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

Happy Women's Day! Everyone Should Be This Lucky

We shared this video from Miss Representation last year on International Women's Day and we think it's worthy of showing again... and again and again. Notwithstanding all the achievements and progresses we have made — we're much closer to parity in education and workforce — there is still a major disparity in the number of women we see in leadership roles. Because of this, we here at About Face are especially thankful for our situation.


Cause and Effect: How the Media You Consume Can Change Your Life from Miss Representation on Vimeo.


Though the numbers in the Non-profit sector are slightly more favorable (sadly, we're calling 21% more favorable [based on US stats]) there's still a long, long way to go to achieve equal representation. So, we'd like to take a moment to call out and thank our mentors at SKETCH and Centre For Social Innovation, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of whom happen to be women. How 'bout them stats?

Tonya Surman, CEO and Karine Jaouich, Director of Operations at CSI; and Phyllis Novack, Artistic Director and Founder, Rudy Ruttiman, Executive Director and Rose Gutierrez, Program Director at SKETCH, and a shout-out to Jessica Hazen, former Director of Stakeholder Engagements at CSI: you are awesome. Thank you for believing in and supporting us, for being amazing role models and all-round powerhouses, and for doing good and important things. We only wish that our situation were more common. The positive impact of seeing more women in leadership ripples out in so many ways. Check this report by FEMinc and Take The Lead.

We'd also like to thank every other incredible, talented and hard-working woman and girl who has supported us over the years, but we'll call out a couple of particularly influential ones: our strong and loving moms. One last, important thank-you: to all the men who support women. We sure have a lot of great ones in our lives. They know that empowering women makes life better for us all.

Via missrepresentation.org

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!

A Workshop for (New)Bees!

Join local beekeepers, Gurushabd and Zack at the Carrot Commons Green Roof this weekend for an intro to urban beekeeping! Fun! Bees are an integral part of our eco-system. These experts will fill you in on the whys and hows and help you get some honey out of it. They know what's up!

For more info contact Gurushabd at gurushabd@hogtownhoney.com

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