Caitlin Jones: Learning from Vancouver
Caitlin Jones, executive director of Western Front / photo Paul Kuranko
With the Winter Olympics only two weeks away, many eyes are focused on Vancouver. And appropriately, on January 29, Western Front is kicking off “Learning from Vancouver,” an international symposium and exhibition on current images of the city. Curated by past Front media director Alissa Firth-Eagland and Swedish writer/curator Johan Lundh, this exhibition marks the first presentation of Dutch duo Bik Van der Pol in Canada and also offers work by Vancouver/Vienna collective Urban Subjects.
However, the person who may be learning the most from Vancouver right now (or relearning, perhaps) is the Front’s new executive director, Caitlin Jones. Before arriving in December, Jones spent 10 years in New York City, where she worked in the curatorial department of the Guggenheim Museum, wrote for Rhizome.org, organized the Variable Media Network, coordinated exhibitions for Madison Square Park and lectured at institutions including PS1/MoMA.
Jones’ CV has many wondering what she might be planning for Western Front. Here, she talks with Leah Sandals about market-force problems, Internet-art ubiquity, funding challenges and future hopes.
Leah Sandals: You had some notable successes working in New York City, like curating for the Guggenheim, writing for the Believer and Rhizome, lecturing at PS1. Why did you return to Canada to take up this position at Western Front?
Caitlin Jones: The reason was twofold.
For one, I returned to Canada before I even received notice about this job. I was born in Vancouver and grew up in Kelowna, and had been in New York for about 10 years. I was just feeling like it was time to get home, to get some more space—all those reasons people leave New York. So I left New York in June and I guess it was mid-July when this job posting came up. It seemed like perfect timing.
Secondly, I went to school at the University of Victoria and went to graduate school at UBC. When I was at UBC I worked at VIVO (which used to be called Video In Video Out) and at the Belkin Gallery, sort of immersing myself a little bit in Vancouver’s artist-run centre culture. So I always knew about the Western Front, and I was always really impressed by its history and the kind of activities that they did here. When I saw the job come up, I was thrilled, because it seems like a place with such massive potential.
LS: You mentioned that you came back to Vancouver (and BC, and Canada) even before this position was posted. What do you like about being back?
CJ: Well, it’s nice to just be in this city; Vancouver’s a beautiful city to be in. So that’s number one, getting a little more space and breathing fresher air.
In terms of the art world, one of the things I found so frustrating living in New York was that despite the hard work of many, many people working independently, it’s extremely driven and directed by the market. In New York, there’s just no way you can get away from that. It’s a really commercial-gallery-driven culture.
Being back in Canada, and being back in British Columbia—although, sadly with massive funding cuts all this may change very soon or is changing drastically—it’s very nice to be in an environment and brainstorming with people in a way that has nothing to do with salability or market value or anything like that. It feels great—it feels the way it’s supposed to be, really inspiring and open.
So far, that’s biggest change I’ve noticed. Of course, once I get into the nitty-gritty of how arts funding and policy works, my feelings might change. But for the moment it’s a really refreshing change of perspective.
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