Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
14 January 2020 Vol 5 No 1 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2020
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
We're always pleased when someone takes time to comment on stories in Galleries West magazine.
For instance, Vancouver artist Caroline de la Cajiga, expressed disappointment that a recent story about the growing number of women in senior positions at public art galleries did not discuss gendered salary differences.
It was a good observation, and writer Paul Gessell promptly sent along a link to a Statistics Canada site that breaks down earnings by gender for a broad range of professions. According to this data, female curators and conservators earned less, on average, than their male counterparts. (Details are posted in the comments section at the bottom of Paul's story.)
While the report sheds no light on the reasons for this difference, they do indicate a wage gap between men and women persists in this line of work, as in many others. I've also posted a second link to an Ontario study on women in the arts that provides additional information.
Paul’s story obviously tweaked interest. It was among the most popular articles of 2019, with 239 shares and 117 likes, at last count.
The ability to quantify audience response to articles is one of the interesting differences between print magazines and their digital counterparts. While publisher Tom Tait and I don’t worry overly about metrics, we do look at them now and again and ponder the mysterious workings of the Internet.
Our year-end review revealed some interesting insights. The magazine's most popular articles in 2019 include Forgotten Saskatchewan, about photographer Chris Attrell. It has 962 likes and 329 shares. Another story, about painter Hashim Hannoon, has 460 likes and 169 shares. The annual art book roundup, published last month, is also doing well with 309 likes and 219 shares.
When stories reach about 250 likes, we add them to the "Popular" feature on the Galleries West homepage. (Keep scrolling down, trust me, it's there.) Included are stories about Jack Sures, Chris Cran, Joe Fafard, David Milne, Caroline Stanley, Ward Schell, Ruth Scheuing, Nicki Ault, Catherine Blackburn, Mark Dicey and Veronica Funk.
The most popular story since we started tracking in 2016 is Sarah Swan's look at Margaret Nazon, an artist from the small Gwich'in community of Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories. Her likes climbed well over 1,200, although, like several other stories on this list, the running tally of likes seems to have reset itself. Technology giveth and technology taketh away.
Overall readership numbers last year were favourable. There were 19,500 returning visitors over the year, as well as 10,000 more first-time readers than in 2018. Day-to-day traffic peaked on Oct. 15 with news of the sudden death of Jeffrey Spalding, a leading Canadian artist and curator who had served as a consulting editor to Galleries West. On that one day we had 3,447 visits, more than triple the usual traffic. Our hurried obituary, written while we were still in shock from this sad news, was shared some 4,000 times, making it the most-read news item Galleries West has ever published.
Digital is a brave new world. One major challenge is finding ways to connect with readers interested in the visual arts. The print version of Galleries West was distributed through art galleries across Western Canada, as well as newsstands, which gave good access to target audiences. Now, as a uniquely online magazine, Galleries West launches into a much wider world with many more distractions. That’s why we appreciate it so much when readers take time to share stories and reviews with their communities.
In this new issue, there are six more interesting stories to share: Cindy Sherman, The Sowers, Playing with Fire, Wrapped in Culture, Soft Bodied Oddities and Rebellious: Alberta Women Artists in the 1980s.
Looking ahead, we are working on stories about artists Elizabeth Zvonar, David Wojnarowicz, Briana Palmer, Karina Bergmans and others. So stay tuned – and please keep those likes and comments coming.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Paul Gessell, Amy Gogarty, Melinda Pinfold, Lissa Robinson, Dorothy Woodend