For 21 years Beaux Arts Brampton has championed visual artists from Brampton and Peel Region. The gallery was brought to life by dedicated visual artists, the Brampton Arts Council, City of Brampton, and Ontario Arts Council. Over the years Beaux Arts developed a brand with-in the Ontario art world for its talented emerging to mid-career visual artists as well as for its consistent exhibition program that fostered community engagement on innovative levels. In 2015, Brampton lost is 40-year-old Arts Council. This loss was felt deeply by the collective of Beaux Arts Brampton and the subsequent struggles for operational funding became alarming. In 2016, new collective efforts were born to reconfigure the operations with-in Beaux Arts to meet the criteria of the Ontario Arts Council Operational Grant Program and at the end of 2019 Beaux Arts was successful in its bid to secure an invitation to that program. Subsequently, we shared this great news with our municipality, and it was the same year when our municipality offered Beaux Arts support to move out of the Heritage Block location by the end of 2020. However, the unforeseen covid 19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and the local and global world were turned upside down with the hospitality and culture sectors being hit very hard. All things that were in motion at Beaux Arts, all things that were in motion with the Ontario Arts Council, understandably, came into a full pause. By the spring of 2020, Beaux Arts was advised that the Ontario Arts Council was not moving forward with its Operational Grant Program until more information was known about the unprecedented pandemic. During the pandemic lockdown, as of September 1, 2020, the City of Brampton moved Beaux Arts Brampton out from the Heritage Block where it had operated since February 2002. The collective worked in shifts, to comply with the covid-19 social distancing rules, to pack up the organization and it was an arduous experience but, the energy that the artists extended to work with what we had, was steadfast and the move took place in the fall of 2020 and the new location needed some time for our volunteer artists to prepare. Beaux Arts collective was motivated by a vision of surviving. It was reflected in the volunteer efforts allocated during the physical come together from a distance, to fix up of the new commercial space. With in a few months, the new Beaux Arts was ready to receive visitors. What no one knew then was, the lockdowns would continue for another year and the closure would continue to plague our operations. With the major changes over the past years, it has become very obvious the importance of digital activities and social media in our lives is what has augmented the way we engage with the art world and support artists. Our reality is that Beaux Arts is successful in obtaining project-based grants to conceive of, communicate about and present our projects. Beaux Arts is not successful in obtaining operational funding. This reality coupled with the massive changes with-in the culture industry, the 2022 announcement that downtown Brampton will be under construction for the future and learning to cope with the post covid 19 impacts has been a difficult pivot for the collective members and board members to undertake, with the end result being the decisions to let go of the physical gallery space downtown Brampton and re-group our collective so as to work toward a new hybrid model for our visual arts future. Going forward the gallery in downtown Brampton will be closed as of February 2023, our membership meetings will continue, and all other next collective steps will be fully encased in our newsletters that are published monthly. Are you subscribed? Please stay tuned!! Sincerely, Beaux Arts Board of Directors & Artist Collective
