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.

Art Starts Summer Bridging Projects

Urbanvessel: Singing River visits Villaways

Like many other Toronto neighbourhoods, Villaways, a small TCH enclave nestled next to ravine, is undergoing “revitalization” – a multi-year process that will see significant social, demographic and physical changes to their home. While residents are faced with great uncertainty, the difficult challenge of relocating, the sorrow and hope of re-imagining their environment Art Starts is committed to supporting residents through every step of the transition.  One part of the process is to connect in new and different ways to the environment. As part of the Platform A Bridging initiatives that aim to connect city-wide community arts practices, diverse audiences and larger art institutions, we invited Urbanvessel an incredible interdisciplinary arts collective to create a workshop for the Villaways community.

Urbanvessel’s aim is to forge new connections, reflect contemporary life and subvert social assumptions, and is currently developing a new piece called Singing River, a collaborative performance situated on Toronto’s Wonscotonach (Don River) – that runs right by Villaways. Urbanvessel artists weave together images, movement and sound, drawing the audience into an active and heightened relationship with water. Water ceremonies, stories and songs from First Nations and settler cultures intermingle to create a dialogue between communities, reconnecting us to the river. The kids of Villaways were able to create their own clay water dragons and planted them full of local riverine seeds. The workshop was followed by a parade to the water’s edge where the story wove its way into song. A powerful experience for all!

http://urbanvessel.wordpress.com/in-development/singing-river/

 

Glendower at Habari Africa Festival

As part of the Platform A Bridging initiatives that aim to connect city-wide community arts practices, diverse audiences and larger art institutions, members of the Glendower community travelled to the Harbourfront Center to participate in the incredibly vibrant and inspiring activities of the Habari Africa Festival this weekend.

We connected with Nadine McNulty, Artistic Director of the Batuki Music Society and programmer of the festival, a long time member of the Art Starts extended family, to welcome kids and youth who have participated in the Glendower camp: Knowledge, Power and Art an afrocentric learning and art making program. As the Harbourfront says, though it’s impossible to define what exactly is African culture, music, food, film, fashion and art, we revelled in exploring and engaging with the art, sounds and tastes of Africa. Pulga Muchochoma, an established dancer, choreographer and performer and one of Art Starts’ own micro-grant recipients hosted an hour intensive African dance workshop open to all. Glendower enjoyed the rest of the afternoon listening to music, sampling food at the World Cafe, trying their hand at Oware games and Adinkra printmaking – an unforgettable experience for all!

www.harbourfrontcentre.com/summer/habariafrica/