By Theresa Ebden
Maximum Exposure, Film and Photography’s first annual photo show, will run as planned next week after the RSU agreed to help fund the event.
Before the RSU’s decision, Maximum Exposure, which runs from Apr. 22 to 29, had only half of their $8,000 budget, and were in the dark about their funding.
Jeanne Lys-Rafferty, one of the show’s three co-ordinators, is glad RSU has helped, but says she had “big time” problems with them. She was expecting $2,500, but RSU would not release the funds.
Lys-Rafferty, along with co-ordinators Narcena Wong and Staci Wright, filled out an RSU course union grant application for $2,500 in late December. But they were dealing with the wrong RSU level, since Maximum Exposure is not a course union event. Non-course union events which cost more than $1,000 must get funding approval from the Executive, and requests over $1,500 are approved by the Board of Governors.
The co-ordinators’ confusion was compounded when the RSU Course Union committee also mistakenly thought that Maximum Edge was a course union event.
“We generally are more supportive of course unions, and they presented it as a course union event,” says Juanita Dickson, RSU’s vice-president of Administration. “It sometimes is confusing…but we ant just hand out $2,500.”
Dickson told the co-ordinators she needed more information. But when the committee finally discovered the event wasn’t course union-related, they passed the matter onto the RSU executive, who approved the funding request.
Even with all the administrative red tape, Lys-Rafferty still thinks the effort was worthwhile. She says that major art dealers, as well as several executives from companies including Sony and Canon are expected to attend Maximum Exposure’s Industry Night on Apr. 24.
“There’s a tremendous gap between what you do as a student and what you do in the industry for a job,” Lys-Rafferty said. “The industry is constantly changing, and this is how they can see what we’re doing, offer insight, screenplays, future endeavors, jobs.”
Another student group, President’s Advisory Council On Student Life (PACOSL), which funds projects that benefit the Ryerson community, donated $2,500 to the show. Other funding has also come from fundraising events, industry donations, and merchandise sales.
Lys-Rafferty approached the Film and Photography department, which also agreed to donate $1,300.
Brian Damude, interim chair of Film and Photography, said new equipment and maintenance would be sacrificed to pay for Maximum Exposure.
“We’re glad to help, but we’re in the hole. We’re not bitter, but next time we better sort (funding) out from the top.”
Lys-Rafferty hopes this year’s show will stir up industry interest, and bigger donations will replace RSU funding next year.
The works, which come from students in all years, will be on display throughout the week, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the Film and Photography building.
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