Futurepast
Where: The Ministry of Casual Living, 819 Fort St.
When: Opening Friday and Saturday, 7 to 10 p.m.
Admission: Free
After two years of hosting exhibitions in borrowed window spaces, the Ministry of Casual Living is celebrating its new home with a two-night opening show this weekend.
The new gallery and studio space stays true to the organization’s artist-run philosophy, said Katie Sage, who shares ministerial duties with Jon Dowdall.
“It’s a by-artists, for-artists model,” Sage said.
The Ministry has moved into a second-floor space at 819 Fort St., which includes 10 studios as well as a main gallery space. The studios are rented by 15 artists and musicians, who pay between $1.30 and $5.20 a square foot, depending on factors such as natural light, ventilation and storage space.
The gallery receives no public funding and is financially supported through the studio rentals, which already have a long waiting list, Sage said.
“We have this beautiful opportunity that not a lot of galleries have, where we don’t have these funding bodies coming down on us,” she said.
The Ministry spent 10 years in a space on Haultain Street before it was evicted in 2011. Since then, it has functioned through an experimental “decentralized” model, hosting exhibitions in borrowed window space around downtown.
Sage called the experiment a success and said the organization will continue to use a display in Odeon Alley and at Decade clothing store, in addition to four window boxes installed at the new location.
She emphasized the Ministry has no connection with the space’s former occupant, the Loft Gallery, which left after Victoria police accused its operators of supplying youth with drugs and moonshine.
More than 50 artists will have works in Futurepast, a show celebrating the new space as well as the Ministry’s legacy. Sage asked for works paying homage to the Ministry’s archive, and visitors can engage by answering the question: What does artist-run culture mean to you?