Gallery TPW is a not-for-profit, artist-run centre dedicated to the presentation and critical investigation of contemporary still and time-based images, exploring the exchange between photography, film and video. Through a diverse program of exhibitions, screenings, performance, new critical writing and unique public programs, TPW is distinctive in expanding an awareness of the vital role that images play in contemporary culture. Committed to the development of a critical visual literacy, TPW programs have a strong investment in the creative potential of pedagogy, cross-disciplinary dialogue and engaged institutional collaboration.

Since the fall of 2012, Gallery TPW has occupied a temporary storefront while we work towards our goal of securing a sustainable long-term home. Our project space, branded as TPW R&D, is intended as a transitional and flexible space for shared research and the development of critical discourse. As a temporary research office, our focus is discursive programming — writing, screenings, discussions, workshops, and fluid exhibition and performance strategies — where we can think out loud about our methodologies for looking and showing as much as we continue to directly experience the force of images.

While we remain committed to the long-term project of the gallery as a space of productive, sustained engagement with images, during the R&D period we’ve taken the emphasis off the treadmill of exhibitions. Our intention is to broadly consider what “research” looks like, what its goals are, and how we can do it in and with a public.

We invite local and international artists, curators and thinkers to submit expressions of interest for working with us at TPW R&D. We’re particularly interested in proposals that bring together acts of showing with directed acts of critical and affective engagement, with material and ideas but also, importantly, with each other.

You can get a sense of how things have been shaped here: www.gallerytpw.ca/rd, but we’re certain you have new ideas about where to take TPW R&D next.

Send your ideas to our curator Kim Simon at proposals@gallerytpw.ca There’s no deadline, we’re happy to have this be an ongoing conversation while we’re in the R&D space. Just give us some time to get back to you.