiastic art collector, who has experience in managing art galleries and facilitating sales. She is currently the Associate Director of the Art Dealers Association of Canada working alongside 60 of Canada’s top galleries.

Sandra Tarantino, a graduate of OCAD, is a a resident of Toronto, Canada and has exhibited with TOAF over many years since 2000. Tarantino’s artwork practice include ceramic sculptural installation work,  shaped canvas paintings , and mixed media. Her artworks are in private and corporate collections across Canada, U.S.A and Europe. 

Sandra is currently a Co-Founder and Co- Director of ArtQuarters Gallery ( 2021-present) and has worked within the artistic community as Co-founding Directors of  C1 art space (2004-10),  AWOL Gallery and Studios Co-operative (1996-2012) in the past. She is also a freelance visual arts educator working in school across the GTA.

Financial Planning for Artists

Most artists are self-employed entrepreneurs—that’s why it’s essential for artists to understand and maintain streamlined financial processes for the short and long-term. Artists should consider setting budgets for professional activities, tracking business expenses, and saving for periods of slower sales and for retirement. By prioritizing financial health, artists can focus on what matters: creating work and sharing it with others. During the session, Latanya Monteith Housen will provide a primer for artists and chat with moderator Josh Heuman. There will be time for audience questions.

Iris Häussler is best known internationally for her unsettling, immersive narrative installations that revolve around fictitious characters. 

Visitors encounter such obsessively densely staged artworks in apartments, hotel-rooms, historical houses and museums. After their experience, they would often say “it felt as walking through a novel in three dimensions”.

Because Häussler is interested in the fragile boundaries between fiction and reality, she sometimes does not immediately reveal her authorship nor that these installations are contemporary artworks.

Iris Häussler studied at the Academy of fine Arts in Munich, Germany, and has lived and worked in Toronto since 2001. 

The artist has received awards and grants including the Karl-Hofer Prize (Berlin), the Kunstfonds Fellowship (Bonn), the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. 

Kal Mansur is best known for his luminous wall works that combine painting and sculpture. Materials such as acrylic, cast acrylic, and epoxy resin are combined to create cohesive, elemental pieces of art. He uses transparency like a brushstroke, varying its application to refract available light. Mansur completed his BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990. His work has been commissioned by Tiffany & Co., Bonjour Capital, George Brown College, Related Companies, among others. His work is in the permanent collection of Global Affairs Canada and was part of the Canada Pavilion at Expo 2020. He lives and works in Toronto.

Emerging, mid-career and established artists grapple with the question of how (and whether) to seek and secure gallery representation. While there are many ‘pros’ to consider, there are also some ‘cons’. This session will provide artists at any stage in their career with two different, but complementary perspectives about how to get noticed by gallerists, what to do and not to do, what to have in your portfolio, and how to negotiate ethically.

Our two speakers are Taiga Korper Bentley, Owner/Operator of Olga Korper Gallery, and artist Derek Sullivan. The program will be introduced and moderated by Josh Heuman, Head of Artistic Engagement at the Koffler Centre of the Arts, with over two decades of experience working with artists and gallerists.

Since joining the gallery in 2011, Taiga has focused on Olga Korper Gallery’s fifty-year legacy of excellence in representation of contemporary conceptual art. Specializing in writing, curating, art fairs, and studio visits, Taiga’s particular passion in the gallery is education and accessibility for breaking down ‘art speak’ barriers and strengthening ties with the art community.

Derek Sullivan is an artist whose practices incorporates a range of approaches, including drawing, multiples/editions, artist’s books, sculpture, public poster columns and installations. Printed materials, and in particular posters and books—their production, distribution, consumption and interpretation—is a focus of the work: reflecting on the unpredictable and poetic outcomes that happen with publications as they circulate in the world. His solo exhibitions include Bookworks at the Maclaren Art Centre (Barrie), Albatross Omnibus at The Power Plant (Toronto), The Missing Novella at the Oakville Galleries (Oakville), Bulletin Board at Whitecolumns (New York) and More Young Americans at Kiosk (Ghent, Belgium). He is an Associate Professor in Sculpture/Installation at OCAD University. He is represented by Galerie Emmanuel Hervé (Marseille), Susan Hobbs Gallery (Toronto) and Galerie Tatjana Pieters (Ghent).

Most artists are self-employed entrepreneurs—that’s why it’s essential for artists to understand and maintain streamlined financial processes for the short and long-term. Artists should consider setting budgets for professional activities, tracking business expenses, and saving for periods of slower sales and for retirement. By prioritizing financial health, artists can focus on what matters: creating work and sharing it with others. During the session, Latanya Monteith Housen will provide a primer for artists and chat with moderator Josh Heuman. There will be time for audience questions.

Visual artists in Canada have access to grants at all three levels of government that range in size and may cover artist fees, materials and production costs. We were pleased to welcome two experts – Zhe Gu, Visual Arts Officer, Ontario Arts Council; and, Peter Kingstone, Visual & Media Arts Program Manager, Toronto Arts Council – to share information about what grants are available to visual artists, and to offer tips that may help prepare an application.

The program will be moderated by Jenn Goodwin, Program Lead, ArtworxTO Hubs, City of Toronto, who is also an artist, curator, and artistic producer who has received support from the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council.

At a well-attended art fair (like the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair!), potential buyers may shift rapidly from gaining awareness of an artist’s work to making a purchase. But what about the rest of the year? A steady drip of marketing and promotion via multiple channels – websites, e-newsletters, social media, advertising, word-of-mouth, and more – can build awareness, establish relationships with first-time buyers, or deepen relationships with dedicated collectors.

During this Art Encounters program, organized by TOAF and sponsored by TD, hear from two artists, at different stages of their careers, about methods of marketing and promotion: Jason Baerg, Toronto-based international Cree Métis interdisciplinary artist and is the Assistant Professor in Indigenous Practices in Contemporary Painting and Media Art at OCAD University, and Keight MacLean, an annual favourite at TOAF who has attracted 11.7K followers on Instagram!

The program will be moderated by Rebecca Carbin, Principal of Art + Public UnLtd.

Anyone who has ever worked in sales knows that what makes actual sales happen are relationships. This is true in the art world, too. Art fairs, opening receptions, open studios, and other art events are the perfect setting to cultivate established connections and make new ones. Every sale to every collector is significant, as that collector recognizes the value of your art, they will display your art, they are likely to share your art with others who visit their homes or by posting on social media… and that can ignite broader interest.

This program features an artist and a collector, so the audience can hear two complementary perspectives. Maria Hupfield – internationally acclaimed artist, half of the art collective Native Art Department International, and Assistant Professor of Indigenous Digital Arts and Performance and a Canadian Research Chair in Transdisciplinary Indigenous Arts at University of Toronto – speaks from experience exhibiting her artworks with commercial galleries and non-profit galleries/museums. Jacques Bernier, a partner with law firm Baker & McKenzie LLP, is passionate about contemporary visual art, with a history of supporting Toronto’s premier non-profit contemporary art gallery and a growing personal collection.

The program will be introduced by Josh Heuman, independent fine art and wine consultant, with decades of experience working with both artists and collectors.

Emerging, mid-career and established artists grapple with the question of how (and whether) to seek and secure gallery representation. While there are many ‘pros’ to consider, there are also some ‘cons’. This session will provide artists at any stage in their career with two different, but complementary perspectives about how to get noticed by gallerists, what to do and not to do, what to have in your portfolio, and how to negotiate ethically. Our two speakers are Jennifer Simaitis, currently Director of Patel Brown Gallery Toronto and artist Alex McLeod. The program will be introduced and moderated by Josh Heuman, independent fine art and wine consultant, with decades of experience working with artists and gallerists.

For artists, having work acquired at an art fair (including the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair!) is a big achievement. But artists may strive for additional goals, especially acquisitions or commissions for private collectors, corporate collections, or nonprofit collecting institutions facilitated by art advisors and public art consultants.

Each of the two Toronto-based speakers in this program approach acquisitions and commission from different angles. Danna Heitner is a Toronto-based art advisor with over 20 years experience in the international art market. She will address working with private individuals and corporate clients, architects and interior designers, to acquire and/or commission artworks for installation. Ben Mills is Vice-President + Producer with Public Art Management, and has overseen well over 50 large-scale public art projects. He will discuss the steps and stages involved in proposing, creating and installing public art for private sector developments.

The program will be introduced and moderated by Josh Heuman, independent fine art and wine consultant, with decades of experience working with both artists and collectors.