Join Laura Carusi, Daniel Griffin Hunt, Blair Swann, and Emma Welch in conversation with the AGO's Kathleen McLean about their work as founding members of artist-run project the plumb, which opened in Toronto in September 2020.

the plumb is a DIY artist-run project dedicated to offering a surplus of space in a city where space is at a premium—particularly for artists, community organizers, and marginalized groups. We are interested in providing exhibition space to emerging artists, fostering dialogues with established voices, and providing a platform for culturally diverse artists and curators. We are also interested in hosting community-based projects and programs such as workshops, performances, public talks, and discussion groups. theplumb.ca

Laura Carusi is a curator and exhibition coordinator with experience in collections care and management. She holds an honours BA in Art History and Theory from the University of Ottawa (2013). She has worked as Anglophone Communications Officer for the Gallery 115 Board of Directors, as Curatorial | Communications Assistant at La Petite Mort Gallery, Ottawa, as Curatorial Intern at Project Gallery, Toronto, as Curatorial Intern, Modern and Contemporary at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and as Curatorial and Collections Coordinator at the Art Gallery of Mississauga. She is a founding member of the plumb and currently Gallery Associate at Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto.

Daniel Griffin Hunt makes sculptural vessels that replicate, engage and play with processes of ingestion and digestion. He has an MFA from the University of Guelph and a BA from University of Toronto Scarborough. From 2015-2018, Hunt co-founded and co-ran Y+Contemporary, an artist-run studio and gallery space in Scarborough, with a focus on emerging practices and suburban spaces. Hunt co-founded the plumb in the summer of 2020 with fourteen other artists, writers and curators in tkaronto. Hunt has received support for the production of his work from the Ontario Arts Council and currently has work at the CAFKA.21 public art Biennial in Kitchener-Waterloo region.

Blair Swann is an artist, writer, and curator, with experience organizing programs, residencies, publications, and exhibitions. As an artist, he has exhibited in Canada and internationally, with recent exhibitions at The Round Tower (Copenhagen, DK) and the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto. He is a founding member of the plumb, and is currently the Assistant Director & Inventory Manager at Art Metropole.

Emma Welch’s practice circulates around a space she describes as field psychedelia; processes in which the culling, dismantling and drawing of plant and animal material becomes an access point to an altered state of consciousness. She is a co-founder and collective member of the plumb. She holds a BAH in Studio Art from The University of Guelph. Welch is currently based in Toronto/Tkaronto, ON.