Press Release

Toronto, October 24, 2019 – The Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence formally launches activities with its ‘Newcomer Innovations and Interventions’ project, setting out to hire 10 newcomer professionals struggling to land their first Canadian job. The newcomer professionals selected will be working as paid consultants on artistic projects. The closing date for job applicants is November 4, 2019.

“The newcomers we expect to hire are not artists,” says the Laboratory’s Chief Artistic Officer, Helen Yung, “They may be engineers, analysts, health professionals, scientists, or digital specialists. These non-artists will be collaborating creatively with professional artists, and the results of their collaborations will be exhibited next year, in 2020.”

In spite of Canada’s, and in particular, Toronto’s reputation for welcoming new immigrants and refugees, it is well-known that many highly-trained newcomers continue to face significant barriers to working in their fields of expertise in Canada. Many find themselves in a Catch-22, whereby they are required to show prior experience working in Canada in order to get their first job here. The consulting contract offered by the Lab provides them with that critical piece of “Canadian work experience,”  as well as special training in creativity and innovation competencies.

“We’ve all heard the stories about immigrants with PhDs driving taxi cabs,” says Yung, “I’ve met newcomers with science and architecture degrees talking about getting a job to sell fried chicken, or trying to get a receptionist job at a dental office. These are honourable ways to make a living. But the fact is that these highly-trained and highly-skilled individuals are capable of offering so much more to Canadian society and the Canadian economy. They have more technical know-how, imagination, international market intelligence, and diverse mental models for innovation.”

To inspire employers, policymakers, and the general public to reimagine how newcomer professionals can be better supported in their settlement journey, the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence is working with the support of Canada Council for the Arts and a host of cultural and social partners to offer paid work for up to 20 newcomer professionals over two cohorts.

Working collaboratively with artists, the newcomers will leverage their multidisciplinary backgrounds to help produce non-conventional works of art. “In terms of what they will create,” Yung says, “the possibilities are open. Some examples might include performance art, film/photography projects, public art, intervention art, fashion, and storytelling.” In addition to the artwork co-created by guest artists and newcomers, Yung as lead artist will be creating installations for the 2020 exhibition to unpack the topic of settlement, and create a context for the unusual, cross-sectoral artistic collaborations.

About The Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence

The Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence is led by Helen Yung, an inter/transdisciplinary artist-researcher who has worked internationally, and with many of Canada’s most important cultural institutions (helenyung.com). Yung is also a Board member with the Centre for Social Innovation. Since 2014, Yung has been working with newcomers to Canada as a conceptual artist with ties to performance and community art practices.

In 2016, Yung hired the first pilot cohort of newcomer professionals to work in creative residency at the Centre for Social Innovation. That first pilot project was named ‘Newcomer Inventions’ and supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Culturelink, Centre for Social Innovation, Luminato, Humber College, and others. Following the success of that pilot project in 2019, with increased support from Canada Council for the Arts, and returning and new partners, Yung has formally launched the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence. From 2019 to 2020, the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence will be hiring two cohorts of newcomer professionals to work in creative residency at Luminato, TO Live, and other venues TBA, as part of the ‘Newcomer Innovations and Interventions’ project. The culminating exhibition in 2020 will draw from works and insights generated from 2014 to 2020.

The Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence’s ‘Newcomer Innovations, and Interventions’ project is conceived by Chief Artistic Officer Helen Yung at the intersection of social research, community-engaged practices, and conceptual and performance arts.

– 30 –

Media inquiries:
Allison Pomenta, Communications
allison@giutg.hosts.cx Tel: 647 818-9030