2022
Erring at King George
See the printed matter: Show Poster / Show Program
See the event web page
The urge to do another Erring-style event was nagging at us ever since the conclusion of Erring on the Mount in 2014. Given the success of transforming a former convent into a multi-disciplinary arts experience, we were steadily on the lookout for a large abandoned building to host another Erring. First I looked at the old St. Joseph’s Hospital property in East City but its rebuild into apartments was too far along. But what about the school right across the street? The announcement that it would be closing, in favour of building a new school next door to it, caught our attention. The first letter went to the school board in 2018. Staff at the board level enthusiastically supported our proposal to turn every classroom, hallway, office and storage closet into sites for artists’ installations and performances. We were particularly keen to see the still-extant public address system used for an original take on morning announcements. And the gym with its basketball nets. Imagine what kind of sport/art event could be made there! A letter approving our use of the school came in March 2019 and it was time to get busy.
A call for proposals went out in August and we invited artists to come have a look see. More than 50 showed up, the creative juices began to flow and shortly more than 40 proposals came our way. Little did we know that an event we hoped to stage within a year would be derailed by a global pandemic, putting the entire project on hold. When we regrouped almost two years later in 2021 many of the original artists were unable to take part and some additional curating was called for.
One way this was accomplished by bringing in programming partners in the form of the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Artspace, the Reframe Film Festival, the Peterborough Museum and Archives and two collectives: The Pocket Collective and Canadian Images in Conversation. Another tack was to invite a few curators to create programs of their own devising. This was done when Leslie Menagh and Kelly O’Neill proposed a thematically-linked grouping called Trace, with five visual artists, and Sarah Hall curated The Boards, an open call to fill every chalkboard and bulletin board in the building with original artwork or writing. In the end 18 artists were programmed in The Boards.
Rounding out the programming were initiatives from Erring staff to hold two panel discussions: one used the renaming of King George P.S. with an Indigenous name, Kaawaate, as a jumping off point for a discussion of decolonization; the other took on a major issue that this festival had to deal with: making art accessible to as many as possible. In fact, the biggest issue for Erring was one of physical access: how to deal with the fact that the school had three floors and no elevator. Even the main floor could only be accessed by climbing stairs. A partial solution was devised: the installation of an extensive ramp system (rented) made the bottom floor physically accessible. (You can see it in action in the first minute of the video). As much programming as possible was installed on that floor, and for one day of the festival a few activities from upper floors were presented there for folks unable to negotiate stairs. Not an ideal solution but one that taught a lesson: that the next Erring will have to be in a completely accessible site. Something to look forward to!
-Bill Kimball
