GATHERINGS AND EVENTS
The Living Don: A Walk with John Wilson
Caption: John Wilson, Aasiya H. with Deer / Don Forks
The Living Don: A River Walk with John Wilson
When: Wed., July 20, 2022 6 – 9 pm
Start and end: Evergreen Brick Works Courtyard, outside the Café
Route: Circular 5 km. walk on paved, flat multi-use paths and park trails, accessible for mobility devices.
Public transit: Check the Evergreen Brick Works web site.
Leader: John Wilson, Lost River Walks leader and former Chair, Task Force to Bring Back the Don
This walk will encounter the Don River as part of a living urban ecology. Along our route we will see Evergreen Brick Works, the Don River fish ladder, Beechwood wetland, Cottonwood Flats, Sun Valley, Crothers Woods and Taylor’s Middle Mill site. We will explore the story of the Don River – from Wonscotonach Indigenous landscape to post-industrial urban wild-land – a landscape of restoration and hope in a profoundly changing environment.
Rain or shine: In case of inclement weather we will explore the sheltered environment of the Don Valley Brick Works Park.
Free. Donations to Lost River Walks program of Toronto Green Community will be gratefully accepted.
This guided walk is presented as part of Mare Liberum's 'In Which We Draw A People's Map of the Don' project, through a partnership between Evergreen's Public Art Program and Waterfront Toronto’s Temporary Public Art program.
The project is made possible through generous support from ArtworxTO and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Funeral for a River
Caption: still from pollution probe’s documentation of the 1969 funeral for the don
Funeral for a River: A Puppet Procession and Open Studio Gathering at Evergreen Brick Works
When: Wed., July 13, 2022 4 – 8 pm
Start and end: Evergreen Brick Works Building 1 (The Burrow)
Organized by Brandon Latcham and Shannon Gerard, with Mare Liberum
In 1969, the future organizers of Pollution Probe – now one of Canada’s most influential and longest-running environmental justice groups – held a funeral performance for the “deceased” Don River. This shallow, meandering river had been colonized, dredged, straightened, industrialized, and eventually left to stagnate at the core of the city. This celebrated Funeral was both a performance and a protest, a gesture of resistance and a refusal to accept a world so full of harm, and a launching point for later work to “reclaim the Don.”
Today, with the Don River Valley experiencing a resurgence of interest and attention and the Don River greeting more visitors in the COVID era than perhaps ever before, we ask, “What is the future of the River Don?” How does the Port Lands Flood Protection Project and the Don Mouth Renaturalization project, on the one hand, vie with propositions for the future use of the Don Valley by Metrolinx and other developments on the other hand? What will increased density and urban development along the edges of the Ravines spell for the Valley’s fragile ecosystem(s)? What might we have lost, or what might we stand to either lose or gain? More broadly, as we are living through a time of loss – from mass extinction and global extreme climate events, to personal and collective/cultural loss in the current global pandemic – how might we reinterpret the funeral for a river as a chance to hold a ritual or ceremony that recognizes what is both lost and what might possibly be regained? How might a funeral for a river present both an end point and a new beginning?
We will walk from Evergreen to the Don, in a procession of puppets and boats. At the Don, we will pause to read, sit quietly, meditate, be with time.
Please bring something to share with others or to sit with and hold close - writing, a poem, a word, a memory, a loss, a gain, something you wish to be rid of, something you’d like to hold onto.
Following the procession, we will reconvene at Building 1/the Burrow at Evergreen Brick Works for dinner (food trucks on site - or bring your own).
Rain or shine.
Free.
——
This guided walk is presented as part of Mare Liberum's 'In Which We Draw A People's Map of the Don' project, through a partnership between Evergreen's Public Art Program and Waterfront Toronto’s Temporary Public Art program.
The project is made possible through generous support from ArtworxTO and the Canada Council for the Arts.
What Does the River Remember: Boat Build Demo with OCAD U x Mare Liberum
On Saturday October 23 from 9am to 1pm, join print & publications artists from OCAD U as they build boats, print posters and assemble zines as part of the ongoing public art project with New York-based boatbuilding and water-borne art collective Mare Liberum. Their project In Which We Draw a People’s Map of the Don River explores the relationship between the Don River and its environmental and social history, creating new pathways and maps for the future of the watershed.
Screenprint your own poster. Take home plans for building your own boat! And share your stories of the Don River via our newly launched Don River Radio website and hotline.
The collaborative project, In Which We Draw a People’s Map of the Don River is presented in partnership between Waterfront Toronto’s Temporary Public Art Program, and Evergreen’s Public Art Program.
This project is made possible through generous support from ArtworxTO and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Artist as Policy Shaper: A Conversation and Grey Paper Workshop (Part 2)
Building on the recent public panel “Artist As Policy Shaper,” and working toward a participatory public boat build and art project on the Don River Valley in 2021, this session aims to aggregate diverse theories of art, engagement, mitigation, public use, and preservation in environmentally sensitive urban sites.
The workshop will generate a dynamic grey paper encompassing specific and broadly applicable best practices for artists and urban designers working collaboratively toward just environmental policy.
The grey paper will be released as part of an interactive website that will function as an evolving creative, logistical, and ethical map for Mare Liberum’s project navigating the Lower Don Valley next year.
Artist as Policy Shaper: A Conversation and Grey Paper Workshop (Part 1)
Moving beyond traditional forms of public art and monument-making, artists who lead conceptual practices that work on, through, and in questions of policy, social practice, and performance are increasingly being given a seat at the table to weigh in on policy decisions.
Join us for a panel discussion led by New York-based artist collective Mare Liberum, who will convene artists, writers, thinkers and policymakers to reflect on recent art and policy collaborations, as part of their new public art project which will unfold in Toronto in 2021, presented by Waterfront Toronto, Evergreen and The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Free and open to the public, but please REGISTER here for access to the livestream. The evening will take the form of a series of short presentations followed by a discussion and Q&A.
A follow-up event scheduled this fall will convene a working group aiming to produce an outline for a grey paper on the role of artists as policy-shapers. Artists, policymakers, Don River enthusiasts, naturalists, and the interested public are invited to attend and lend their opinion to this community-drafted document.
Speakers:
Brian McBay, Executive Director of 221A, Vancouver
Carolyn King, Founder of the Moccasin Project and Former Elected Chief of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation
Diya Vij, Curator and Cultural Producer, New York City
Dylan Gauthier, Kendra Sullivan and Sunita Prasad, Members of Artist Collective Mare Liberum
Jane Weninger, Senior Planner, City of Toronto
Pamila Matharu, Toronto-based Artist, Cultural Producer and Educator
Moderated by Kari Cwynar, Senior Curatorial Advisor, Evergreen
About the Speakers:
Pamila Matharu is an immigrant-settler of north Indian Panjabi-Sikh descent, born in Birmingham, England, based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). As an artist, she explores a range of transdisciplinary feminist issues, blurring the lines between objects, activism, community organizing, and public pedagogies. Her practices include object making (installation, collage, film/video/photography), curating/organizing, artist-led teaching, arts administration/advocacy, and social practice.
Carolyn King is the former elected Chief of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation and completed one two-year term in political office from December 1997 to December 1999. She was the first woman ever elected as Chief of her First Nation. As the sole proprietor of JDI Business Services, her goal is to be a facilitator/resource person for Aboriginal/First Nation Peoples in Canada. She is engaged by government, colleges and universities, businesses and community organizations to do cross-cultural training sessions/presentations to help people develop a better understanding of Aboriginal/First Nations Peoples in Canada. As a First Nation employee for nearly 20 years with the Consultation and Outreach Office of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, King has hands-on experience and an in-depth knowledge of her First Nation community. In 2012 she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of my support for First Nation history and the advancement of Aboriginal Peoples. In 2011, Carolyn King launched the Moccasin Identifier Project in partnership with Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Ontario Greenbelt, to promote public awareness of significant cultural historic sites and the ancestral presence of First Nations, Metis and Indigenous Communities. For more information on the project, please visit https://moccasinidentifier.com/.
Brian McBay (pronouns he/him/his) is Executive Director of 221A, a non-profit organization that works with Artists and Designers to research and develop social, cultural and ecological infrastructure based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh first nations in the city known as Vancouver. Under his leadership, 221A operates a growing network of over 54,000ft2 across five properties in Vancouver that provide space for cultural research, public art and affordable artist studios. He is known for applying his unique skill set and training as an industrial designer to non-profit property design, construction and regulation. As a student Co-founder of 221A during the height of the 2007-08 global economic crisis, he is part of a new generation of leaders in the cultural sector aiming to reverse deepening inequality, xenophobia and colonialism in Canada. In addition to his role at 221A, he was named a 2018 Fellow at the Salzburg Global Forum, was the President of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres from 2018–2020, and is currently a member of the City of Vancouver's Arts and Culture Advisory Committee, a member of the newly founded Chinese-Canadian Museum Board of Directors, and a member of the National Gallery of Canada Board of Trustees.
Diya Vij is an independent curator and cultural producer in New York City who critically investigates the evolving role of public art in politics and civic life. Over the past decade, she has held programming, curatorial, and communications positions at the High Line, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), and the Queens Museum. As the Associate Curator of Public Programs at the High Line, Vij organized dozens of live events and performances with artists, activists, practitioners, and healers. At DCLA, Vij launched and co-directed the Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) program, a municipal residency program that embeds artists into city agencies to address New York City’s most pressing issues. Participating artists have included Tania Bruguera, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Onyedika Chuke, and Ebony Noelle Golden. Additionally, she was a project lead for the Agency’s citywide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative, and played an active role in public monument efforts, and CreateNYC — New York City’s first cultural plan. A former curatorial fellow and communications manager at the Queens Museum, Vij received her MA in Art History from Hunter College in 2015 and her BA from Bard College in 2008.
Jane Weninger is a Senior Planner with the City of Toronto where she is responsible for green space system planning in Canada's largest city. Working at the intersection of urban planning and the natural environment, Jane represents the City of Toronto in the establishment of the Rouge National Urban Park and was instrumental in the development of numerous city-wide strategies and policies, including the Toronto Biodiversity Strategy and the Toronto Ravine Strategy. After completing a work program to identify and recognize environmentally significant areas across the city, Jane collaborated with visual artist Robert Burley on the Enduring Wilderness project which includes a book and photography exhibition about Toronto's natural parklands commissioned by the City of Toronto. Jane believes that nature and the city can co-exist and that natural landscapes are fundamental to the quality of urban life. Jane sits on the Board of Directors for the John B. Aird Gallery, a not for pubic profit art gallery in Toronto.
Mare Liberum (Speakers: Dylan Gauthier, Kendra Sullivan and Sunita Prasad) is a collective of visual artists, designers, and writers who formed around a shared engagement with the world’s waterways in 2007. As part of a mobile, interdisciplinary, and pedagogical practice, the collective has designed and built boats, published broadsides, essays, and books, invented water-related art and educational forums, and collaborated with diverse institutions in order to produce public talks, collaborative exhibitions, participatory works, and voyages. Mare Liberum has presented work at the Centre Pompidou - Musée national d'art moderne, Paris, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, the Parrish Art Museum, MASS MoCA, the Neuberger Museum, and EFA Project Space, among others. The collective is Jean Barberis, Dylan Gauthier, Ben Cohen, Stephan von Muehlen, Arthur Poisson, Sunita Prasad, and Kendra Sullivan.
About the Organizations:
Evergreen, a not-for-profit organization, has provoked bold action in transforming public landscapes into thriving community spaces. We believe that connecting people, natural and built worlds create flourishing cities for the future. Evergreen’s Art Program at the Evergreen Brick Works site and through the Don River Valley Park is a series of temporary, site-specific public art projects.
Waterfront Toronto is the public advocate and steward of waterfront revitalization. Created by the Governments of Canada and Ontario and the City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto is mandated to deliver a revitalized waterfront.
The Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center encourages collaborative, creative, and community-engaged work in the humanities at CUNY and across the City of New York through public programming, projects, seminars, conferences, publications, and exhibitions.