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.
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!
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 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.
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 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.
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
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
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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
Platform A 