About Face Everywhere Gardens Project on the SKETCH Blog

The (RE)Cycle Tree at Evergreen Brickworks - one of four locations of the Everywhere Gardens installations

Eek! We've clearly neglected our blog for quite some time. Thankfully, our lovely friends and collaborators at SKETCH have a post up about the project we've been working on over this and last Summer — the Everywhere Gardens. 

Check it out here and stay posted with (much more frequent!) news, photos and event announcements by following us on our Facebook and Twitter. We'll have more photos of this project as the pieces are finalized, and a launch event coming up this Fall!

Art (Tonight!) And A Big Month of Announcements

A sneak preview of Junk Food our installation at Gladstone Grow Op / sample of Everywhere Gardens project

Spring is finally here! Nature is coming out of hibernation, and we at the AFC are crawling out of our grant-writing dungeons and into the sunshine. It's been a VERY busy month and we have so much to catch you up on. Here's an update on what's happening with the collective, and what's to come: 

OTF Announces Funding for our Pilot Project!

We are proud to announce that the Ontario Trillium Foundation has granted us funding to support our satellite project the Everywhere Gardens. The Everywhere Gardens is a pilot project based on concepts developed for the Everything Roof, but to take place at several major urban agriculture sites across Toronto.

In collaboration with artists from SKETCH Working Arts, we'll be using salvaged and recycled materials to showcase the artistic possibilities that exist within garden spaces, to spark conversation about creative approaches to food growing and sustainability in our city, and growing fresh organic produce for and with Toronto's communities. These functional sculptures will also be used as educational tools for learning about vertical and organic gardening. We'll be posting a lot more information on this project over the next month, and you can see an example of one of these creations tonight at the Gladstone hotel; read on, friend!

Tonight | Gladstone Grow Op

The AFC is very excited to be participating in the inaugural year of Gladstone Grow Op, a "four-day event to celebrate innovative ideas and conceptual responses to landscape and place across a broad range of creative practices. Grow Op 2013 will facilitate a cross-disciplinary forum for landscape, garden design, art and place making within the vibrant setting of Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood".  

Our installation, Junk Food, is a collaboration between illustrator, artist and About Face art director, Lauren Pirie, multi-disciplinary artist and designer, Mahmood Popal, and About Face garden coordinator, Natalie Boustead. The piece is inspired by themes of urban food production, food security, sustainable design and Toronto heritage and identity. The "urban foodscape" was built using salvaged wood and home-made milk paint, and houses a variety of Toronto-grown heirloom vegetables and herbs. The exhibit opens tonight, with a reception from 6 - 11pm, and runs through Sunday April 28th.

Mahmood Popal, putting it all together

The team surveying progress

Late night drawing at HUNTCLUB photos by Darlene Huynh

Thanks for EVERYTHING! To all of our Amazing Supporters:

It has been a year since our Indiegogo campaign hit its goal, thanks to you, our incredibly supportive community of friends, family and believers in art; sustainability; good, local, accessible, nutritious food and the Everything Roof. Your support has allowed us to bring on the right people to help coordinate funding (the amazing Shawna Caspi), to draw up proper landscape and architectural designs (the amazing Phillip Collins), to plan exciting creative projects and fundraising events (the amazing Rodrigo Marti, Mahmood Popal and the whole amazing crew at SKETCH) and to get through another year of planning and grant-writing. It has now helped to launch our pilot project, the Everywhere Gardens!

While the Everything Roof may still be waiting for the moment, five stories high in the future, we are getting closer to it every day. But we didn't wait to wait to acknowledge our wonderful supporters, so we've made plans with Centre for Social Innovation to design and install dedicated planter sculptures on the soon-to-launch CSI Annex courtyard patio! This installation has been designed to honor our gold level supporters and our community of contributors. Supporters and team members are also acknowledged on the team page of the first stage of our new website, check it out here. And keep watching our blog and newsletter for more news on when you can come join us for an iced-tea amid produce-growing, artist-designed, planters and moss murals. It might be on ground level for now, but it's going to be awesome, and a great foresight of what's to come. 

Junk Food | About Face Installation at Gladstone Grow Op

First rendering of Junk Food: An Urban Foodscape

 In an email exchange last week, one of our project partners appropriately opened with the sentiment that she'd "usually say something about the awesome spring weather and the beginning of garden prep" but that she would refrain, sad face. On that cold, windy, grey day, we felt a little sad face-y too. Looking out the window, it was hard to imagine containers overflowing with ripe veggies any time soon.

We've got our happy faces on with this sunshine today, but we've actually been prepping to plant for weeks (well, for months really, but seedlings are in at the greenhouse!). We've got all sorts of exciting plans for this season to tell you about soon enough (one big exciting one in particular!) but let's start with the first: Gladstone Grow Op.

We're really, very excited to be working with the Gladstone on an installation piece for their inaugural four-day show, Grow Op: Exploring landscape and place. If you've ever been to the Gladstone's amazing, annual Come Up to My Room event, you'll have a rough idea of what to expect. Grow Op follows a similar format, inviting artists and designers to realize their visions within the walls of the historic hotel. The show "will facilitate a cross-disciplinary forum for landscape, garden design, art and place making within the vibrant setting of Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood".

The Gladstone's contribution to local art and their commitment to sustainability made fans of us long ago. Now that we've had a few planning sessions with the Grow Op crew, we're even more smitten.

Our installation, Junk Food is a collaboration between illustrator, artist and About Face art director, Lauren Pirie, multi-disciplinary artist and designer, Mahmood Popal, our own garden coordinator, Natalie Boustead, and SKETCH. It touches on themes of urban food production, food security, sustainable design and Toronto heritage and identity. The "urban foodscape"  is being built using salvaged materials, and home-made milk paint and will grow crops like lettuce and peas.

Watch our blog and the Gladstone Bag for more progress shots and join us from April 25 - 28 at the Grow Op!

Natalie and Mahmood disassembling salvaged materials at HUNTCLUB Studio

Translating the design digitally

Natalie whipping up some milk paint

MONARCHIE | New Works by Virgil Baruchel Opening Tomorrow

We’ve followed Virgil Baruchel from drawing on napkins to drawing on paper, painting on paper to scratching layers of oil stick off canvasses to globbing paint on carpet padding, and from hauling wood and metal from the streets to hand-building beautiful, reclaimed furniture. We’ve followed him from Toronto to Paris to New York, and we’re really, very happy to have him back here again. And we’re really, very excited to see what he’s come up with now.

Virgil has shown his work with us and supported About Face since our very first show. We wouldn't miss his Toronto solo show opening, tomorrow at Stussy Toronto, 1000 Queen St W (at Ossington), and you shouldn't either!

Facebook event here.

See more of Virgil's work here.

Last Weekend for Local Goods at Mutts Fall Shop

Hey T.O! Go check the Fall installment of the Mutts & Co pop-up. Lots of great local clothing, jewelry, goodies and art from the likes of Muttonhead, OSC Cross, Kathryn Macnaughton and more, including canned pies from Nat and cards and prints from Lauren of AFC! This weekend is the last chance to scoop Canadian-made goods like honey, hot sauce and down-filled coats from local creatives and brands. Check the Facebook event for a full list of what's being stocked and, (eek!) it's not too early to start checking off your holiday gift list!

Mutts & Co. Variety Store Ft. All Your Local Faves, On Today through Sunday!

If you follow our happenings on the reg, you've most certainly heard us profess our love for the crew at Toronto-based clothing line, Muttonhead. Not only do they produce their goods right here in the city, using sustainable materials, but they also have a real knack for bringing together the best of local goodness from other creative Canadians.

This week the Mutts prove this yet again with what might be the best and most diverse Muttonhead pop-up shop yet, the Mutts & Co. Variety Store. Parked at Paramour at 94 Ossington (between Queen & Dundas) Paige and crew have curated an awesome little market full of local, reclaimed and fair trade food stuffs, housewares, accessories, magazines, art and, of course, clothing.

Display at Mutts & Co. ft. Stasis Preserves and TwoRibka wooden utensils

Custom 'Real-cycled' wood shelving by Jamie Miller,
upcycled glassware by Artech Studios and Lauren Pirie print

Muttonhead's latest line, designed by Meg Sinclair, is for sale alongside more than ten other local labels and scores like Dumptown's Worm Condos, the side project of the other half of Muttonhead, graphic designer Mel Sinclair.

And we'll be there too! Our pals from Reunion Island Coffee have generously supplied the beans (yet again) for iced americanos, proceeds from which will go toward the Everything Roof. We'll be whipping them up through the weekend. I've been practicing, and I must say, I'm getting good.... and pretty wired, as made obvious by the sign below, made after a couple tester coffees.

Everything Roof illustrated prints will also be sold to benefit the project. Other prints and cards from AFC co-founder, Lauren Pirie will be available as well as prints from AFC supporting artists Kathryn Macnaughton and Talia Shipman, records from the amazing Shad and a back room photo gallery featuring the work of Matthew Crisp and Beau Partlow. 


Okay, enough of the caffeine induced yammering, just come by between now and Sunday. There's even more to see (and taste) there, including (if anyone is down for MORE coffee) Sam James coffee-infused ice cream bars created by Brandon Olsen of Black Hoof (!!!).


Or if you prefer some gin-induced yammering (and shopping!) swing by the launch party on Thursday evening. 


See you there!

Art: This Long Weekend is Your Best (And Last) Chance To See Broadbent Sisters' Spectacular Show

Rose Broadbent with 'Untitled'

Joy Broadbent with 'Crush-Endo'

The Broadbent sisters, whose individual art works you'll remember from our gallery events, have joined forces on a new series. If you missed the June 28th opening, of Boom by Boom make sure you catch the show today or tomorrow. Not only are the mixed-media pieces depicting fireworks and rainbow staircases (coincidentally?) perfect visual additions to this Canada Day and Pride weekend (in more ways than two, depending on your imagination) buuuut, the show also closes tomorrow at 6pm! 

The pieces, which from afar are sometimes reminiscent of delicate, beautiful, intricate textile or ceramic patterns or ethereal fantasy landscapes, can look up-close like pen scribbles on a diary. You need to see them in real life to really appreciate the duality. Get there! Expect explosions.

Boom by Boom recommended in National Post's Things to Do

On today and tomorrow until 6pm at Studio 835, 
835 Bloor St West

Broadbent Sisters' Boom by Boom website 

Boom by Boom in Torontoist