Up & Rooted at Toronto City Hall!

On Wed. Jan. 7^th , 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.

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: Before and After

Over January and March 2014, Alvis Parsley, a Platform A micro-grant recipient, led a pilot project titled “Before and After: Occupational Change of Migrant Workers in Chinatown” in addition to Platform A and Jumblies Theatre, support came from the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter.

Art Starts Microgrant Recipient Profile

A DIFFERENT KIND OF MAP BRINGS A COMMUNITY TOGETHER

Nicole Little is an emerging artist, and a teacher. When she received the Art Starts microgrant award she was determined to see her interactive map-making project through in a classroom, the kind of community she knows all about.

 

 

The Dynamic Map project is a multi-disciplinary participatory project made with a grade 6 classroom from Lawrence Heights Middle School. Students, community members and professional artists are both makers and subjects in this multi-layered piece. No small endeavor, the Dynamic Map will be created through several group workshops and individual art making sessions. The project will culminate in the completion of a large-scale 3D installation of drawings, paintings and small ceramic pieces.

The intent of the project is to represent the community, in its complexities and many dimensions, from the kids’ perspective. This is a map where the streets and underpasses of Lawrence Heights are not shown to scale from a developer’s lense but rather where the laneways and shortcuts that lead home or to school are highlighted. This map will showcase the wild fauna and flora that exists often overlooked right in the schoolyard and the park. This map will be covered with portraits of community members that are important and have an impact – in the kids lives – that is the people they choose to represent their neighbourhood: their parents, teachers, friends.

This project will impact the artist as much as the community she is working with. In Nicole’s own words: “The microgrant has given me an opportunity to change the scale of my work. I tended to produce small, detailed work which relies on colour and heavy layers of time consuming detail. The map will be large so it is very lucky that some of the detail work is being “outsourced” to an amazing grade 6 class!!” And as any community artist knows, the impact of art projects is always a two-way street. Nicole says: “ The project immediately engages Lawrence Heights Middle School students, and I hope my experience as an artist and as a teacher will enrich the student’s year. A portion of the project involves creating portraits of community members. This has the potential to honour community contributors and to showcase the faces of Lawrence Heights. I am looking forward to meeting new people and hearing their stories”.

The many layers of the dynamic map reflect the complexity and inherent interconnected-ness of every single relationship fostered by living in community, making art in community.

JUMBLIES: Platform A interns at work at Jumblies and its Offshoots

Throughout the winter, nine emerging community artists were supported by Platform A to work with Jumblies Theatre and offshoots in a number of a wide number of projects.

Adrienne Marcus Raja with Adam Vaughan, Ruth Howard and Rosario Marchese  upon receiving the Al Levitt Award during the Jumblies Ground floor opening.

Arber Makri speaks with residents minutes before the Mabelle Parade in February 2014.

Jonathan Valelly and Kristi White serving  fish soup at the Pathway of Life Celebration with Making Room Community Arts.

Faeghan Williams takes part in the PARC cake walk with Making Room.

Jonathan Valelly and Shelly Lahay make accordion books at Making Room Community Arts.

Lisa Bozikovic plays with Anne Lederman during the December 2013 Artfare Essentials.

Miranda Sharp helps make a shopping cart float at a drop-in workshop at MABELLEarts.

Amy Siegal with Ruth Howard and Michael Burtt after receiving her Certificate of Participation in the Jumblies Artfare Essentials Workshop.

 

Adrienne Marcus Raja, Liz Rucker, Miranda Sharp, Pam Snell, Ruth Howard and Faeghan Williams raise a toast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

all photos by Katherine Fleitas, Peace Photo and others.

AFCY: Basement Apartment Films

Basement Apartment is a collective of 5 emerging filmmakers from priority areas of Toronto. In weekly meetings, the members of the Basement Apartment shared resources and developed skills through workshops, targeted mentorship, and group work. Their goal is to apply these skills towards the promotion, production and distribution of a short film, which will be created with additional crew members and mentors from the community.

 

 

Through their combined network of contacts, they were able to reach out to many marginalized independent filmmakers that were happy to work on their film for the learning experience.

 

 

 

 

 

The participants outside the Basement Apartments collective are:

4 Actors

3 Camera Department

2 Sound Department

2 Production Assistants

1 Art Department

1 Set Photographer

for a complete production of 18 people.

After a workshop where they learned how to write character breakdowns and put up listings for actors, Basement Apartment Films was thrilled to receive an astonishing 297 applications for their film. This posed to be quite the challenge considering they only had spots for four actors, but they were able to pull it off!

 

 

 

 

“The biggest lesson we’ve learned is how to adapt to changing circumstances and limited resources – to be able to change as circumstances change, let go of preconceptions and see potential instead of disappointment. That will help us in any and every aspect of film-making in the future.” – Anthony Swan

We can’t wait to see the end result!

Art Starts Bridging Initiative Profile

A SHOOTING, A PLAY, AN EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND THE ART STARTS WAY

The Bridging component of Platform A specifically aims to galvanize connections between under-resourced neighborhoods and well-established arts companies and institutions. At Art Starts we are committed to bridging the gap between communities and professional artists, blurring the lines between “high” art and community-engaged art practices – always building two-way roads. We aim to facilitate artistic collaborations and artist/community pairings in the neighbourhoods we have been working with for years. The Bridge initiatives will take various forms such as partnering with professional companies to perform and facilitate creative workshops in a local basketball court, a TCH communal room or maybe even the local laundromats, to field trips to galleries, theatres, or the symphony – anything is possible! These events will always include a spaces for direct, hands-on interaction between the artists and the audience/community. The intention is to engage diverse and under-represented communities in creating new opportunities and increasing access to arts experiences in innovative and collaborative ways that will both increase audience and membership as well as benefit communities directly. One of the Art Starts bridging initiatives is showcased in Living Toronto Journals’ special issue exploring the theme of BRIDGES.

Read more about our Art Starts Lawrence Heights community’s visit to the Tarragon Theatre in the Fall of 2013

http://livingtorontojournal.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/a-shooting-a-play-an-effort-to-understand/

Art Starts Microgrant Recipient Profile

A PARKDALE SPACE FOR YOUNG WRITERS, ARTISTS AND DREAMERS

The Toronto WordSmiths received a Platform A – Art Starts microgrant and were able to create a free weekly meeting space for youth ages 16 to 29 to come together as a writing community. Working out of the Parkdale Library, the Toronto WordSmiths are committed to creative expression and collective learning. The main focus for this youth-led initiative is to create artistic opportunities within and outside of their community. The group’s commitment to fostering growth and authentic representation is inspiring for all of us who work in the community-engaged arts field.

Based in Paolo Freire’s important work, the Toronto Wordsmiths wanted to create a space where all youth are active agents of their own growth. They recognize the individuality of each person’s experience and moreover the value of each of those stories. The collective aims to create their own opportunities within and through their own community.

What does that look like? In one Wordsmtihs, Jess’ own words: “ On a weekly basis, as a collective, we choose different literary techniques to explore and apply them to a chosen theme – always as a collective. As of late we have been focusing on the creation of the first Toronto WordSmiths zine. We have been taking the work that we have produced since November and putting these pieces through a group editing process. We were also very lucky to have the dub/spoken word poet, Lillian Allen come in with her class from OCAD and do a workshop with us. The workshop was focused on spoken word. It was a very intense session, we wrote tons and learned so much! Recently we also had Lori May come in, who is accomplished on many fronts (novelist/poet/creative non-fiction/mentor). She shared with us some much appreciated wisdom about the literary world, how to network/make connections, etiquette, which publications we should seek out to be published in as youth, what to look for in a mentor”

Growing out of the group called the Toronto Street Writers, the Wordsmiths needed some seed funding and basic resources to make their huge ambition translate to weekly meet ups, where youth would feel comfortable to start connecting and sharing their stories. Each week the collective made up of approximately eight to ten youth approach their work in a holistic way (from stretching to healthy snacks) based in a strong anti-oppression framework. From there each session is built around writing prompts and weekly themes. Jess says: “The Art Starts grant has helped us greatly in our ability to have guests come in to Toronto WordSmiths, without the grant this would not be possible. The grant is also vital to us in producing our zine, otherwise we would have been extremely limited in our ability to fund it. Although it is simple, the grant has helped us to provide food for our members and writing supplies – these two things are also necessary to Toronto Wordsmiths.”

Ultimately, as any collective knows, there is strength in numbers – and the more Toronto Wordsmiths are able to meet and connect, with the space and resources to share their stories, the richer we all are.

JUMBLIES: The Accordion Book Project

By Tamar Swartz

To receive a Platform A Micro Grant from Jumblies via the Toronto Arts Council opened the doors of possibility for expanding the Intuitive Art workshops that I facilitate.

First things first, what is Intuitive Art?  Intuitive Art is an approach to creating visual art. While many traditional art classes focus on acquiring specific skills and techniques, Intuitive Art focuses on the actual process of creating art, while being present in the moment.

Guided by intuition, these workshops are a space for participants to unleash their inner artist, experiment with different materials and most importantly, to have fun! My guiding philosophy is that regardless of background or experience, everyone is an artist.

Each Intuitive Art workshop begins with a short guided visualization, to encourage participants to find their own starting point. One might be inspired by a word or quote, a colour or feeling. From there, we work spontaneously to explore colours, textures and designs with all the art materials provided. At the end we reflect on the process of creating our pieces, sharing with the group.

So, with the Platform A Micro Grant, the intention to share Intuitive Art with a group of seniors, and a whole lot of optimism and excitement, I set off to clarify my project. With the guidance of my mentor Michael Burtt, my idea was to run a series of three Intuitive Art workshops, hosted at two different senior homes.  In the past have really enjoyed working with seniors, as I find their gentle presence and perspective to be full and inspiring.

The Accordion Book Project, that would unfold over the course of three workshops, was to create a mixed media accordion book.  I love book making and the format of the accordion book lends itself wonderfully to the exploration of visual narrative landscapes.

Providing all the art materials needed – from oil pastels, to magazines, texture mats, fine papers, markers, glitter and coffee, I facilitated a lovely group of 6 residents from Kensington Gardens. Beginning with a meaningful theme, over the course of three weeks we created together and allowed our intuitive books to emerge.  There was a lot of creative focus and inspiration, sharing and excitement! On the final day, once the books were assembled and completed, we shared our creations with one another.

Facilitating Intuitive Art workshops at Kensington Gardens was truly a fantastic experience, as I continue to learn about creative facilitation, gentle encouragement and finding flexibility within the project to make it accessible for all participants.  The highlight of the whole experience was learning each participant’s name and developing relationships over the course of three weeks. To be able to support participants in trusting themselves and following their own creative intuition was hugely fulfilling for me.  Overall, the Accordion Book Project at Kensington Gardens was a great success.

I’m deeply grateful for all of the participants who attended the Intuitive Art workshops, for Kensington Gardens for hosting the project, for Michael’s mentorship and for Jumblies and the Platform A Micro Grant for making it all possible.

I’m excited to continue facilitating Intuitive Art workshops in the future and am always looking for new ways to reach out and bring colour, creativity and inspiration to others.

About Tamar: www.tamarswartz.com
Intuitive Art workshops for adults:  http://www.meetup.com/Intuitive-Art-Toronto/

Sneak Peek at CUE’s Micro-Grant Recipients