Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Textual record
- Graphic material
- Sound recording
- Moving images
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Title statements of responsibility
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Reference code
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1973-1980 (Creation)
- Creator
- Centre for Experimental Art and Communication (Toronto, Ont.)
Physical description area
Physical description
10.18 m of textual records
ca. 0.5 m of photographs : b&w ; 21 x 25 cm or smaller
ca. 1.5 m of photographs : col and b&w slides ; 35 mm
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
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Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Centre for Experimental Art and Communication (CEAC) was created in Toronto in 1975 by the Kensington Arts Association, an avant-garde artists collective. The Centre acted as a studio, resource centre, museum, gallery and performance space for the collective. It also acted as the host for visiting acts and artists in the areas of performance art, behaviour workshops, contextualism, visual arts (especially video art) and other post-modern art forms. The CEAC collective also produced events which were showcased in Europe, the United States, South America and, to a lesser extent, Canada. The Centre was the sight of 'Crash and burn,' a punk-rock musical venue in the mid-1970s. The Centre alienated funding bodies in the late 1970s when a copy of 'Strike', a journal associated with CEAC, was charged with promoting violent overthrow of authority, and CEAC was forced to close in 1980.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of printed material, correspondence, photographs, slides, and related material of the Centre for Experimental Art and Design. The correspondence includes: correspondence with artists, galleries and other arts groups in Canada and overseas, dealing with CEAC exhibitions, CEAC-sponsored travelling shows, and communications concerning gallery events. There is also material dealing with granting agencies, including the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council. Also included is correspondence relating to the OCA and CC decisions to suspend funding to CEAC, letters of reaction from CEAC members and supporters. The fonds also has grant proposals and covering documentation, and other material. The fonds also contains various documents written by members of the collective defining the 'new ideology' which would usurp the cultural and political elites, define a post-modern aesthetic. There is also material on related artistic and intellectual ideas. There are newspaper clippings of CEAC events and exhibitions both from Canadian and foreign newspapers, invitations to events, flyers and other announcements of forthcoming events, and clippings about other performance and avant-garde arts in other cities and countries. The photographs and slides concern performances at CEAC, including material related to 'Crash and burn'.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
No restrictions on access.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
The fonds comprises the following accessions: 1981-010, 1994-027. No further accruals are expected.
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Dates of creation, revision and deletion
2002/04/04 Jizi Chen:. Word Perfect (Creation)
2002/04/04 Awaiting review by the Data Collection Archivist
2003/04/16 Shannon MacDonald. Add URL for online finding aid. Updated wording in accruals, access restrictions.
2012/05/07 Anna St.Onge. Corrected some info in admin history Created link to 1981-010 accession.
2014/07/22 Migrated to AtoM
2019/06/09 J. Grant. Published fonds-level description. Added PDF file list for accession 1981-010. Published descriptions for 1994-027.
2025/05/21 J. Grant. Post-migration metadata cleanup. Removal of PDF file list.