What happened?
After an exhibition opening on Friday, July 5, 2024, several businesses in Riversdale had their windows smashed. The AKA Artist-Run and PAVED Arts Window Gallery was broken for the third time since its installation. With each incident we are confronted with costly repairs and difficult scheduling that precipitates prolonged periods of closure.
It has been important to both organizations to provide a 24/7 street-facing presentation space for our artists and attendees. Donations and community support make a huge difference for artist-run centres and we are calling on your help to get the window gallery back in working order. We appreciate your support and patience as we make these repairs.
History of the Window Gallery
After re-opening our doors to the community following a long and trying period of pandemic restrictions, we quickly realized that we were coming back to a very different world in a number of ways. Emerging from this time, we envisioned a new way to serve the public and make a gallery space more front facing to the neighborhood. This was the purpose of the Window Gallery.
Since 2022, PAVED Arts and AKA Artist-Run have presented a number of works within this public-facing window gallery. The new venue increases the number of shared programmable spaces and compliments the already established Main Gallery, Media gallery, studios spaces and the outdoor billboard space. Since the Fall of 2022 AKA and PAVED Arts have exhibited and paid professional fees to over 25 artists in the window gallery. With each project having an estimated viewership of 5000 people. Undertaken with support from Canadian Heritage, the Window Gallery addresses a long-desired opening to the facade of our building, as well as 24/7 exposure for art projects on one of the busiest streets in Saskatoon.
How you can help
If you’d like to support the repair of AKA and PAVED’s public-facing presentation spaces you can donate here:
