JUMBLIES: Bridging with New Friends

Today we were visited at The Ground Floor by Matthew Fava of theCanadian Music Centre, and Anastasia Tchernikova, Music Director and Founder of Musica Reflecta Chamber Orchestra and Metcalf Intern atTapestry new opera works. We made plans for an exciting musical and interdisciplinary day-long creative workshop and presentation in September 2015, which will launch the second year of our Jumblies At Large initiative, supported by the Metcalf Foundation and the Toronto Arts Council’sPlatform A Program.

Art Starts Gets Game Curious!

Art Starts has recently partnered with Hand Eye Society, a Toronto not-for-profit changing the way people think about and interact with video games through a number of innovative initiatives, programs and pop-ups. We will be offering support and mentorship as HES shifts their focus to increased outreach, media literacy and community engagement beyond the downtown core by bringing their ‘play and make’ initiative, Game Curious, to the Glendower neighbourhood. “Art Starts has been doing arts-based community programming for many years, so we’re very fortunate to be able to learn from an organization with so much experience in an area to which we’re relatively new,” says Sagan Yee, Game Curious’ Program Coordinator, on this new, exciting connection.

Game Curious is about ‘exploring the untapped art of video games, for people who don’t necessarily identify as gamers.’ And from speaking with Sagan, it is clear increasing access to games and their potential for storytelling is a significant aspect of the program and she highlights cost of technology and the misconception of video games as being predominantly violent as some of the obstacles to engaging in the medium. According to her, “Game Curious aims to break down these barriers by providing a physical space in which people of different backgrounds can explore a wide variety of titles, ask questions, and eventually learn how to tell their own stories through games.”

Game Curious began last week at our Glendower location and Sagan describes the first session as “lively” with about 15 youth, some as young as 5 years old, coming out to discuss the program and play a variety of games, a couple of the most popular being Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Space Race. The theme for this session was ‘games made or set in Toronto’ and Sagan explains that this was chosen “to get participants thinking about how games can reflect their own environments.” Some of the participants were so intrigued they’ve already begun developing ideas for their own games, sketching characters and brainstorming level designs. It is this natural curiosity that HES seeks to harness and channel to ultimately “encourage more diversity, inclusion, and creativity in the community and industry,” says Sagan.

It has been such a fulfilling opportunity working with and mentoring such a ground-breaking organization like Hand Eye Society, the first video game arts organization in the world, and Art Starts looks forward to the uniquely personal worlds the Glendower youth will discover and create as they get Game Curious this spring.

JUMBLIES: Event Showcasing Micro-grant, Bridging, and Interns

Jumblies is holding a festive gathering on SATURDAY MARCH 28th: sharing results of winter art-making at THE GROUND FLOOR.

The event includes a work-in-progress presentation of three short compositions fusing community and professional music-making, in partnership with Tapestry Opera, with a wonderful array of musicians and artists, including:

Composers: Norbert Palej, Kyle Brenders, Martin van de Ven
Librettists: Liz Rucker, Ange Loft, Ruth Howard, with poetry excerpts by Victoria Freeman
Singers and Musicians: Vania Chan, Adrian Kramer, Rosary Spence, Christine Duncan, Allison Au, William Beauvais, Britta Johnson, Ryan Scott, Martin van de Ven, Arie van de Ven, Melanie Fernandez-Alvarez
Choirs: Making Room and Ground Floor Community
Choirs directed by Shifra Cooper, with Jackie Omstead, Lisa Bozikovic, Jess Shane
Musical Director/ Musical Dramaturge: Michael Mori
Director/ Performance Dramaturge: Liza Balkan

Also Featured:
Storytelling by Joseph Naytowhow
Comics and Art on display by Miranda Sharp, Mackenzie Konecny & Phil Cote
Movement performances by local children, led by Jackie Omstead and Julia Hune-Brown.

2:00 – 4:00 – Open House, Exhibition, Interactive activities and refreshments (at The Ground Floor, 132 Fort York Blvd)
4:00 – 5:00 – Musical Performances (upstairs at 150 Dan Leckie Way)

Reserve for the performance as seating is limited.
Exhibition – FREE
Performance – PWYC (suggested $5-$20)
Contact and reservations: info@jumbliestheatre.org

This event will also open our Touching Ground Exhibition, featuring comics by Miranda, art-in-progress by Mackenzie and other art-work from Winter Art-Making. The exhibition closes on April 10th. Call or email for open times.

The musical explorations are part of our Jumblies At Large initiative, funded by the Metcalf Foundation’s Creative Strategies Incubator Program, Toronto Arts Council’s Platform A Project and Canada Council for the Arts Music ACCP. Jumblies’ work is also supported by the Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and others funders.

AFCY: Bridging 

Our bridging projects enable AFCY to create unique connections between our programs in priority neighbourhoods and established art institutions such as our long time partners the AGO and the ROM and cutting edge arts organizations like DanceWorks and Urbanvessel. We are a building new partnerships and looking forward to building strong connections with the Ontario Science Center and Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. Through these partnerships AFCY can bolster our programs but also create new opportunities like our Artist-Residencies where we place our emerging artists in unexpected locations from Toronto Botanical Garden to the Bata Shoe Museum. One of our Emerging Artists Tara says: “So many people passing by were telling me how cool the opportunity was and complimenting my work! The experience also made me realize how lucky I am to be creating art and working in the arts with unique opportunities.”
Above – AFCY Artist in Residency: Andrenne Finnikin using Dark Horse’s coffee and leftover coffee grounds to create her painting within the Dark Horse located near Spadina & Dundas.

JUMBLIES : Bridging Event with Tapestry Opera

As part of Jumblies Platform A Bridging initiatives, we are happy tp present a work-in-progress event on March 28th, in partnership with Tapestry Opera, exploring fusions of professional and community music creation and performance!

JUMBLIES: Bridging with Composers

Jumblies is delighted to announce the two composers chosen for our pilot mini-
commissioning project in partnership with Tapestry Opera. Norbert Palej and Kyle Brenders are entering into our community-engaged arts process to create short musical pieces that will involve diverse community participants as well as professional musicians in their inception and performance. The results will be showcased at an event in March.

This project is part of a new venture that we are calling Jumblies At Large: forming new partnerships to infiltrate community arts practice into the broader arts world. This initiative is funded by the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation’s Strategic Incubator Program and the Toronto Arts Council through Platform A. 

As part of Jumblies At Large, we are also engaging over the next year or two in musical partnerships and composer commissions with the Canadian Music Centre, Soundstreams and Continuum New Music. Stay tuned for more details.

Norbert Palej is Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Toronto. He also serves as the director of the U. of T. gamUT chamber orchestra, and as the artistic director of the annual New Music Festival. He holds composition degrees from Cornell University (D.M.A.), The Juilliard School (M.M.), and the New England Conservatory (B.M.). Recent commissions include operas for the Tapestry New Opera and the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, two string quartets for the Penderecki String Quartet, a percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie, a song cycle for the Canadian Art Song Project, chamber pieces for NEXUS, 2X10, and New Music Concerts, and a choral work for Soundstreams Canada, featuring the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Polish Chamber Choir, and the Toronto Children’s Chorus. His music has been performed world-wide. A guest composer at the 2012 Beijing Modern Music Festival and the 2013 Thailand International Composition Festival, he is a recipient of the Toru Takemitsu Award from the Japan Society in Boston, the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Robbins Family Prize in Music Composition, the Benjamin Britten Memorial Fellowship, the Susan and Ford Schumann Fellowship and Ontario Arts Council Recording and Commissioning grants. He participated in the Tapestry New Opera’s Composer-Librettist Laboratory, the Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, the Academy for New Music and Audio-Art in Tyrol, Austria, as well as the Tanglewood, Aspen, Caramoor, and Budapest music festivals. His latest CD was nominated for a JUNO Award.

Kyle Brenders is a Toronto based multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser. Brenders’ work attempts to fuse the various musical experiences that have shaped him as a creative artist. His interest in music that falls within generic and idiomatic cracks has allowed him to develop his own personal style. Brenders has studied with Ab Baars, Anthony Braxton, Lori Freedman, David Mott and Alvin Lucier. He currently is active in performing his music in solo, trio, quartet and large ensemble projects. Beyond his own groups, Brenders performs regularly with The Rent, a group that performs the music of Steve Lacy. Brenders frequently performs in composed and improvised contexts with a wide variety of accomplished musicians and artists. He is an active member of the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto (AIMToronto) and acts as the Artistic director of the AIMToronto Orchestra. Brenders can also be heard on his solo recording flow and intensities as well as in duo with Anthony Braxton on Barnyard records Toronto (Duets) 2007. The Kyle Brenders large ensemble recording, Ways, is currently available from Porter records. The Kyle Brenders Quartet first release, Offset, was released October 2012 from 18th were he assists the Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney, curates the Salon 21 series at the Gardiner Museum and directs their new interactive website SoundMakers.ca. Brenders has recently started his own series of concerts, the In Between Series, which presents concerts that note records. Brenders is also active as Artistic Associate with Soundstreams incorporates notated ‘new’ music, improvised music and music that synthesizes the two.

JUMBLIES: Metcalf Creative Strategies Incubator Funds

Jumblies was delighted this fall to receive funds from the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation to expand the activities we have launched for the Platform A Bridging component – creating new partnerships to connect community-enaged and professional arts practice. Jumblies is calling this new strand of activity Jumblies At Large. So far resulting and thriving partnership include CARFAC, several new music organizations (Tapestry Opera, the Canadian Music Centre, Soundstreams and Continuum New Music) and Young People’s Theatre (through Jumblies’ Scarborough Offshoot, the Community Arts Guild), you can read more about this Metcalf program HERE!

Composer, Martin van de Ven and Designer, Sonja Rainey (Jumblies 10th Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Intern) at the Canadian Music Centre Jumblies workshop – Photo: Katherine Fleitas (peace photo.ca)

JUMBLIES: Workshop with CARFAC

As part of the Platform A “Bridging” Component this fall, Jumblies hosted the CARFAC Ontario AGM coupled with an evening workshop for CARFAC members and Jumblies artists and interns at The Ground Floor. Also, Jumblies Artistic Director, Ruth Howard, was a panelist for the National CARFAC conference. Thanks to CARFAC Ontario Executive Director, Kristian Clarke, for his enthusiastic collaboration.

CARFAC Ontario’s ED, Kristian Clarke and Board Chair, Devon Ostrom at Jumblies workshop – Photo: Liam Coo

JUMBLIES: Composing Community Second Workshop

Yesterday, on December 11, Jumblies held our second Composing Community workshop, attended by 21 composers, musicians and other artists, including staff from Jumblies and our new musical partners: Tapestry New Opera, Sound Streams, and Continuum Contemporary Music The workshop also included several Jumblies interns (supported by Platform A and other funding). We came together to explore approaches to music creation and Community Arts practice and themes of memory and landscape that we have been developing at the Ground Floor over the past year. Thanks to the Toronto Arts Council (Platform A) and the Metcalf Foundation Strategic Incubator Program for supporting our new partnerships and initiatives!     

photos by Liam Coo

JUMBLIES: Annual Mock Jury

Jumblies is pleased to host our annual MOCK JURY with our great Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council Community Arts funding officers, Loree Lawrence and Andrew Suri, on Monday, January 12, 10:00 AM-1:00 PM at The Ground Floor (132 Fort York Blvd). This workshop is part of Jumblies learning and mentorship activities, partly funded by Platform A.

Learn about Community Arts funding programs and experience a participatory jury process with real sample proposals.

Admission is free, but space is limited and registration is required by Friday, January 8. Some advanced reading is required (we’ll send you a package).

Arrive between 9:30 and 10:00 for morning snack and chatting, and the session will begin promptly at 10:00 AM

To register or for more info – contact info@jumbliestheatre.org

Photos of Loree Lawrence, Andrew Suri and participants from Jumblies Mock Jury 2013