The Power Plant

In tandem with the exhibition Pedro Reyes: Sanatorium, artists Jen Delos Reyes and Diane Borsato will discuss issues surrounding socially engaged art. What are the roles and responsibilities of socially engaged art? Are artists service providers? Are institutions experience generators? How is the role of audiences evolving with these practices? Using the gallery's exhibition as a starting point, the artists will explore what is expected of these practices and of the institutions that support them.

Jen Delos Reyes is an artist originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba who has exhibited across North America and Europe. Her research interests include the history of socially engaged art, artist-run culture, group work, band dynamics, folk music and artists' social roles. Reyes is the founder and director of Open Engagement, a conference on socially engaged art practice, and she speaks widely on art and social practice at conferences and institutions around the world. She is Assistant Professor at Portland State University where she teaches in the Art and Social Practice program.

Diane Borsato has established a significant national reputation for works in various media, including relational and interventionist practices, performance, video, photography, and sculpture. She has exhibited and performed at institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Power Plant, the Art Gallery of York University, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Vancouver Art Gallery, The National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec. Borsato is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studio at the University of Guelph where she has taught courses that explore relationships between art and everyday life.