Jumblies is starting up a new series of youth (13 to 19) theatre workshops, starting on Thursday October 8th, at The Ground Floor (132 Fort York Blvd). The Lead Artist is Julia Hune-Brown, joined by Jackie Omstead, Fiona Clarke, Sonja Rainey and Ange Loft to make up a wonderful team! Click on the flyer below for more info, pass it on and contact julia@jumbliesthaetre.org for more info. theatre.org. This project is funded in part by the Ontario Arts Council through Theatre Ontario’s YTTP Program.
2nd Annual A Show celebrates the work of emerging artists and collectives from across the city
CONTACT:
Platform A: Liz Forsberg | liz@artstarts.net | 416-953-0981
Toronto Arts Council: Kerry Swanson | kerry@torontoartscouncil.org| 416 392 6802 x209
June 11th, 2015
TORONTO – Platform A partner organizations Arts for Children and Youth, Art Starts, Jumblies Theatre, and SKETCH and CUE are proud to present the artistic work resulting from 48 grants made possible through City Council’s increased investment to the Toronto Arts Council. The A Show exhibition takes place Thursday, June 18th at SKETCH’s Creative Hub in Artscape Youngplace, and features visual art, live music, literary performances, fashion, video, and community art projects.
The Platform A initiative was launched in 2013 with $1,000 grants awarded to emerging underrepresented, marginalized, and newcomer artists and collectives to develop new projects with professional mentorship and organizational support. A Show features artistic work that engages residents across the city in diverse art forms at a local, grassroots level, and marks the culmination of the second round of funding from the Platform A initiative, which is in its second year of a three-year commitment of over one-million dollars.
“That the Toronto Arts Council has recognized the need to make arts grants more accessible and inclusive to the many diverse artists in our city represents a huge step forward in Toronto’s evolving arts and culture,” says Phyllis Novak, Artistic Director of SKETCH. “A Show is a demonstration of the art that is possible when a major arts institution partners with community-based groups to make funding available on the street-level.”
For a complete list of artists and projects supported, please see: http://platformatoronto.com/micro-grant-recipients-2014-15/
WHO: Platform A
WHAT: A Show
WHEN: Thursday, July 18th, 6 – 11 p.m.
WHERE: SKETCH Creative Hub at Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw St. Lower Level
Platform A is a collaboration between four of Toronto’s leading community arts organizations: Arts for Children and Youth, Art Starts, Jumblies Theatre, and SKETCH with CUE. These organizations have all emerged from grassroots initiatives to become key community builders in Toronto’s arts sector, engaging thousands of children, young people and adults annually through diverse and accessible programming. Each is committed to mentoring and partnering with new practitioners to ensure equitable opportunities for building careers and broadening public experiences in arts and culture. In 2015 $48,000 in funding was disseminated through this initiative. For more information, please visit http://www.platformatoronto.com
About Partner Organizations:
Arts for Children and Youth (AFCY)
Celebrating 20 years, AFCY is an award-winning organization whose mandate is to engage young people living in priority neighbourhoods in high-quality, accessible arts educational programs that are meaningful, relevant and collaboratively developed with community and education partners. AFCY positions arts programs in schools and neighbourhood venues as a means of building community, and empowering marginalized children and youth to reach their full potential as artists and social contributors. http://www.afcy.ca
Art Starts
Art Starts is an award-winning charity that creates vibrant Toronto neighbourhoods through community-building arts initiatives. They inspire long-term social change in Toronto’s underserved neighbourhoods. Art Starts uses the arts to engage residents, collectively work to overcome challenges and create a shared sense of identity. Their collaborative approach to art-making celebrates communities, nurtures resiliency, cultivates life skills and inspires personal growth. http://www.artstarts.net
Jumblies Theatre
In operation for over ten years, Jumblies is an inclusive and community-focused inter-disciplinary company offering multi-year residencies, studio training, mentorships, and innovative collaborative projects. Jumblies is an award-winning organization increasingly cited as a pioneering and inspirational example of art that embraces and intertwines aesthetics with social engagement. http://www.jumbliestheatre.org
SKETCH and CUE
SKETCH is a nationally recognized, award-winning community arts enterprise based in Toronto engaging young people living homeless and on the margins, ages 16-29, coming from across Canada. SKETCH creates equitable opportunities for diverse young people to experience the transformative power of the arts, build leadership in the arts and cultivate environmental and social change through the arts. http://www.sketch.ca
A collaborative partner of SKETCH, CUE is a radical arts initiative dedicated to supporting new generation artists who live and work on the margins. Since 2008, CUE has disseminated over $220,000 to support the creation of 220 art projects in multiple disciplines. http://www.cueartprojects.ca
TORONTO ARTS COUNCIL
Toronto Arts Council, an arm’s length body of the City of Toronto, funds artists and arts organizations across the city through its grants programs. In 2013, Toronto City Council approved a funding increase of $4 million to Toronto Arts Council’s grants program. In 2013, TAC disbursed nearly $14 million in grants to 1014 individuals, collectives, and organizations through its discipline and strategic initiative programs. http://www.torontoartscouncil.org
Marissa Zinni has begun exploring physical theatre actions and narratives with the Arts4All Players. Workshops have focused on partnered improvisational movement and the effect that specificity and awareness of story detail have on the expressivity of the performer.
Katherine’s two community photo sessions with the Arts4All Players put film and digital cameras into their hands and saw them photograph their neighbourhood, as they see it. Participants also got an introduction to event photography with performance rehearsal photo sessions. The Players are looking forward to documenting Arts4All’s actual upcoming event on June 15th!
On Friday, Jumblies staff and artists participated in our second annual artful anti-oppression workshop facilitated by Naty Tremblay of SKETCH. Training sessions like this are part of Jumblies’ commitment to creating inclusive and welcoming spaces for everyone to create art with us. If you are interested in participating in participating in future workshops such as this one, email info@jumbliestheatre.org.
Artful Anti-Oppression workshop with Naty Tremblay (of SKETCH)Hosted by Jumblies at The Ground Floor 132 Fort York Blvd. Friday May 1st, 2015 10:00am to 5:00pm Free, pwyc donations welcomeMorning snacks provided, Bring your own lunchContact info@jumbliestheatre.org to register or for more information
Naty Tremblay
Artist-Activist-Educator
Depending on the day, Naty Tremblay is a mixed blood identical twin & trickster, queer activist and community organizer, cyborg storyteller, arts educator-facilitator, artrepreneur, iconoclast and one-person band. They hail from a wee organic farm on Anishnabek three-fire conferacy & Haudenosaunee territory, Ontario, and uses ‘They’ and ‘Handsome’ as preferred pronouns.
Naty has been artfully involved in grassroots community organizing around social justice issues for over15 years, learning and working in Canada & across the Americas. Their art practices spans across mixed mediums, performance, video, sound, sculptural installation, printmaking, murals, creative writing street art and community engaged art adventures.
Naty’s educational pedagogy is rooted in lived experience and working alongside LGBT*Q2SIA, Indigenous, Immigrant, and Street involved communities. They have worked especially with young adults struggling through social marginalization using the arts to ignite resilience, to share stories, build networks and celebrate together! Naty is committed to creating spaces with communities to connect, build trust, explore complex social justice issues, and to strategize innovative responses together. They currently live and work in Toronto, Turtle Island.
We are so excited to congratulate Jumblies’ intern and micro-grant recipient, Fiona Raye Clarke, who is the winner of the Neighbourhood Arts Network‘s BMO Seeds Fund contest for her project “Finding Voice Through Personal Stories”: a series of workshops delivered to youth, adults and seniors who struggle with literacy which seeks to take participants through a journey of self-discovery and creative reflection on their personal stories. These workshops will allow participants to take a quiet moment to reflect, breathe and play, and use their imaginations to redefine the future. Participants will each produce a full-length zine of their creative writing and share their work with the wider community. Thanks to all friends of Jumblies who supported Fiona’s project by voting for her picture this last week! And congrats Fiona!
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.
“Silk is a precious gift from nature. Recognizing the beauty, strength and poetic connections that silk brings, cultures around the world have woven the textile into their history and traditions. Ubiquitous is the fascination about the origins of silk, legends and folktales recount its origin through the ages.
With the assistance of the Community Arts Guild, we conducted two workshops with Japanese and Tamil seniors. We began with telling an old Chinese legend and then painting on silk. Using a variety of techniques, the seniors created silk handkerchiefs and silk-screened canvas boards.”
At The Ground Floor (132 Fort York Blvd) until April 9th, we are continuing to show art work of two Jumblies artists, from their Toronto Arts Council – Platform A Micro-Grants:
Miranda Sharp – The MUSEUM OF FOUND OBJECTS: comics with CityPlace residents.
Mackenzie Konecny – Preview of PAPER CONNECTIONS
Open times: Tuesday and Thursday (April 7 and 9), 2:00-6:00pm
and other times on request (info@jumbliestheatre.org)
Come by and have a look!
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.
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Platform A 
