Banff International Curatorial Institute
Comic Craze Symposium
www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=521
www.banffcentre.ca/bici

Program Dates: May 4 - 6, 2006
Registration Deadline: April 28, 2006

The Comic Craze symposium is a public forum to exchange recent artistic, scholarly, and curatorial research associated with comic cultures. The symposium is co-organized by the Banff International Curatorial Institute and the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre, in collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery, with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

The symposium is a response to an increased interest by visual arts curators, critics, and scholars to investigate a diverse range of artistic practices and material cultures, such as comics books, hip-hop music, and relational aesthetics. And, as material from popular and alternative cultures finds its way into current art objects and artistic practices, curators are increasingly compelled by non traditional materials xB0;xA9;? music videos, food culture, tattoos, postcards, and low-rider cultures to name a few. This symposium will function as a platform to directly connect with comic material and culture, while critically engaging curatorial practices based on relationships between contemporary visual arts, popular culture, and other forms of material culture.

Comic Craze will engage with comic culture in four panel discussions:

- Engaging with objects of material culture
- Books, Books, Books: reading, publishing, collecting
- Interpreting comics
- Curating comics

Speakers include artists, scholars, curators, publishers, and comic fans:
Christian BxF6;k (poet, assistant professor, Department of English, University of Calgary), Bart Beaty (comic scholar, associate professor, Communication and Culture, University of Calgary), Rupert Bottenberg (comic artist, Montreal), Christopher Brayshaw (writer, Vancouver), Benoit Chaput (publisher, L?oie de Cravan), RenxE9; deGuzman (curator of visual arts, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts), Robin Fischer (comic fan, broadcaster, Vancouver), Bruce Grenville (senior curator, Vancouver Art Gallery), Chris Oliveros (publisher, Drawn & Quarterly), and Randy Scott (comic librarian, University of Michigan)

Other related activities:
Comic Craze, a large exhibition of Canadian comics, curated by Sylvie Gilbert will open on May 4 at 7 p.m. in the Walter Phillips Gallery. The exhibition brings together over 400 recently published independent comic books, mini-comics, zines, and graphic novels. It features the best of English and French Canadian comics, capturing the different graphic and narrative styles that have made comic culture one of the most absorbing and experimental forms of _expression_ today.

ARLIS Annual Conference - Concurrent with the Comic Craze Symposium the Art Libraries Society of North America will be holding their annual conference in Banff from May 3 - 11 offering a unique opportunity to connect and exchange knowledge about comic culture. The ARLIS session titled Words on the Street: Graphic Novel and Comics Collections in Academic and Art and Design Libraries is sure to generate compelling discussion on the theme of comics.

For fees, accommodation information, and to register visit:
www.banffcentre.ca/programs/program.aspx?id=521

Or contact the Office of the Registrar:
Email: arts_info@banffcentre.ca
Phone: 403.762.6180 or 1.800.565.9989
Fax: 403.762.6345
Website: www.banffcentre.ca