JUMBLIES LAUNCHES PARTNERSHIP WITH CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE

On October 11th, Jumblies held a day long creative workshop at the Canadian Music Centre, including 22 participants: half composers and music creators, and half community-engaged artists from other disciplines. The goal was for the composers to learn about community arts and the community artists to learn about working with composers, in order to promote new awareness, collaborations and cross-pollination in Toronto’s art world. This workshop is part of Jumblies’ Platform A Bridging component, which is now also supported by the Metcalf Foundation’s Strategic Incubator Program.

photo by Katherine Fleitas (peacephoto.com)

Jumblies 2014 Interns

Jumblies is very excited about our crew of 2014 interns who help us deliver community arts workshops at the Ground Floor and with our colleague organisations Arts4All, MABELLEarts and Dundas First Nations School.

Parker Dirks is a visual artist with an interdisciplinary practice. At the Ground Floor, Parker has been doing silk screen printing and assisting with our Word & Images workshops. At MABELLEarts, Parker helped deliver the weekly outdoor series in Mabelle Parkette.  Parker is with us thanks to support from St. Stephen’s House/Employment Ontario.

Julia Hune-Brown is a theatre artist and dancer who recently returned to Toronto from leading theatre and movement workshops in South Korea, Cambodia  and England. She is leading our Family Dance & Movement and Adult & Youth Dance & Movement workshops with Jumblies choreographer Lilia Leon, and will be leading a theatre workshop at Arts4All with Jackie Omstead.

Mackenzie Konecny is a visual artist who came to us from the George Brown College Assaulted Women’s & Children’s Counsellor Advocate program. She helps with installations at the Ground Floor and facilitating art activities. At Dundas First Nations School, she helped students make puppets and costumes for their production of A Pageant for All Seasons. Mackenzie is with us thanks to support from St. Stephen’s House/Employment Ontario.

Jackie Omstead is a theatre artist and singer who came to us from Queen’s University. She helps facilitate our Voice & Sound workshop, does our social media work with Liam Coo, and is our resident office administrator. At MABELLEarts, she helped with the weekly outdoor series in Mabelle Parkette and will deliver a theatre workshop at Arts4All with Julia Hune-Brown. Jackie is with us thanks to support from Cultural Human Resources Council.

Miranda Sharp is a visual artist who loves to create comic strips. She has led comic strip creation workshops and assists with arts workshops at the Ground Floor and at Arts4All. She is the resident Jumblies font maker and creates most of our signage at the Ground Floor.

JUMBLIES: From Volunteer To Core Staff Via Platform A

By Jonathan Vallely.
In 2013 I received a Platform A internship grant to formalize my work at Making Room Community Arts, a Jumblies offshoot in residence at PARC. I had already been showing up to Making Room and helping out with workshop support as a guest and volunteer. As I became more involved in the planning and behind-the-scenes work of Making Room, a role seemed to be developing for me.

The financial support absolutely allowed me to commit to the work I was doing with Making Room, particularly as I began to take the lead as a book designer. Indeed, the Platform A internship grant allowed me to collaborate with my mentors at Making Room to develop a set of expectations for the work I was doing, which at once allowed me to focus on the work that I felt excited and confident about while getting to the inner-workings of a community arts group more intimately.

By the end of my term as a Platform A intern, not only had Making Room made a place for me, but I had been able to make space in my life and artistic practice for Making Room. Platform A provided me with the support I needed to launch into a community arts practice in a concerted way, and since receiving the grant, I have taken on responsibilities and projects I never expected to. Less than a year after becoming involved with Platform A, I am a lead artist with Making Room and increasingly involved with other community arts projects around Toronto. I am looking forward to possibly applying for a Platform A micro-grant, having become more practiced in collaborative art-making since beginning my tenure at Making Room. I’m exceedingly grateful to Platform A and the support and preparation this opportunity has provided me.