New Network Supports Community Arts
As coordinator of the Neighbourhood Arts Network, my job brings me into daily contact with truly inspiring people and organizations across the city. This new Toronto-wide organization is the result of months of planning and a partnership between the Toronto Arts Foundation and Art Starts. The Neighbourhood Arts Network is dedicated to supporting and enhancing community-engaged arts in Toronto.
Last week, I dropped in to Sketch’s downtown studio where a team of screenprinters was creating custom aprons for the Neighbourhood Arts Network launch. Sketch’s King Street headquarters offers accessible studio space and training for street-involved and homeless youth. Sketch was the recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s 2008 Arts for Youth Award.
Although I had never met them before, Ezekial (left, with myself), Ozzy and Julian were gracious enough to let me weasel in on their fun.
Solstice Celebration Lights Up the Night
The Kensington Market Festival of Lights marks its 20th anniversary tonight with a dazzling celebration of the winter solstice. Residents and spectators join forces to light up the longest night of the year with a firey procession through Kensington Market. Organized by Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, the Festival of Lights is a highly participatory event where everyone is encouraged to dress up, make some noise and help light up the night.
In preparation for the event, Red Pepper held a community craft workshop Saturday afternoon where residents were invited to make lanterns that will be carried through the market tonight.
Toronto Through Sarah Elton’s Eyes
The older I get the more I appreciate the extent to which success hinges on enthusiasm rather than talent. Writer Sarah Elton is undoubtedly talented but there are loads, LOADS of talented writers out there going nowhere fast. What sets Elton apart is her passion for her subject whether it be local food or local writing: Elton’s passion is place and her place is Toronto.
As the media landscape contracts — magazine closures, newspaper layoffs — Elton, a freelance journalist, is stepping up, not out. She has two new books under her belt, the just-released City of Words, Toronto Through Her Writer’s Eyes (Cormorant) and the upcoming Locavore: From Farmers Fields to Rooftop Gardens, How Canadians are Changing the Way We Eat (due in March from HaperCollins). Elton may be small of stature — five-foot-nothing if my guess is accurate — but she’s an Energizer bunny dashing from CBC headquarters (where she’s a contributor and former producer) to interviews promoting City of Words.
As busy as she is, the writer conveys the sense that there’s nothing she’d rather be doing than squeezing in a quick tour of downtown Toronto while referencing the streets and scenes she has pulled together for her evocative new book.
Insiders Art Tour of West Queen West
On Saturday, I got the chance to play tourist in my own town by taking a gallery tour of West Queen West with the inimitable Betty Ann Jordan, a local art writer and flâneur extraordinaire. Each week Jordan dons her familiar orange leather coat and leads small groups ($15 each or $25 per couple) from the Gladstone and Drake hotels along Queen West to Shaw Street, stopping at most of the notable galleries and design spaces along the way. It was a brilliant afternoon! I misspent my youth on Queen Street West, playing in an indie rock band, sharing a house on Bathurst Street with local artists (John Brown, among others) and generally living the bohemian life. But as familiar as I am with the terrain, Jordan’s acute knowledge of the local scene coupled with her personal anecdotes and well-researched history of the street brought the milieu to life for me like never before. For example, did you know that Wicked (1032 Queen West) is an adults only “hedonistic” club? I didn’t.
Is Skateboard Culture, Culture?
I’m a little surprised the “kids” weren’t more hostile. Some “old” guy comes around with a tape recorder and a camera asking questions about skate culture – they probably thought I was a perv. But they were great; John (18, below left), Sarah (16) and Jason (16) took the time to fill me in on what it’s like to hang at Ontario’s largest skateboard park and to be a part of Toronto’s well-established skateboard culture.
Although it’s not complete — there’s a bowl going in and hopefully some lighting — Beach Skateboard Park opened on October 2 at Coxwell Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard East. The cement slopes, steps, ramps and railings are proxies for street skating challenges: “That piece there is like Commerce Court,” says John, directing my gaze, “and that over there is based on the SkyDome plaza.”
