[ISEA2023] Institutional Presentation: Alison Rajah — Working with Artists as Part of Our Team: Surrey Art Gallery’s Commitment to the Production and Presentation of Digital and Interactive Art

Institutional Presentation Statement

Keywords: Surrey Art Gallery, TechLab, Open Sound, Sound Thinking, Sound Thinking Symposium, UrbanScreen Media Art Symposium, Interactive Art Museum (iAM)

Since the late 1990s, Surrey Art Gallery has been a leading public art museum in Canada with a commitment to the production and presentation of digital art. The Gallery collaborates with artists to proactively respond to new developments in art and provide communities where we are situated with opportunities to learn about and experience contemporary art using technology. Moving toward its 50th anniversary in 2025, the Gallery readies for its transition into the Interactive Art Museum, a new facility at three times its current size in Surrey City Centre (Canada). This transition is informed by working with extraordinary local and international artists and community stakeholders through 20 years of operating its TechLab, a purpose-built facility and program supporting the production and presentation of digital art, followed by 5 years an experimental art lab pilot; 20 years of its Media Gallery, an interactive screen installation space driven by computers; almost 20 years of its Open Sound, an ongoing program of commissioning, presenting, and dis-cussing digital audio art and related symposia; and over 10 years of its UrbanScreen, an offsite projection venue dedicated to presenting leading edge digital and interactive art. https://www.surrey.ca/arts-culture/surrey-art-gallery