In 1980, Vtape was established as a collective by artists Lisa Steele, Susan Britton, Rodney Werden, Clive Robertson, and Colin Campbell. In 1982, co-founders Kim Tomczak and Lisa Steele undertook an international research study to determine how best to improve the distribution and dissemination of artists’ video, and in 1983 Vtape was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization.
Since the beginning of its distribution activity, under the continued leadership of Steele and Tomczak, Vtape has passed a number of milestones:
1989 – Vtape collaborates with Chicago-based Video Data Bank to distribute the three-part series Video Against AIDS
1991 – Vtape launches the Fresh Looks: Anti-Racist Film and Video series and study guides
1994 – Vtape co-founds the Centre for Aboriginal Media, which launches the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in 1998
1996 – Art Metropole & Vtape publish VIDEO re/VIEW, a critical anthology on Canadian video art
1999 – Vtape co-founds TRANZ<–>TECH: Toronto International Media Art Biennial (three editions: 1999, 2001 and 2003; see catalogues on our Publications page)
2002 – Vtape develops its Critical Writing Index, a landmark online bibliographic resource for critical publications about the media arts
2002 – The Curatorial Incubator, a mentoring presentation program for emerging curators, is launched; see the Publications page for catalogues from past programs
2005 – Co-founders Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak win the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts
2006 – Vtape launches the Video Art in Canada website
2007 – Vtape presents Analogue: Pioneering Video from the UK, Canada and Poland 1968-88, which tours internationally, and publishes an accompanying catalogue, edited by Chris Meigh-Andrews and Cate Elwes
2011 – Vtape wins the prestigious Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts
2011-12 – with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Aboriginal Digital Access Project fast-tracks the digitization of all titles by Indigenous artists in the Vtape catalogue for online preview
2012 – Co-founder Kim Tomczak receives the Ontario Association of Art Galleries Lifetime Achievement Award
2013 – Development Director Deirdre Logue receives the Images Festival/LIFT-sponsored Tom Berner Award
2014 – EMMEDIA (Calgary) presents “The Alphabetic Order of Things: A Survey of Video Art from Vtape’s collection,” curated by Lindsay Sorell
2014 – We launch a completely new version of the vtape.org website with increased interactivity for clients and researchers, and many resources, including Vtape programming publications, artists’ contracts and other distribution information, and Best Practices Guides for video art conservation made available online, free
2015 – Dazibao (Montréal) presents “Spécial Vtape Special”
2015-18 – Vtape leads the planning, fundraising, and project management for The Commons @ 401, a major shared-space renovation project, with partners FADO Performance Art Centre, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC), and Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival; this creates new, shared presentation, workshop/meeting, research, and social space, along with new offices for all five organizations at 401 Richmond St. West, a heritage designated repurposed factory building in downtown Toronto
2017 – The Art Gallery of Ontario, in collaboration with Vtape, revisits the historic Toronto New Works shows of the 1980s, as part of the Toronto: Tributes and Tributaries, 1971-1989 exhibition; for notes, see Program 1 and Program 2
2018 – Vtape joins York University’s SSHRC-supported audiovisual archives project Archive/Counter-Archive; our case study is “AIDS Activist Media: Toronto Living With AIDS & Second Decade”
2019 – Vtape celebrates the 20th anniversary of the imagineNATIVE Festival + Vtape: supporting cultural sovereignty through 20 years of creative alliance
2020 – Vtape and Jenn E. Norton win Best Exhibition award for Norton’s installation at the Hybrid Art Fair (Madrid)
2022 – More than $5 million in distribution revenue has been generated from Vtape artists’ work, with more than $3.6 million (72%) of that total paid out to our artists. More than 36% of this activity has taken place just in the past decade
2023 – Vtape celebrates 40 years since it was first incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation in Ontario
2023 – Co-founders Lisa Steele & Kim Tomczak receive the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Founders Achievement Award
2023 – Cynthia Lickers-Sage and Vtape’s Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak, and Wanda vanderStoop are awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by Governor General Mary Simon in recognition of their roles co-founding the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
Next: Board of Directors