This morning on my way to the subway I picked up a day-old newspaper that was heading for the garbage. A column on the front page hit home. The article was about imagination and creativity. A bit of a coincidence really…. A colleague and I recently launched In Your Face, an AGO project to encourage creativity. We’ve invited submissions from anyone anywhere for 4 x 6” portraits. We’ve already received a thousand or more. This week five hundred have been laid out in a gallery. They’re amazing to see together – a real hymn to creativity. I’m not surprised by how different the faces are but I am surprised by the diversity of approach (the way the artists have used colour, technique, composition, materials…). Some are careful, delicate, thoughtful. Others are bold and aggressive. Where does this very personal power of invention come from? The newspaper article suggests that we spend only a tiny part of our lives being creative. How does that belief reconcile with a note included with one submission. It read: "art is for everyone. Art is in everyone."
David Wistow is one of many AGO staff members committed to experimenting with new programming ideas at the AGO.
Click here for more information about In Your Face.