« Art Starts in partnership with StreetARToronto, Toronto Community Housing and the Lawrence Heights Community Centre is proud to unveil “Deep Roots, Limitless Heights”, a community mural on the walls of the Lawrence Heights Community Centre Friday August 9th from 5pm-6pm. Join us in celebrating the mural alongside the youth mural assistants, lead artist and community members.

« Deep Roots, Limitless Heights” is a community mural produced by youth from Lawrence Heights under the mentorship of award winning artist Joshua Barndt. The mural focuses on the history of Lawrence Heights from its development in the late 50’s as a truly unique affordable housing community, to the present day, as it prepares to undergo a massive transformation through revitalization. It pays homage to the deep roots grown through the hard work, creativity and struggle of the residents over the past six decades, in particular community mothers, and looks forward to the opportunities made possible through the community-driven revitalization process.

In preparation for developing the mural content, the youth mural team spent two weeks learning about what redevelopment could mean for them and their community. They travelled to Regent Park, met with Toronto Community Housing revitalization staff and interviewed long term residents about their perceptions of revitalization and their hopes for the future. The imagery on the walls of the Lawrence Heights Community Centre is the imaginative culmination of their reflections through this process.

“It’s wonderful to collaborate with youth who have a long term experience with the neighbourhood” says lead artist Joshua Barndt. “We worked with the youth team to do urban research about the issues affecting the neighbourhood and themselves and we brought that together into something creative that we can all be proud of”.

The youth mural mentorship program has not only been a source of employment and training for the youth involved, it has also provided them with a creative means of exploring the challenges they face alongside the strength and resiliency that exists in themselves and their community.

“It means a lot, Deep Roots” reflects 18 year old Lawrence Heights resident and mural assistant Michael Carty. “Because the roots are deep and come from the ground up, you can’t break a root. So we’re trying to build something new and Limitless Heights shows that there is no limit. You can do anything you want to become in this life. That means a lot to me.”

This project was made possible through the generous support of Street ART Toronto and Toronto Community Housing alongside support from the office of Councillor Josh Colle, and Canadian Tire.

Art Starts is a charitable organization that just celebrated 20 years of creating art and community in Toronto’s underserved neighbourhoods. Art Starts has pioneered community-engaged arts practices in Ontario. Other projects include the “Limitless Heights” mural on Ranee Avenue in Lawrence Heights, the award-winning “Strength in Numbers” mural at Dupont and Dundas and the Photo Planters project along Eglinton Avenue east of Dufferin.

WHO: Lawrence Heights Youth Mural Team & Art Starts
WHAT: “Deep Roots, Limitless Heights” Community Mural Launch
WHEN: Friday August 9th, 2013, 5pm-6pm
WHERE: Lawrence Heights Community Centre, 5 Replin Road.

For more information, please visit http://www.artstarts.net. »

– submitted by Elvana Xhakollari, Marketing and Events Coordinator, ArtStarts

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