Greenhouse Gallery Featured Artists Announced

We are just a little over a week away from Greenhouse Gallery, our fundraising art event with Fresh City Farms at their Downsview Park greenhouse. Yay! (Also, eek!) Also, howww is it November next week? Guh.

Between now and then you probably have a gourd to carve into the likeness of your favorite pop star or (least) favorite municipal politician and some combination of spandex and sparkles and rainbow wig to don. That sounds fun and all, but you're really just counting down the days until you get to enjoy (and buy) the work of 30 renowned local artists in an urban greenhouse while sipping some local wine, and swaying to tunes from talented T.O. musicians, aren't you?

Over the next week we will post features on some of these incredible artists on our blog (here!). Check back through the week to see some sneak previews of some of the work that will be sold and silent-auctioned off.  Check the Facebook event for full details, and go ahead and invite your friends (and your favorite municipal politicians). And come! Of course, we welcome costumes.


Greenhouse Gallery Art Fundraiser for The Everything Roof 
Featured Artists:

Adrian Forrow
Alex Kurina
Childface Sausage
Claire Hall
Danielle Hession
Darlene Huynh
E V Mary Stephens
Emily Stoddart
Erica Brisson
Eunice Luk
Josh Raskin
Juliana Neufeld
Justin Broadbent
Justyna Werbel
Kathryn Macnaughton
Laura Mensinga
Lauren Pirie
Lisa Visser
Mahmood Popal
Mark Harris Sherman
Owen Wong
Rodrigo Marti
Rose Broadbent
Sarah D'Angelo
Srdjan Segan
Talia Shipman
Tammy Yiu
Virgil Baruchel

Plus:

Jewelry byKate Schwan

Hand-knit accessories from Muttonhead
 
And art classes for auction by Erica Beyea of Fine Oak Art School


See facebook event for more information on music line-up, workshops and more!

The About Face Collective @ Eat In Onatrio and Nuit Blanche!

Hey folks, Natalie here from The About Face Collective! I've been a busy girl lately, day-timing as a community garden coordinator and urban food educator, and night-timing as an (unserious) musician.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of being involved in 2nd annual Eat-In Ontario event, held by FoodShare @ Queens Park. As FoodShare describes it on their website, the event is a "fall harvest celebration"that features dozens of workshops and activities for students of all ages to help teach them about food systems, sustainability, and community.

 My workshop with FoodShare focused on a short reading of the "Stone Soup" story, a classic chinese tale about how food can bring communities together. We then created our own story that had to include elements of food and how a type community comes together to solve a problem with each other. (Photo credit: Laura Berman)

Next up, I was lucky enough to participate in a Nuit Blanche installation, curated by artist Kevin Shmidt entitled "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow". The piece featured dozens of buskers situated up and down Yonge Street, all playing the same 9 songs in their own styles, all of which had to do with the theme of "tomorrow". Songs by Journey, Elvis, The Velvet Underground, The Monkeys, Brian Adams, Johnny Cash, and The Shirells (obviously) were just some of classic musicians that were chosen. The musicians ranged from solo sax to belly bangle shakers to, well, my friend Charlie and I with a borrowed electric keyboard and a tambourine: 

We had a great time interacting with the crowd, eating pizza and watching teens from the 905 lose their mind at the prospect of running around downtown Toronto all night without their parents. We were also asked to play the opening reception for Nuit Blanche, and would like to give a huge thanks to Kevin Shmidt for getting us on the roster at an open bar event. THANKS!

The beauty of this piece is that it snuck up on people; it was un-obvious, and could have gone unnoticed, or else seemingly serendipitous. Many times we would hear people saying with wonder "how is it that they're all playing the same music?" without figuring out that it was actually an art installation. Others would ask "You're all working together, aren't you!?" Either way, people had a great time dancing and laughing down the street, singing into the microphones along with the artists, or drumming along on their own legs to the beat as they went by. Great job Kevin, we hope to see more of this unobvious public art from you in the future!

Greenhouse Gallery | Field Trip to Fresh City Farms

Our curating team, led (and transported) by Rodrigo Marti, ventured up to visit our friends from Fresh City Farms at their greenhouse at Downsview Park this morning. I was lucky to get to know the FCF crew while working with them on their branding and web design earlier this year. Their mission to empower young people in the GTA to farm organically everywhere from backyards to rooftops to this greenhouse had the AFC pretty excited. So when they suggested that we work together on an event this Fall, we were all over it. And when they told us we could hang art in their greenhouse, we got more than a little nerdy about it. I mean, what more perfect a setting to raise funds for an urban rooftop garden created by local artists than in an urban greenhouse with an art show? Hence our little art team field trip.

Our visit timed up with FCF seeding their greenhouse for the season. So by the time we convert this space into a gallery (for the weekend of November 5th & 6th) these beds will be green with organic veggie leaves. You can get these same veggies delivered to your door each week straight from Fresh City if you live in T.O. Check them out, check back here for more info on the event and mark the date down on your calendars!