“Time to Make Your Map Toronto
In honour of Canada’s sesquicentennial (#Canada150) and Art Starts’ 25th anniversary, Art Starts is collaborating with artists and residents city-wide to craft a restorative and creative 10’ x 20’ map.
Art Starts, a pioneer in Toronto’s community arts sector, is celebrating 25 years of artistry while contributing to Canada’s 150th anniversary with their city-wide project: Cartography 17. Launching on June 5th, the project will create a map of Toronto with a vision that is restorative, collaborative and inclusive.
Cartography 17 will use a multifaceted approach to map-making by collaborating with artists, Indigenous storytellers, a cartographer and residents of local communities – with a focus on underserved areas of Toronto.
This hands-on form of expression will use a variety of artistic media to create a map that uniquely celebrates the cultures, communities and neighbourhoods that comprise Toronto’s rich history.
Cartography 17 map animator, Daniel Rotsztain – The Urban Geographer, will create the physical foundation of the map including geography, geology, infrastructure, landmarks across Toronto and First Nations’ histories.
Cartography 17 envisions a new kind of map-making, one that is a diverse, multimedia collection of stories and experiences from people, places and spaces that are often not represented in our city.
The collective of artists, along with the map, will tour communities city-wide alongside an Indigenous storyteller to acknowledge and honour the land we reside upon through traditional Indigenous storytelling practices.
The final map will act as a Toronto legacy – developed in honour of Canada’s 150th anniversary – and will be exhibited in spaces such as Toronto City Hall, libraries and galleries across the Greater Toronto Area.
Key Project Phases:
- June 5th, 2017– Launch & mural foundation; drawing and indigenous consultation @ Art Starts Studios
- July-Oct., 2017– Site visits begin; touring & 90 hours of community engaged art workshops at Toronto Community Housing enclaves and other locations city-wide
- Nov. 23rd, 2017 – Public unveiling at Art Starts Fundraiser followed by exhibitions, final installation reveal and exhibitions city-wide.
About Art Starts
Art Starts is an award-winning charitable, not-for-profit organization that uses the arts as a vehicle to encourage social change in Toronto’s underserved neighbourhoods. Bringing professional artists and communities together to work across all artistic disciplines, Art Starts combines the best practices of hands-on community consultation with a collaborative art-making approach and sound organizational and administrative support.
ArtStarts.net – (Temporary website) | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Funding Acknowledgement
This initiative is made possible by the community fund for Canada’s 150th, a collaboration between The Toronto Foundation, the government of Canada and extraordinary leaders from coast to coast to coast.”
-submitted by Art Starts
Read Art Starts’ profile in our Community-Engaged Arts Directory and Map
