FADO E-BULLETIN
January 2024

1. HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM FADO
   DATE NOW
   LOCATION WHEREVER YOU ARE
   SOURCE OUR HEART TO YOURS

Dear friends,

Welcome to a brand new year. We are—as we all are—focusing on and hoping for a better year for everyone, wherever you find yourself in your life, your art, and on our complicated little planet as we embark on another spin around. Here we go. Best of luck to us all.

There wasn’t much to report for this January E-bulletin (you can always email your news and posts to info@performanceart.ca, that way we don’t have to spend our days searching socials and the interwebworld for your events and calls) so we decided to do something we rarely do, and send out an e-bulletin that only contained FADO’s own new year comings and goings. We are starting 2024 with reflection and curiosity. Read on for details of The Ephemeral Library Society (STARTING TOMORROW, and continuing weekly until mid-Febraury) and our Call for Curatorial Projects for FADO’s Emerging Artists series (reemerging in our programming vision for 2024 and 2025).

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
x, fado

2. FADO PRESENTS THE EPHEMERAL LIBRARY SOCIETY
   DATE JANUARY 10, 17, 24, 31 & FEBRUARY 7 & 14, 2024
   LOCATION TORONTO, CANADA
   SOURCE FADO

Ephemera are things that are virtually useless in research most times. However, they may be useful in some pinches. They mostly occur in special library collections such as those found in archives… You should not go into a research resource looking for ephemera, but they can give context for your understanding [my emphasis].

Reed, H. & Horalek, D. “Reference Librarianship,” February 14, 2023.

FADO invites you to The Ephemeral Library Society
Wednesdays in January & February 2024
Series facilitated by Claudia Edwards

The Ephemeral Library Society is a weekly research social held in the Library & Research Centre at the Commons @ 401. Over six consecutive Wednesdays in mid-winter, you are invited to join FADO for performance-art themed group activities and solo study time in a community setting. All are welcome—from the newly performance-curious, to lifelong-devotees.

Each session may or may not include:

• Opening group activity (creative exercise, performance game, screening, etc);
• 30-40 minute quiet study period (solo research, browse the archive’s books and useless ephemera, or any work you choose to bring with you);
• Closing group reflections and discussion;

Weekly activities will be iterative, taking shape based on the interests of participants. There is no need to prepare or attend every session: you may come and go, show up late, leave early, come for quiet time and skip games, whatever suits. There will be space for offerings and interventions from members, too.

Come with your burning questions and your soggy answers, leave with more questions than when you arrived, or join for the ride and tabula rasa that shit! This winter, FADO wants you to gather and dissolve with us each week at The Ephemeral Library Society.

Group Activities may include:

• performance games, fluxus games, relational exercises (all activities adaptable);
• creative prompts and written reflections;
• facilitated group discussions;
• screenings;
• collage night???

Quiet Study Period (30-40 min)

• with a group of focused peers, bring your solo research, or any work you’d like to get cracking on!
• co-working / body doubling / parallel play at its finest.

Don’t sweat it if you’re unsure of what to work on, we’ll have activities on hand such as:

• activate our Zoom livestream installation with creative interventions;
• write letters for Gaza;
• browse the archive’s books and useless ephemera;
• Ask the Librarian: If you want to explore any topic or artist in particular, email us your research questions ahead of time and we’ll prep some materials for your visit!

Amenities / Accessibility

• laptop-friendly space with outlets & wifi; AC/ventilation system; washrooms close by;
• building with accessible entrance and elevators (Commons Library located on the 4th floor);
• Reach out to info@performanceart.ca if you have any other access needs, or let us know when you arrive and we’ll sort you out!

Helpful Links & Contact

• 401 Commons Library and Research Centre
• Virtual Tour of The Commons @401 Richmond
• Email us at info@performanceart.ca to sign up for Society updates!

3. FADO CALL FOR CURATORIAL PROPOSALS EMERGING ARTISTS SERIES
   DEADLINE DATE MARCH 1, 2024
   LOCATION TORONTO, CANADA
   SOURCE FADO

For over 10 years, FADO’s Emerging Artists series was a highly anticipated and exciting staple of the performance art calendar. Initiated in 2003 by Canada’s own performance art matriarch Tanya Mars, FADO’s Emerging Artists series was created to provide a professional platform for emerging artists to develop and present a new performance, working within a specific curatorial framework. The intention of the series was to nurture new work and ideas, provide direction and mentorship to artists, and to showcase the work of the city’s newest perspectives in performance art.

As the series developed, it became clear that this was an opportunity to nurture not only emerging performance artists, but also emerging curators. In this way, FADO encouraged new curatorial voices in performance art, and in exchange were exposed to new communities of artists (new communities were exposed to FADO too). Soon after, the series started to include artists not just from Toronto, but regionally as well, giving local audiences a taste of the emerging performance scene across Canada.

Some of your favourite performance artists and curators cut their teeth making performances and developing curatorial projects in this context, and we want to do it all again!

FADO is once again seeking proposals for curatorial projects for the 2024 & 2025 Emerging Artists series from emerging artists and/or early career curators. Your project will present the work of emerging/early career performance artists. FADO recognizes that the definition of ‘emerging’ is fluid, flexible, and personal. (To note: the Toronto Arts Council’s definition of emerging is a useful reference.)

Projects will be chosen based on their inventiveness, experimentation, and for their attention to the practicalities of execution/feasibility within FADO’s presentation capacities and resources. Overall project budgets will be set by FADO, including artist fees and curator honorariums.

We are open to projects that are innovative in their use of technology; multi-disciplinary or performance-adjacent; presented in a gallery, in public space, site-specific; durational; a series within a series or one-off event; conceptual or thematic; and anything else you can think of.

This is a Canadian call for proposals. FADO is not able to support projects from international curators and/or artists, on-site research or residencies. Curators living outside Toronto will work remotely and final presentations will take place in Toronto. If you have any questions while preparing your submission, please contact us at info@performanceart.ca.

Your proposal includes:
Contact information
Curatorial statement / CV
Project description
Artist project descriptions (to the extent they are known) & accompanying artist CVs
Production needs & general project plan

Please submit your proposal using the Google Form LINKED HERE.

If you prefer to send your proposal directly, please email it to us at info@performanceart.ca

Deadline date: March 1, 2024

HELPFUL TIP: Why not acquaint yourself with previous projects in FADO’s Emerging Artists series?