« The Art of the Danforth 2014 (AoD) is an experimental public art festival in Toronto’s east end.
The festival takes place in a remarkable neighborhood on and around Danforth Avenue, roughly bookended by Greenwood and Woodbine TTC stations.
This is the third iteration of the festival in roughly since 2010, during which time the area has changed considerably.
With each edition, Art of the Danforth has been a reflexive and reactive festival, encouraging artists to respond to the changes in the neighborhood and work with its current condition at that point in time*. Five years have allowed the festival to become an interesting long-term experiment into the roles and possibilities of public art in a neighborhood.
The 2014 edition of Art of the Danforth will take place May 2nd – May 11th.
This year, we’re attempting to upend the very idea of a festival itself. The broad theme of AoD 2014 is whether this community needs a public art festival at all; essentially, we’re asking curators to examine what roles do artists working in a public place play?
INTRODUCING ART OF THE DANFORTH 2014
FEBRUARY 27, 2014 6:00 PM
(RSVP HERE)
I’d like to invite you to our festival launch on February 27th(6:30 PM). Join us to hear more about the project, meet the 2014 curators as well as community members. I look forward to talking to you about the ideas we are trying to explore. Appetizers and drinks are on us!
The event is being held at our new festival office space located right outside Greenwood Station on the second floor of the Linsmore Tavern (1298 Danforth Ave) – a historic bar and hotel, continuously running since 1932.
Art of the Danforth 2014 is produced by East End Arts, made possible by the generous support of Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Danforth Mosaic BIA and the City of Toronto, as well as the help of our community partners.
*Hyperlinked in the word ‘time’ is a 2012 project by artist and curator Emily DiCarlo called ‘A Temporary History’. Interviewing store owners along the strip of Danforth Ave., DiCarlo marked the date of the businesses’ founding on the street in front of it. A fascinating array of community history in 2012, in 2014 it has become a memento mori, as a number of these businesses have disappeared. »
-submitted by Cindy Rozeboom, East End Arts/Art of the Danforth
Read East End Arts’ profile on ArtBridges’ Community-Engaged Arts Directory and Map.
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