JUMBLIES: Micro-grant Update Part I

Comics at the Ground Floor

Hello! Miranda from Jumblies here. For the past month I’ve been leading a group of community members in making comics at the Ground Floor as part of my TAC Platform A microgrant. We’ve been talking about the strange and mysterious things that can be found in our neighbourhood, writing and illustrating stories both real and bizarre, and creating our own little Museum of Found Objects. It’s amazing to see all the different ideas that people come up with – I couldn’t be more pleased with how it’s gone!

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: Past Micro-grant Recipient News

We are delighted to announce our colleague and last year micro-grant recipient Faten Toubasi’s Window Show exhibition “Palestinian Diaries”. An opening reception will be held next Friday Jan, 23 from 6:00 – 8:00pm at A Space Gallery. The show will be up until March 14.

Faten Toubasi is a visual artist and community arts instructor. Toubasi produces artwork that is politically engaged, drawing from current events to bring awareness of the struggles that are ongoing in her homeland of Palestine. She explores the symbols of life, economy, resistance, and concepts of displacement through her art. Toubasi’s current four part project Palestinian Diaries focuses on the suffering of the people of Gaza, and offers narratives not found in mainstream media. The themes she explores are common to all people – freedom, justice, community, and expression.

Toubasi was born in Jerusalem, completed her MFA in Drawing and Painting in Saint Petersburg Russia, and currently lives in Toronto. Working in printmaking, painting, drawing, and embroidery, she is also the recipient of a Platform A, TAC micro-grant with Jumblies Theatre. She has served as a Board member at A Space Gallery, and is an active instructor at Arts Etobicoke. In 2014 she was the keynote speaker and workshop leader at the Rebuilding Alliance event in San Mateo California.

image credit: Demolished, lino print on paper, 2014

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Palestinian Diaries
Faten Toubasi
January 23, 2015 – March 14, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, January 23rd from 6-8pm    

Faten Toubasi is a visual artist and community arts instructor. Toubasi produces artwork that is politically engaged, drawing from current events to bring awareness of the struggles that are ongoing in her homeland of Palestine. She explores the symbols of life, economy, resistance, and concepts of displacement through her art. Toubasi’s current four part project Palestinian Diaries focuses on the suffering of the people of Gaza, and offers narratives not found in mainstream media. The themes she explores are common to all people – freedom, justice, community, and expression.

The first print in the series is Resistance Through Hunger which engages the hunger strike held in 2012 when Palestinian prisoners demanded basic rights while in detention. Uprooted Olives, the second print in the series illustrates how Palestinians are deprived of their main source of income as land is confiscated for settlements. Thirdly, Demolished addresses the the ways that everyday life under occupation is diminished. Toubasi was in Ramallah during the recent war, and created the final print in the series War on Gaza 2014 which highlights the devastation that will take years to rebuild.

Toubasi was born in Jerusalem, completed her MFA in Drawing and Painting in Saint Petersburg Russia, and currently lives in Toronto. Working in printmaking, painting, drawing, and embroidery, she is also the recipient of a Platform A, TAC micro-grant with Jumblies Theatre. She has served as a Board member at A Space Gallery, and is an active instructor at Arts Etobicoke. In 2014 she was the keynote speaker and workshop leader at the Rebuilding Alliance event in San Mateo California.

 

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: New Assistant Artistic Director

We are thrilled to welcome Angela Loft to a full-year internship position as Jumblies’  Assistant Artistic Director, starting in January. This is made possible through Jumblies’ 11th Performing Arts Internship grant from the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation. Ange’s position will also be supported by Platform A Mentorship funds. Thanks once again to both the Toronto Arts Council and the Metcalf Foundation for tandem support to our mentorship and partnership efforts.

JUMBLIES: New Intern, Lisa Bozikovic

Jumblies is happy to accommodate a second-phase internship for singer-song-writer Lisa Bozikovic, supported by Platform A funds. Last year Lisa started her Jumblies internship with a placement at Arts4All. This fall she has worked with the choirs at Making Room (Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre) and The Ground Floor, as well as with Cathy Nostaty’s “I-Pad Choir” with children and seniors at Harbourfront Community Centre. In the new year, she will return to Arts4All to take a musical role there.

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: 10th Toronto Artfare Essentials Are Halfway Done

We are half-way through our 10th Toronto Artfare Essentials – a 6-day intensive workshop about community arts. It is attended by 22 artists of varied ages, experience levels, cultures and arts disciplines from Toronto, various parts of Northern and Southern Ontario, Winnipeg and Austria. All the Jumblies Offshoots and their Artistic Directors – Arts4All, MABELLEarts, Making Room Community Arts and Community Arts Guild – are also taking part.

This year’s workshop is supported by the Toronto Arts Council (through Platform A), the Ontario Arts Council – Conseil des arts de l’Ontario, the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

Artwork by Shifra Cooper
Photo by 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