.It's like we're real artists or something

So, Background: Contact is Canada's largest photography festival. Every May, close to a million people descend on Toronto to visit the 200 formal and informal venues that display the work of over 500 artists, ranging from the super famous to obscure emerging artists. Though the venues can be as small as tiny street corner booths, there are twenty five "hubs" - major exhibitions by key artists in key locations, heavily visited by art dealers, tourists, and professionals.
Most galleries in Toronto are booked for it eleven months in advance, and the hubs are for people like Edward Burtynsky, Nan Goldin, and retrospectives on artists like Avedon.
But my friends and I decided to give it a try. One of the "hubs" had a juried call for exhibitors. Long shot at best. And kind of compounded by the fact that I wrote up our proposal about a half hour before the deadline. It was the first formal proposal I had ever written. The group kind of forgot about it - we were against dozens of established artists and collectives with a lot more experience. We've been dejectedly looking for plan Bs, and had almost given up on CONTACT, since all the galleries are booked solid.

We got it. A full month in the Gladstone Hotel, with our own gallery, promotions, crazy assed opening, in one of the best locations in Toronto.

Holy CRAP.

*note to Chris: this pic of you was one of the 4 images that got us in - thanks for being in front of my lens. You rock.