Mayor John Tory encourages residents to visit the ArtworxTO pop-up hub
Sadia Haque Lucky
Mayor John Tory is encouraging residents to visit the ArtworxTO Pop-up Hub at Collision Gallery, located at 18 Wellington St. W. The Hub’s inaugural exhibition is Locating Self Care in Urban Centres, curated by Emma Steen.
Locating Self Care in Urban Centres continues the conversation started by Black and Indigenous curators and writers on care as a method of resistance and sovereignty. Work by artists Laura Grier and Susan Blight considers self-care as manifested through body, land and community, extending into the gallery itself as a place of respite within the downtown core. The exhibition is open to the public and can be viewed in person or online Opens in new window.
ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art, 2021-2022, kicked off on September 22 at Cloverdale Common with the first of several hub openings. ArtworxTO hubs are spaces for artistic and community activity led by the next generation of curators, collectives and artists. Through exhibitions, activations, workshops and experiences, the hubs will amplify local artistic identities, recognize their global vibrancy, and empower creative communities.
Year-long hubs, located at Downsview Park, Scarborough Town Centre, Cloverdale Common and Union Station, have partnered with Local Art Service Organizations: North York Arts, Scarborough Arts, Arts Etobicoke, Lakeshore Arts, East End Arts, Urban Arts, Neilson Park Creative Centre and Sketch. More information about the hubs is available here Opens in new window .
ArtworxTO Hub North, located in Downsview at 70 Canuck Ave., features All City Shine, an exhibit curated by Danilo Deluxo McCallum to create space for Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and BIPOC artists to shine collectively. ArtworxTO Hub North will also host exhibitions by Jane Street Speaks, North York Arts, Black Speculative Arts Movement and Zahra Siddiqui.
ArtworxTO Hub East, located at Scarborough Town Centre, 300 Borough Dr., features Scarborough: The Backbone, a dynamic celebration of the arts curated by The Spoken Soul Collective (Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony, Dwayne Morgan and Randell Adjei). ArtworxTO Hub East is also hosting workshops, programs and performances with Scarborough Arts.
ArtworxTO Hub West, located at Cloverdale Common, 250 The East Mall, features Home(land), a multimedia exhibition series curated by Claudia Arana, which examines how concepts of land and its different natural elements intersect with the fluid and shifting characteristics of identity, kinship, belonging and home. ArtworxTO Hub West will also offer digital arts experiences using virtual and augmented reality with Arts Etobicoke, and online conversations by Farrah Miranda with Lakeshore Arts.
ArtworxTO Hub South, located at Union Station, 61 Front St. W., will open on Wednesday, October 27. It will feature a three-part exhibition series entitled I am land, curated by Maya Wilson-Sanchez, which explores the role of the artist as a chronicler.
ArtworxTO pop-up hubs will showcase temporary exhibitions, projects and events throughout Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022 to highlight the importance of people and place making.
In addition to today’s Collision Gallery opening, the ArtworxTO pop-up hub at Bayview Village, 2901 Bayview Ave., is also open and features curator Raji Kaur Aujla’s chashm-e-bulbul, an exhibition that probes the erasure of Sikh grandmothers’ visibility from historical records and explores methodologies to tell their stories through oral traditions, Punjabi textile and folk embroidery.
The initial pop-up exhibitions will be available until Friday, December 31.
Grants provided by the City and Toronto Arts Council – and supported by corporate and government partners – will provide Toronto artists with more than $5 million to produce more than 350 new murals, installations, exhibitions, art events, performances and productions in 2021 and 2022. Funding has been provided to nearly 100 arts organizations, artists’ collectives, and Business Improvement Areas to create artwork and programs for ArtworxTO, such as community programs, film, live arts, projection-mapping, digital media, residencies, and mentorship opportunities. In total, more than 1,400 artists are involved in ArtworxTO projects.
Further opportunities are available for artists through 16 City-administered programs and initiatives, including the Public Art & Monuments Collection, StreetARToronto, Percent for Public Art Program, Cultural Hotspot, Nuit Blanche 2022, Toronto Sculpture Garden, Indigenous Affairs Office, Business Improvement Area Streetscape Program, Cultural Centres & Galleries, Museums and Heritage Services, Toronto Archives Photograph Collection, Parks, Forestry and Recreation Community Art Programs, Toronto Public Library, Artist in Residence and Monument Lab x ArtworxTO.
ArtworxTO is part of the City’s new 10-Year Public Art Strategy, which renews Toronto’s commitment to public art and celebrates the incredible public artwork in the city, while also working to address gaps in that collection, such as the under-representation of equity-deserving communities and their histories, as well as geographic areas of the city where there are fewer public artworks. More information about ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021–2022, including an interactive map of Toronto’s extensive collection of public art, is available online Opens in new window .
ArtworxTO has been designed with guidance from Toronto Public Health to provide a safer environment for participants.
