installation credit: ISO, by lwrd (2017)
performance credit: "Through your fingers",
ritual by Seeley Quest, 918 Bathurst, Toronto (2025)
in a recording
this land acknowledgement has been written by the person who is administrating and representing the values of the failedfund.
i start by following the teachings of Jill Carter, Indigenous leader, researcher and theatre worker at the University of T'karonto (Canada), and of Carmen Alvis, T'karonto-based Métis 2-spirit theatre artist. they taught me that entering into a relationship with others starts with acknowledgeing one's history. i identify as a transgender, white priviledged first-generation settler in canada. i hold german ancestry on one side of my family that i haven't researched. my priviledges include double citizenship, university education, financial stability at the moment that provides me with the food i need, and a roof.
as a settler in canada, i acknowledge my discomfort with the 1787 Toronto Purchase, the 1805 Indenture, the 1923 Williams Treaties, and possibly also with the 2010 $145 million settlement between Canada and the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation. all these imposed settlers' concept of land ownership and extinguished rights. in that sense, i consider that we are on a territory that was never considered through an equal nation-to-nation relationship and never ceded. i acknowledge that i largely favour public land stewardship, but that, especially in T'karonto where the city has not started a decolonizing process, we are still deeply anchored in a land ownership does not recognize the spirit and concepts with which the land is considered and cared for by Indigenous communities, Indigenous philosophy and knowledge.
i acknoweledge that decolonizing my way of thinking, my priviledges, my relationships to others is way more complex, destabilizing and time-consuming than i expected.
i acknowledge to have knowledge that T'karonto is in the "Dish With One Spoon Territory". the Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers included have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect. the "Dish", or sometimes it is called the "Bowl", represents what is now southern Ontario, from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe into the United States. we all eat out of the Dish, all of us that share this territory, with only one spoon. that means that we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty, and includes taking care of the land and of the creatures we share it with. importantly, there are no knives at the table: we must keep the peace.
i acknowledge my limited capacity in respectfully enacting this treaty.
|
access |
|
the failedfund apologizes for not providing an accessible website. please send un an email if you would like or would need to have a phone or a zoom call to apply. the email address is failedfund at tanglearts dot org. |
|
how to donate to the failedfund |
|
please e-transfer to failedfund at tangledarts dot org or please send an email at this address to arrange another payment option. |
|
how to apply for support |
|
last deadline for applications the failedfund is a small art project that will disappear after its last deadline for application on january 18, 2025. |
|
who can apply? artists living in toronto who are disabled and experience housing insecurity and some financial strain can apply. if you are such an artist, please apply and there will be no need to prove that you have an art practice or are disabled. self-identification will be respected. if you have already applied, you can apply again. |
|
how are applications sorted out? all applications are reviewed by one or two disabled artists who have suffered or are suffering housing crises themselves. by default, all applications will be accepted until january 18, 2026 and support will be offered. if however, the reviewer(s) suspect that there has been a misunderstanding of the values and purpose of the fund, they will contact the applicant. |
|
how much will you receive? we are at the moment doing a last round of calls for donations and hope to top up the few thousands dollars that are now in the fund. if you apply, you will receive an equal share of the full amount collected, i.e. the full amount divided by the number of applicants. |
|
how long will it take to get the money? the failedfund is not a fund that can address emergency situations. all applications will be reviewed shortly after the January 18, 2026 deadline and after your application will be approved, the money will take approximately one week to arrive to you. |
|
who is the trustee? a trustee is a person or organization which has received money to distribute according to a written agreement. the trustee of the failedfund is Tangled Art + Disability |
|
please apply before January 18, 2026
1) if you want to apply through a recording, please send an email to failedfund at tanglearts dot org
2) if you have a google account and can apply in writing, please fill this form |
|
why is this fund called the "failedfund" |
|
we "fail" when we do our best, but our needs are not met because the system does not want to integrate us the way we are and function.
it is very different from making a mistake. making a mistake means that we might have done our best, but we can also acknowlege
that there was a more appropriate and socially just way that we would have liked to follow and that could have worked given the context. the failedfund is an extension of the project entitled precarihousingthemap which was led by disabled and housing-challenged artist claude wittmann in collaboration with other disabled artists who had been failed by the toronto housing system. precarihousingthemap collected stories, visuals, recordings and made a few significant steps towards convincing Workman Arts (WA) to concretely address the housing misery of artists like them. but failure visited them again: WA hid behind a unclimbable wall; it failed them. |
|
how did the failedfund start |
|
the failedfund started with an anonymous donation by a toronto-based invisibly disabled artist. this donor artist had lived at 25 bishop tutu boulevard, which is part of the buildings owned by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). there, at the end of 2021, they started to suffer 24/7 heavy noise and vibration overload from deep restructuration work of lakeshore boulevard. their health was seriously affected and their doctor medically attested their health-damaging overload. despite it being their human right for accomodation, TCHC rejected their request for a transfer to another unit. the artist was shocked by this decision but they did not have the energy to file a human rights complaint. they got sick, couch surfed thanks to generous friends and then sublet a small place for 3 months. then, one of their friends found another apartment and they moved out. shortly after they had signed their new lease, a TCHC manager contacted them to acknowledge TCHC's mistake and, over a witnessed zoom call, this manager offered a small financial compensation. the artist tried to get TCHC to designate this money as a recognition of the pain and suffering endured, but TCHC refused. TCHC said instead that it is a return of rents paid. the amount is equivalent to three rents. the artist received the money in november 2024 (it took time as the money got lost inbetween) and they decided to dedicate it to the failedund. later on, this same artist has been part of a sad settlement agreement with 13 other artist tenants of 17 paton road and they decided to dedicate some of their share to the failedfund again. |
|
contact |
| failedfund at tangledarts dot org |