Partnership Program
Toronto Arts Council has partnered with Toronto Public Library (TPL) to facilitate the animation of five library spaces outside the downtown core, increase arts access in local communities, and create new work and collaborative opportunities for Toronto artists. The branches to be animated through 2015 funds are: Cedarbrae, Don Mills, Donsview, Fairview, Hillcrest, Mimico Centennial, Oakwood Village, Richview, Scarborough Civic Centre, and York Woods. These community-engaged residencies are in different arts disciplines, and were selected based on branch capacities and local interests and needs. Toronto Public Library is contributing matching support in the form of space, technical support, marketing, promotion, social networking platforms, and staffing.
Artists in the Libraries Recipients (2015)
- Community Story Collective will offer three digital storytelling workshops at Scarborough Civic Centre Library from September 6 to December 14, 2016. The workshops are targeted to adults, seniors and youth. Each workshop ends with a collective screening of participants' stories and all participants will learn how to post their work to a blog site created for this project.
- Princess Productions will present a cross generational program incorporating dance, movement, storytelling, sound and visual arts at Richview Branch from September 1 to December 15, 2016.
- Karen Darricades will engage community members in different forms of map-making at Cedarbrae Branch from September 1 to December 15, 2016. Using collage, sound, found objects, walking/talking tours, installations and online platforms, these mixed-media maps will explore the power of map making as a communication tool.
- Mike Ford will present song writing workshops exploring words, music and performance from September 1 to December 15, 2016 at Mimico Centennial Branch.
- Cheol-Hwa Hong will offer community members the opportunity to learn beginner and intermediate traditional Korean drumming from September 1 to December 15, 2016 at the Hillcrest Branch. The program will include a monthly educational and interactive performance by the community drumming group Chun Doong Sori and participants will give a year-end public recital.
- Joy Lapps-Lewis will provide a music focused artist residency at Downsview Branch from September 1 to December 1, 2016, engaging community through steelpan lessons, school workshops, artist concerts and highlighting relevant library material.
- Anouk Natalya Willy will offer the “Fashion Design Lab” for children ages 7 to 16 at York Woods Branch from September 1 to December 15, 2016. The program will take participants through the entire cycle of fashion, from concept to creation, while encouraging the artistic, innovative and empowering aspects of design.
- Genviève Thauvette will present Memento Mori and Photography, a series of workshops pertaining to art and theory that reflects on mortality, at Oakwood Village Library and Arts Centre from September 1 to November 16, 2016. Using its varied visual language, analogue and digital techniques and practices will be explored to produce rich and evocative works and completed work will be showcased in a group exhibition. Education will be made available in french.
- Amy Wong will host host weekly drawing and painting sessions, collage workshops and art history slide shows focusing on women artists and artists of colour at Fairview Branch from September 1 to November 30, 2016. The workshop series, aimed at children, youth and adults from all ages and backgrounds, is geared to make art history lessons both accessible and exploratory. Works created in classes will be assembled into an installation over the 3-month residency period.
- Annie Wong will engage new immigrants interested in improving their English language skills at the Don Mills Branch from September 1 to December 15, 2016. Wong will provide workshops where participants will try their hand at poetry writing, translation, and reading exercises in English and in their native language. The goal of the workshops is to have the participants feel comfortable with the fluidity of language by collaboratively exploring the multiplicity of meaning inherent in poetry. Participants will have the opportunity to test their improved language skills through in person and telephone interactions.
A full list of Artists in the Library programming for 2016 can be found on the Toronto Public Library website.