On Wed. Jan. 7th , more than 28 young artists aged 4-15 excitedly travelled from their homes in the Villaways community near Leslie and Sheppard Ave. with their parents downtown to unveil an exhibit of their work in the Rotunda at Toronto City Hall. The exhibit titled Up & Rooted featured a neighbourhood diorama and a collaborative community quilt created by locals kids and youth.
The Up & Rooted diorama is the culmination of months of workshops with residents of Villaways, a Toronto Community Housing (TCH) neighbourhood. The project name alludes to the fact that TCH community will be revitalizing the neighbourhood, by replacing the existing rental housing and adding market units to build a new, vibrant mixed income community on the site in the coming years. The young residents worked with artists Virginia Tran and Douglas Hurst as well as Project Manager Carleen Robinson on visual arts projects that explored the themes of family, home, community and revitalization. The result of these workshops is a large 8ft by 8ft diorama that is both an artistic recreation of what they love about their neighbourhood and a vision for what they would like their neighbourhood to become.
“It was really special because everybody in the neighbourhood helped out” says 12-year old artist Rebekah about the process. “It was really fun because everyone had their own part and we were all sharing. It’s amazing!”
For some of the artists, the project gave them a newfound sense of agency over their neighbourhood. 13-year old Ali remarked “We can change Villaways I guess. It’s easy to change Villaways if you try”.
The Up & Rooted Art Exhibit was made possible though the Platform A Bridging Initiatives to bring the art created as part of a 5-year Art Starts project, front and center to City Hall. Through Platform A, Art Starts was able to take the community artwork into a venue where it could generate conversations among Toronto City Councilors, city staff including those in Arts and Culture Services and even the Mayor himself! The exhibit hoped to shine a spotlight on how the arts can be used to support residents in processing their thoughts and feelings about the displacement and revitalization process. The end result was a spectacular display not only of the community diorama but a neighbourhood quilt in which every member of the community was able to express their thoughts and feeling pulled together in an impressive tapestry that helped to further tell the resident’s story.
“This diorama speaks to the creativity that is embedded in this community” says Carleen Robinson, Project Manager. “We look forward to working with all stakeholders to realize the community’s potential over the next several years”.
For the majority of the Up & Rooted artists, this was their first time visiting City Hall. They had the opportunity to give their local city councillor, Shelley Carroll, a tour of their diorama and, in exchange, Councillor Carroll gave the families a tour of City Hall. An unexpected treat was when Mayor John Tory arrived, spoke too the kids, parents and community members about the project and listened to their stories and experiences.
Up & Rooted is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the exhibit was made possible through Platform A, a strategic initiative of the Toronto Arts Council.
Platform A 