Exciting news from another of Jumblies Toronto Arts Council Micro-Grantees from last year – Tamar Swartz. Her latest creative project has been accepted to be developed during an artist residency in Budapest next year. She’s launched and Indiegogo campaign in support of this project.
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.
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!
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/
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.
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/
Camelle has so far conducted 8 workshops with 14 participants, which has exceeded her expectations. Community members have been actively involved and eager to participate.
When asked about anything positive or unexpected happening, Camelle answered:
“There were many positive things. This project allowed the parents of the participants to see firsthand how their children viewed their surrounding through art…The older youth have become more out spoken and have learned to express themselves through their art.”
“A few of my senior participants told me that this program has done a lot for them personally and mentally. They find it to be relaxing and very therapeutic. It has allowed them to be more socially active with the younger generation.”
“Platform A has allowed me to accomplish one of my many goals by giving me the funding to run an art-based workshop which I am very passionate about.”
Keep up the amazing work Camelle!!
Ananna Rafa is just in grade 11 but she isn’t – and will never be “just” anything. A wonderfully bright, creative and motivated young person living in the vibrant and diverse Thorncliffe neighbourhood, she is one of the nine talented Art Starts microgrant recipients. Ananna is a visual artist of Bengali descent, who works in a variety of media. She came to Canada three years ago and has since been using her artistic abilities to explore and express her views about the world while continuing to engage with her community through public art projects.
Ananna noticed that in Thorncliffe and Flemingdon there exists a serious litter problem and this is a huge factor in reducing the sense of community pride according to other youth Ananna spoke with. Ananna was compelled to take the lead and be a force of change in her community. With the support of a few friends: Gloria Zhou, Maria Kashif, Idris Ali and Khadija Aziz, Ananna started rallying support from other students, the staff and faculty in preparation for this awesome project.
The project will see the construction of a green wall, a living sculpture, made up of up-cycled pop bottles transformed into planters, with plants that will grow year-round. “In doing the project we hope to share a message about how what may appear to be trash can actually be repurposed into something beautiful” Ananna says. The Pop Bottle Planter project hits all the marks with its collaborative, artistic, environmentally minded and conscious approach.
In Ananna’s words: “I think this project would have a tremendous impact on the people who live around Thorncliffe and Flemingdon . It will not only send the message of ending littering and promote recycling, but it will also teach the younger generation about upcycling and DIY culture. It will also introduce the concept of urban farming and the benefits of having plants in an urban environment. When asked about the benefits of the program this was the response from the youth that are running this project, it will allow us to learn about hydroponics, how to maintain and look after plants but also managing grants, money, advertising and ultimately how to successfully lead a large scale art project. This project is just a beginning to all the plans we have to improve and beautify our community. We are very thankful for this micro-grant, which allows the youth of Thorncliffe and Flemingdon to come together to improve our environment and advocate for the problems facing our community.”
And we are very thankful for you, Ananna!
AFCY is one of 4 partners that are now each awarding micro-grants of up to $1,000 to up-and-coming emerging artists and collectives. Funded through the Toronto Arts Council, the micro-grants are part of a pilot project, called Platform A, that is testing new models for collaboration and resource sharing in the youth and community-engaged arts sectors.
AFCY is thrilled to announce the following micro-grant recipients:
Ascend Arts Collective: An art collective rooted in creativity, learning, sharing and enjoying the creation of art. Through weekly workshops facilitated by visual artist Felicia Samuels at the Ascend retail space, local youth will learn the basics of art creation, business development and event planning, with the opportunity to engage the community and test the market with their creations during a final showcase / pop-up shop.
Community Action Committee (Community Unite Project): By participating in a series of workshops in the Kennedy/Eglinton and Birchmount/Eglinton area led by resident elders, resident high school students, and two youth group coordinators, youth will learn how they can create healthy community dialogues. They will each use this learning to make a personal leadership statement pledging their involvement to their community on a self-designed ceramic plaque that will be showcased at a Toronto Community Housing building in the community.
Camelle Davidson: An Inter-generational collective of community artists participating in weekly workshops at a Toronto Community Housing building in the Glendower community (Birchmount/Finch) to create various pieces of batik art based on themes that best represent them as individuals or as a community. Called Visual Expressions, the project will enable participants to develop and display artworks that tell a visual story about their community, city, life, history and what they have learned.
Leila Dey (Dey Dreamers Program): Dey Dreamers is an artist development program for young women between the ages of 15-29 who would not have access otherwise to professional music services. Over 10 weeks, the program will engage young women to develop as recording artists by participating in full-day sessions at Sandbox Studios, in which they will gain performance and recording skills from community artists acting as presenters and mentors. The program will result in a recorded compilation of songs, which will be shared with the community.
Fitzroy Facey (The 8:45:66 Initiative): A collaborative project bringing together three generations, for a first-of-its-kind music program in the Malvern community. This initiative brings together a father and sons trio (an 8-year-old child, a 25-year old youth and an adult), who will collaborate to create and record 3 original songs. The songs will be performed collaboratively with people living in Toronto Community Housing senior care facilities during a series of interactive events that include hands-on music/instrument making sessions followed by interactive group performances.
Junior Lavagesse (16 Bars: Jae Lejit Documentary): The 16 Bars Jae Lejit Documentary will raise awareness about artistic health, leadership and innovation through the creation of a documentary film/video that demonstrates the hip hop artist Jae Lejit’s creative process and his method of fusing music, visual imagery, and community-engaged artmaking. The film, which will include interviews from members of the Victoria Village community, as well as a “soundtrack” featuring musical imagery from AFCY artists, will be unveiled in an exhibition/screening in the community.
Casandra London (The Casandra London Network Youth Program): The CLN Youth Program is a community driven initiative fusing together the art of theatre and journalism for diverse youth making social and political differences in marginalized areas. Over the course of three months, youth will attend weekly workshops where they will learn how to collectively create a play, produce an online video news report, and develop an event to showcase their work in the community.
Anthony Swan (Basement Apartment Films): Basement Apartment is a collective of 5 emerging filmmakers from priority areas of Toronto. The collective works together with the aim of mitigating the barriers faced by economically challenged filmmakers to entering the film industry by creating opportunities for emerging film makers to take their careers and professional development into their own hands. In weekly meetings the members of the Basement Apartment collective will share resources, develop skills and knowledge (through workshops, targeted mentorship and group work) and then apply those skills to the promotion, production and distribution of a short film, which will be created with additional crew members, and mentors from the community. The short film will be screened at an event at Cinecycle.
Through the Platform A initiative, We at Art Starts are increasing our capacity to mentor emerging artists and groups. We are also developing bridging opportunities connecting underserved communities to established art organizations and institutions. To roll out this support we are happy to announce the recipients of our micro grant. These grants of up to $1000 go directly into the hands of emerging and newcomer artists and collectives who now have seed funding to get projects started, to practice skills and to experiment with creative ideas that later become more fulsome projects.
Art Starts is pleased to announce the nine recipients of the Platform A – Art Starts Microgrants below.
Ohemaa Boateng: Engaging youthful parents in conflict with the law in artistic workshops to create a recorded CD of singing, spoken words or read aloud literary works for their children
Ananna Rafa: An eco-activist public art project using recycled and found objects to create artistic sculptural planter projects across the Flemingdon and Thorncliff Park neighbourhoods to address issues of litter and public space.
Nicole Little: Mixed media art installation using the artists own work, portraits created by contributing Toronto artists and wildlife studies created by Toronto youth collaged together in a large scale visual map representing the human and animal diversity of this city.
Amefika Browne: An LGBTQ craft group called Krafty Queers will provide safe, sober, inter-generational spaces for people in the LGBTQ community to come together, connect and make art.
Lindy Kinoshameg: The creation and exhibition of a series of drawings/projection installation pieces around the concept of shape-shifting documenting the First Nations artist’s own journey from his birthplace of Manitoulin Island to his current home in Toronto.
Genito Muchochoma: Choreography of a full-length dance performance piece inspired by the life and history of Nelson Mandela performed in Toronto schools and theaters and in connection with the African diasporic community.
Toronto Wordsmiths: A Parkdale youth-led collective working together to provide ongoing creative writing and literary workshops where youth will produce a zine and event
Khydup Gyatso: Illustration workshops addressing issues of oppression. Participants will work with the artist to create a depiction inspired by their discussions and bring together a visual narrative in the form of a graphic novel and calendar
Car Martin: Installation art piece composed of modular building structures designed to be assembled by children, without the use of tools, to create a fort, permitting youth to take ownership of the space around them – can be recreated in different configurations across Toronto.
Stay tuned to find out more on how these projects develop and positively impact our Art Starts neighbourhoods!
Platform A 