Dufferin/Eglinton & Oakwood/Vaughan
Dufferin/Eglinton & Oakwood/Vaughan have been a home base to Art Starts since 1992. By partnering with every conceivable local group/organization/business, etc. during our 17-year existence we have cultivated and firmly implanted the idea that the arts should be a part of life in this community. Here are some of the more recent programs we have offered in this community.
Sharing Stories, Connecting Lives
Coordinated by Art Starts Program Manager Erin Schachter this 10 session program brings together youth and seniors from the Eglinton/Keele neighbourhood with renowned dub poet and broadcaster Clifton Joseph. Exploring issues of personal history, identity and community, older adults learn to share their oral history and their wisdom with youth while youth participants learn film-making and podcasting skills. In partnership with St. Clair West Services for Seniors.
The Style Council
The Style Council is a fashion media program coordinated by Rea MacNamara that brings together a collective of emerging writers, stylists, and photographers in documenting their own style, as well as what they see on the very streets they walk. They successfully created Toronto’s first community-driven Stylebook, which will focused on the unique styles of the Dufferin Eglinton / Oakwood Vaughan communities. The 10 sessions were jam packed with guest facilitators from the fashion industry, film and fashion criticism and site visits to Toronto’s fashion hubs.
In the ‘Hood (ongoing)
Twice a week we host weekly multidisciplinary art drop-in workshops for youth in our community out of two different site locations at the Oakwood Village Library and the Maria A Shchuka Library. Programs vary in projects and content exploring visual art, music and dance. All programs coordinated by Art Starts Program Manager Erin Schachter.
Settin’ Stone
In the fall of 2008 over 45 youth participated in the creation of a permanent public art piece at Maria A. Shchuka Library. Workshops coordinated by Erin Schachter and led by artist D’bi Young explored dub poetry as a means of storytelling, while visual artist Lois Dellert helped participants to create cement tiles isolating words from their poems. The tiles were then permanently installed on a planter box creating a collaborative community poem. Settin’ Stone gave youth of the Eglinton/Dufferin area an opportunity to find their voices, tell their stories, and leave their mark.
World Drumming
Art Starts has been running three annual series of highly successful drumming workshops since our inception in 1992. We are excited to announce that in Late Spring 2010 we expanded the program and will now be offering this series at our new Yorkdale Community Arts Centre location.
The Demolition Art House
During the summer of 2007, five artists and 12 youth aged 11 to 16 spent a summer turning an abandoned, boarded up house into a Kingdom of Awesome. The house features murals that wrap around the exterior, found object sculpture in the yard and the feedback fence, where community members can write their reactions to this imaginative public art installation. The house is slated for demolition. Coordinator: Sarah Bothwell and Artists: Mike Brodie, Mike Byers, Sam Brown, Karen Derricades, Jarrod Ouaknine, and Nevin Hendrickson
Rawlinson Doors Project
As a part of The Rawlinson Community School Festival, Art Starts annually engages students in painting a mural series on used doors. Each year more painted doors are added to an installation on the side wall of the school. Coordinated by Fatima Kazmi with artists Mike Byers and Mike Brodie.
Jane’s Walk
Jane’s Walk celebrates the ideas and legacy of urbanist Jane Jacobs by getting people out exploring their neighbourhoods and meeting their neighbours. Free walking tours held on the first weekend of May each year are led by locals who want to create a space for residents to talk about what matters to them in the places they live and work. Art Starts had the opportunity to showcase some of our public art pieces as a part of the Eglinton and Oakwood Jane’s Walk.
Express Yourself
This project was designed to provide older adults the opportunity to explore and share their creativity and ingenuity through artistic expression. It uses art as a means of developing leadership and program delivery skills, while reducing social isolation, fostering opportunities for intercultural interaction and nuturing self-esteem. Artists for this project include: Nazreth Mebrahtu, Roxanne Tracy and Joanna Hogan.
