(Vous trouverez le message en français à la suite)
ArtBridges/ToileDesArts is now collecting nominations for the 7th Annual Recognition Awards!
More than ever, because of the pandemic, connection and community engagement matters! We have been learning about the many ways community-engaged arts initiatives have been working with their communities and pivoting through lockdowns, pandemic relief measures, and health & safety mandates. It has taken great imagination, capacity, and resiliency. We have also been hearing and reading stories about how initiatives are growing in response to the social and environmental justice issues of our time.
We’d like to highlight your stories of innovation, resiliency, and creativity. Perhaps your story will be an inspiration to someone else. Perhaps new connections will be made, ideas spawned and amplified, and support generated. Let’s hear about the amazing work that continues to happen in this field, despite everything, because of everything!
These awards will showcase remarkable work in community-engaged arts taking place in Canada.
There are three categories:
Innovation
Resiliency
Creativity
One award will be given in each category. Each award-winning initiative will receive a certificate and $350 award as well as recognition on the ArtBridges hub. You can apply for one, two, or all three award categories. The awards jury will be comprised of three active leaders in community arts in Canada.
You are eligible to nominate a community-engaged arts initiative that you are involved with or one you would like to support. To be considered, please fill out the attached one-page nomination formhttp://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm and submit it back to ArtBridges by March 1st, 2022.
Vous pouvez soumettre la candidature d’un organisme pour lequel vous travaillez ou avec lequel vous collaborez, ou celle d’un autre organisme dont vous voulez soutenir le travail. Pour participer, veuillez remplir ce formulaire d’ici le 1 mars 2022: http://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm
(Vous trouverez le message en français à la suite)
ArtBridges/ToileDesArts is now collecting nominations for the 7th Annual Recognition Awards!
More than ever, because of the pandemic, connection and community engagement matters! We have been learning about the many ways community-engaged arts initiatives have been working with their communities and pivoting through lockdowns, pandemic relief measures, and health & safety mandates. It has taken great imagination, capacity, and resiliency. We have also been hearing and reading stories about how initiatives are growing in response to the social and environmental justice issues of our time.
We’d like to highlight your stories of innovation, resiliency, and creativity. Perhaps your story will be an inspiration to someone else. Perhaps new connections will be made, ideas spawned and amplified, and support generated. Let’s hear about the amazing work that continues to happen in this field, despite everything, because of everything!
These awards will showcase remarkable work in community-engaged arts taking place in Canada.
There are three categories:
Innovation
Resiliency
Creativity
One award will be given in each category. Each award-winning initiative will receive a certificate and $350 award as well as recognition on the ArtBridges hub. You can apply for one, two, or all three award categories. The awards jury will be comprised of three active leaders in community arts in Canada.
You are eligible to nominate a community-engaged arts initiative that you are involved with or one you would like to support. To be considered, please fill out the attached one-page nomination formhttp://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm and submit it back to ArtBridges by March 1st, 2022.
Vous pouvez soumettre la candidature d’un organisme pour lequel vous travaillez ou avec lequel vous collaborez, ou celle d’un autre organisme dont vous voulez soutenir le travail. Pour participer, veuillez remplir ce formulaire d’ici le 1 mars 2022: http://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm
(Vous trouverez le message en français à la suite)
ArtBridges/ToileDesArts is now collecting nominations for the 7th Annual Recognition Awards!
More than ever, because of the pandemic, connection and community engagement matters! We have been learning about the many ways community-engaged arts initiatives have been working with their communities and pivoting through lockdowns, pandemic relief measures, and health & safety mandates. It has taken great imagination, capacity, and resiliency. We have also been hearing and reading stories about how initiatives are growing in response to the social and environmental justice issues of our time.
We’d like to highlight your stories of innovation, resiliency, and creativity. Perhaps your story will be an inspiration to someone else. Perhaps new connections will be made, ideas spawned and amplified, and support generated. Let’s hear about the amazing work that continues to happen in this field, despite everything, because of everything!
These awards will showcase remarkable work in community-engaged arts taking place in Canada.
There are three categories:
Innovation
Resiliency
Creativity
One award will be given in each category. Each award-winning initiative will receive a certificate and $350 award as well as recognition on the ArtBridges hub. You can apply for one, two, or all three award categories. The awards jury will be comprised of three active leaders in community arts in Canada.
You are eligible to nominate a community-engaged arts initiative that you are involved with or one you would like to support. To be considered, please fill out the attached one-page nomination formhttp://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm and submit it back to ArtBridges by March 1st, 2022.
Vous pouvez soumettre la candidature d’un organisme pour lequel vous travaillez ou avec lequel vous collaborez, ou celle d’un autre organisme dont vous voulez soutenir le travail. Pour participer, veuillez remplir ce formulaire d’ici le 1 mars 2022: http://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm
Season’s Greetings from ArtBridges/ToileDesArts!
To all our friends and community partners, we wish you a creative, healthy, safe, and joyful time over the holidays! All the best for a happy and healthy new year!
ArtBridges/ToileDesArts vous souhaite de joyeuses FĂŞtes!
ArtBridges is a hub and forum for connection for anyone interested in or active in community-engaged arts and arts for social change in Canada. More than ever, because of the pandemic, connection and community-engagement matters!
Through the year, we have learned about the many ways that community-engaged arts initiatives have been working with their communities and pivoting through lockdowns, government health and safety mandates, and pandemic relief measures. It has taken great imagination, capacity, and resiliency. We have also heard and read stories about how initiatives are growing in response to the social and environmental justice issues of our time.
Your Membership support will help ArtBridges continue to gather and share about innovative community-engaged arts activities and about how initiatives are adapting their programs through the pandemic and transitioning into a “new normal.”
Membership fees help support the work of ArtBridges all year! As a Member you will be a vital partner in ArtBridges’ important work by helping us to raise awareness, connect people to community-engaged arts initiatives, gather and share resources, and highlight what’s going on in the practice and field.
UNLOCKED Project:https://unlockedproject.ca UNLOCKED became an official project of ArtBridges in June! “UNLOCKED is an online exhibit of art created by young Canadians – their personal and creative response to the pandemic.”
The Art Boxes Project: ArtBridges matches people with art supplies to community-engaged arts initiatives that reach out. This year, we received a donation to purchase art supplies and deliver them directly to community-engaged arts initiatives. These included: Thrive Like a Girl, The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit at Humber River Hospital and Ernestine!s Women’s Shelter.
ArtBridges became a Regional Hub and Steering Committee Member with the recently launched Art for Social Change Network (ASCN): https://icasc.ca/ascnetwork/. This project is hosted by: Judith Marcuse Projects (JMP) and the International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC).“ASCN is designed to connect and support hundreds of arts for social change (ASC) organizations and independent artists across Canada”. As a Regional Hub, ArtBridges is leading a project called: “STORIES OF NOW” about gathering and sharing stories emanating from the field and about what issues and areas of focus matter.
ArtBridges’ Executive Director, participated for the second time as a mentor in FUTURES/forward – a National Mentorship Program …”designed to connect seasoned ASC practitioners with early-to-mid career community-engaged artists, foster peer to peer exchange with others doing change work with diverse communities, and bridge the urban/rural divide. (FUTURES/forward is hosted by the International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC), an initiative of Judith Marcuse Projects”.)
For almost three years, ArtBridges has been operating as a charitable organization, not-for-profit, and registered National Arts Service Organization (NASO). (ArtBridges was previously a project of Tides Canada for 10 years.) Like numerous arts organizations across Canada, ArtBridges is navigating through the challenges of working through the pandemic and adapting to new ways of working to continue to be relevant, viable and sustainable.
We have worked hard to keep the information flowing about what’s going on in the field viaartbridges.ca, with blog posts, Facebook & Twitter, Learning and Resources. We’ve responded to people with special requests—assisting with finding mentorship, connections, art supplies, and writing letters of support. Over the year, we have worked hard to preserve our website/hub.
We concluded the 6th Annual Remarkable Community-Engaged Arts Awards and announced the finalists: Remarkable Innovation: Silver Scenes Film Festival (Toronto); Remarkable Creativity: Indigenous Women’s Augmented Mural Series (Calgary); Remarkable Resiliency: This Way Up Collective (Toronto). Awards were sponsored by the Ruth Mandel – WHO GIVES Fund. We are currently kicking off our 7th Annual Remarkable Community-Engaged Arts Awards. Our hope is that these stories inspire.
As an ArtBridges Member, you or your arts initiative can:
Have your website reviewed for accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and clarity in a one hour professional consultation.
Call for mentorship, brainstorming ideas, networking, or project / organizational development support with the ArtBridges team.
Member Spotlight: Have your community-engaged arts initiative featured on ArtBridges’ Canada-wide Community Blog
Receive consideration for a letter of support for your initiative from us.
Be listed under Membership Recognition on the ArtBridges website.
Receive a Membership card: become a card-carrying member!
Join our Membership today!Please fill out the Membership registration form online at artbridges.ca. Your membership fee will cover from now through to the end of 2022.
Thank you for believing in this work!
Wishing you joy, health, and lots of creativity during this holiday season and into the new year!
(Vous trouverez le message en français à la suite)
ArtBridges/ToileDesArts is now collecting nominations for the 7th Annual Recognition Awards!
More than ever, because of the pandemic, connection and community engagement matters! We have been learning about the many ways community-engaged arts initiatives have been working with their communities and pivoting through lockdowns, pandemic relief measures, and health & safety mandates. It has taken great imagination, capacity, and resiliency. We have also been hearing and reading stories about how initiatives are growing in response to the social and environmental justice issues of our time.
We’d like to highlight your stories of innovation, resiliency, and creativity. Perhaps your story will be an inspiration to someone else. Perhaps new connections will be made, ideas spawned and amplified, and support generated. Let’s hear about the amazing work that continues to happen in this field, despite everything, because of everything!
These awards will showcase remarkable work in community-engaged arts taking place in Canada.
There are three categories:
Innovation
Resiliency
Creativity
One award will be given in each category. Each award-winning initiative will receive a certificate and $350 award as well as recognition on the ArtBridges hub. You can apply for one, two, or all three award categories. The awards jury will be comprised of three active leaders in community arts in Canada.
You are eligible to nominate a community-engaged arts initiative that you are involved with or one you would like to support. To be considered, please fill out the attached one-page nomination formhttp://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm and submit it back to ArtBridges by March 1st, 2022.
Vous pouvez soumettre la candidature d’un organisme pour lequel vous travaillez ou avec lequel vous collaborez, ou celle d’un autre organisme dont vous voulez soutenir le travail. Pour participer, veuillez remplir ce formulaire d’ici le 1 mars 2022: http://goo.gl/forms/Unv1GClZHm
ArtBridges is a hub and forum for connection for anyone interested in or active in community-engaged arts and arts for social change in Canada. More than ever, because of the pandemic, connection and community-engagement matters!
Through the year, we have learned about the many ways that community-engaged arts initiatives have been working with their communities and pivoting through lockdowns, government health and safety mandates, and pandemic relief measures. It has taken great imagination, capacity, and resiliency. We have also heard and read stories about how initiatives are growing in response to the social and environmental justice issues of our time.
Your Membership support will help ArtBridges continue to gather and share about innovative community-engaged arts activities and about how initiatives are adapting their programs through the pandemic and transitioning into a “new normal.”
Membership fees help support the work of ArtBridges all year! As a Member you will be a vital partner in ArtBridges’ important work by helping us to raise awareness, connect people to community-engaged arts initiatives, gather and share resources, and highlight what’s going on in the practice and field.
UNLOCKED Project:https://unlockedproject.ca UNLOCKED became an official project of ArtBridges in June! “UNLOCKED is an online exhibit of art created by young Canadians – their personal and creative response to the pandemic.”
The Art Boxes Project: ArtBridges matches people with art supplies to community-engaged arts initiatives that reach out. This year, we received a donation to purchase art supplies and deliver them directly to community-engaged arts initiatives. These included: Thrive Like a Girl, The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit at Humber River Hospital and Ernestine!s Women’s Shelter.
ArtBridges became a Regional Hub and Steering Committee Member with the recently launched Art for Social Change Network (ASCN): https://icasc.ca/ascnetwork/. This project is hosted by: Judith Marcuse Projects (JMP) and the International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC).“ASCN is designed to connect and support hundreds of arts for social change (ASC) organizations and independent artists across Canada”. As a Regional Hub, ArtBridges is leading a project called: “STORIES OF NOW” about gathering and sharing stories emanating from the field and about what issues and areas of focus matter.
ArtBridges’ Executive Director, participated for the second time as a mentor in FUTURES/forward – a National Mentorship Program …”designed to connect seasoned ASC practitioners with early-to-mid career community-engaged artists, foster peer to peer exchange with others doing change work with diverse communities, and bridge the urban/rural divide. (FUTURES/forward is hosted by the International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC), an initiative of Judith Marcuse Projects”.)
For almost three years, ArtBridges has been operating as a charitable organization, not-for-profit, and registered National Arts Service Organization (NASO). (ArtBridges was previously a project of Tides Canada for 10 years.) Like numerous arts organizations across Canada, ArtBridges is navigating through the challenges of working through the pandemic and adapting to new ways of working to continue to be relevant, viable and sustainable.
We have worked hard to keep the information flowing about what’s going on in the field viaartbridges.ca, with blog posts, Facebook & Twitter, Learning and Resources. We’ve responded to people with special requests—assisting with finding mentorship, connections, art supplies, and writing letters of support. Over the year, we have worked hard to preserve our website/hub.
We concluded the 6th Annual Remarkable Community-Engaged Arts Awards and announced the finalists: Remarkable Innovation: Silver Scenes Film Festival (Toronto); Remarkable Creativity: Indigenous Women’s Augmented Mural Series (Calgary); Remarkable Resiliency: This Way Up Collective (Toronto). Awards were sponsored by the Ruth Mandel – WHO GIVES Fund. We are currently kicking off our 7th Annual Remarkable Community-Engaged Arts Awards. Our hope is that these stories inspire.
As an ArtBridges Member, you or your arts initiative can:
Have your website reviewed for accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and clarity in a one hour professional consultation.
Call for mentorship, brainstorming ideas, networking, or project / organizational development support with the ArtBridges team.
Member Spotlight: Have your community-engaged arts initiative featured on ArtBridges’ Canada-wide Community Blog
Receive consideration for a letter of support for your initiative from us.
Be listed under Membership Recognition on the ArtBridges website.
Receive a Membership card: become a card-carrying member!
Join our Membership today!Please fill out the Membership registration form online at artbridges.ca. Your membership fee will cover from now through to the end of 2022.
Thank you for believing in this work!
Wishing you joy, health, and lots of creativity during this holiday season and into the new year!
We are pleased to announce the recipients of ArtBridges’ Sixth Annual Recognition Awards! The awards highlight remarkable work in community-engaged arts in Canada in three categories: Innovation! Resiliency! and Creativity!
The awards process: In late 2020, we put out a call for community-engaged arts initiatives, community partners, and ArtBridges Member initiatives to participate in award nominations. We asked for submissions that highlighted stories of innovation, resiliency, and creativity during these unbelievably challenging and unprecedented times. Our hope is that these stories may be an inspiration. Perhaps new connections will be made, ideas spawned and amplified, and support generated. As clearly demonstrated in the 54 incredible nominations, amazing work continues to happen in this field—despite everything, because of everything! The awards jury was composed of three active leaders in community arts in Canada from Dartmouth (NS), Leamington (ON), and Toronto (ON). The recipient organizations receive a certificate and an award of $300. The Awards are generously sponsored by the Ruth Mandel – WHO GIVES FUND. Thank you to all who shared your incredible stories. Bravo!
“94 year old Toronto resident, Sylvia Lustgarten was concerned about the negative effects of ageism in our society and on the community of older people that is steadily growing in age and number. The appearance of COVID-19 has only made this more acute. As a way of fighting this problem, and working toward a more age-friendly world, she conceived the Silver Scenes Film Festival to present the older person in all their complexity, to raise awareness and promote discussion among people of all ages, and encourage our elders to engage in filmmaking ant activism on their own behalf.
A multi-generational, multi-disciplinary group was assembled to build an on-line film festival which would include screenings of films with older people in front of, and behind the camera, as well as interviews and panel discussions on the issues raised by the films. Participants in the development ranged from high school students to senior citizens, researchers in gerontology to experienced professionals in the arts/culture sector.
In a relatively short time, the festival was created. Publicity and outreach included connections with a wide range of community organizations, such as Harbourfront and The National Film Board. Media coverage included an article in the Globe and mail, and an interview on CBC radio’s “Here and Now”.
The team created the infrastructure to manage and deliver screenings and live on-line discussions, on multiple software platforms. All events were delivered for free to the public. Financial considerations and licensing issues meant that the number of viewers needed to be capped at 300 per event, yet more than 1,600 people participated in the online events, both as film viewers and participants in panel discussions. Feedback was very enthusiastic. The audience was wide-ranging: Students of film, Students of Aging (Ryerson, UofT, Sheridan), indigenous groups, members of the 519 Church Community, and residents of retirement homes.
The board of the Festival is committed to making the festival an ongoing process, with more events and projects in the future, finding ways to use the medium of film to foster inter-generational discussion and film making projects to build a more age-friendly society. See our website at Silverscenes.org.”
“A group of 10 Indigenous young women ages 15 to 21 years old participated in the creation of three murals that focused: gender-based violence, democratic participation, and workplace barriers. These murals were created over the course of several months with Elders, knowledge keepers and community members creating learnings and inspiring art.Â
The young Indigenous women were inspired by mixed medium artwork and used hide, digital artwork and fabric to create three distinct murals that have a strong Indigenous worldview. Each of the three murals also tell a story through the use of Augmented Reality.Â
The first mural, Women’s Count, is based on a traditional winter count which were created by communities to mark a singular event that would represent that year. The women were inspired to rethink that process and develop symbols to tell the story of voting rights and encourage increased numbers of Indigenous voters. When combined with AR you can hear one of the artists tell the history and a song that was provided to us by the Knowledge Keeper.
The second mural, Barrier Breakers, is a comic style digital artwork of the young women artists which shows how the world sees them, in black and white and without aspirations, however when combined with AR it shows a brick wall which must be broken down to show their true workplace potential.
The third mural, Vulnerable to Valuable, is three ribbon skirts. The largest one shows the highway of tears in which many Indigenous women have gone missing. The medium skirt shows the red hand movement to draw attention to the activism that is ongoing to honour them and to have a call to action. The smallest skirt shows the buffalo, a symbol of young women embracing their culture and no longer having to protest or worry about violence.Â
These murals come together in a series that we entitled, the Indigenous Women’s Augmented Mural Series. The murals are currently placed throughout the City of Calgary in the Calgary Police Headquarters, Inn From the Cold, and Forest Lawn High School.Â
“This Way Up Collective was founded by emerging artists and homeless queer and trans youth of colour amidst the pandemic. Their original intention with this initiative was to aid QTBIPOC youth in Toronto shelters and other forms of precarious housing through creative means. Given that the collective members all have been or are currently a part of the shelter system, they thought this would be the best focus of their efforts. However, as they grew they expanded their mandate to also serve children, youth and adults experiencing homelessness. Throughout all of this, the Collective has maintained a focus on prioritizing Black, Indigenous, People of Colour who identify as part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
For This Way Up Collective community consultation and collaboration has been key to ensuring that they are engaging the communities they seek to support through appropriate and productive ways. This Way Up has partnered with the Toronto Encampment Support Network (ESN) to provide weekly hot meals and arts-based programming to encampment residents for the past many months as a pandemic support response. Through this collaboration, This Way Up has served over 2000 hot meals and counting. They also provided ongoing participant-led art circles in drawing, painting, beading, and henna tattooing with free materials, skill-sharing and supportive space for young encampment members to be creative together. These youth have been providing resources for some of the most vulnerable communities in Toronto at a time when it is incredibly risky to gather. And they have chosen to do this through creativity. Producing beautiful fresh meals and making space for regular artistic expression, seeing this as a basic human right alongside food security and safe housing. The Collective intends to continue its work into the winter and will continue to organize within Toronto’s movements for social justice.
They embody great resiliency as artists on the margins with lived experience of homelessness transforming their situations through the arts. They embody the resiliency of poor, racialized & queer peoples organizing together even amidst unimaginable circumstances and personal risk. And they reflect remarkable resilience in their insistence that all should have access to the arts and creativity, now more than ever. “