i-Sites - Zones of Calm and Creation
BIG on Bloor celebrates Bloordale’s main streets Summer 2024
i-Sites received My Main Street support to draw visitors and increase vibrancy in the Bloordale Village.
i-Sites launched a series of environmental installations at the BIG on Bloor Festival this past July that invited the public to enter a traffic-calming zone curated by local artists from underrepresented groups. These were safe spaces for self-reflection and artmaking which explored shared spaces.
Familiar locations within the neighbourhood were reimagined; the participants' relationships redefined within these zones to themselves and how others are connected. We hosted conversations that helped people better understand the diverse community the art installations reflected and the collective futures we can foster through collaboratively reimagining and reshaping public spaces to maximize shared value.
BIG encourages and sustains civic participation by providing positive events in the community. Support from My Main Street has positively impacted BIG’s project, especially through the opportunities provided to disenfranchised local artists and through celebrating local businesses.
What is i-Sites?
The “I” is self, focusing on the individual and reflection on the "site" or public spaces, while also highlighting the vision (eyesight) of placemaking.
Each zone was a welcoming area that is judgement free. They were for guests that needed to balance sensory input in a calm environment.
Each site was an environmental art installation created by a local BIPOC artists that encouraged self-reflection and self-led art making.
From meditation to collages, join us in celebrating Bloordale through art and community!
Workshops & Projects:
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Renelyn Quinicot Renelyn Quinicot (she/her) is a queer filipina artist and movement & meditation teacher born and raised in Toronto. She is trained in various styles of mindfulness such as Kundalini Yoga,Yoga Nidrā, Cardio-Dance, Pilates, Sound and more, The events she curates root in an vulnerable exchange of storytelling, resources, and other tools for care to support all. Her facilitation in the wellness and arts communities centres in the belief that the body is a carrier of lineage and story, and explorations of PLAY as a radical reclamation of Self. REST PORTAL - "Big-Care on Bloor!" A tender landing to connect, and reset. Rest Portal combines the healing quality of tools such as ooey-gooey stretches, cathartic, playful shake offs, as well as breathwork, mindful writing and sound-meditations, to support a sense of balance and holistic reset during your lively art-festival experience.
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Collage Booth The i-SITE presented a collage workshop. At the collage booth participants can cut out photography from various magazines to make their own collage. They can also use words to create a poem on their piece. Practicing creativity and freedom in art is an important part of finding one’s artistic identity. There will be an example piece and instructional help to guide the collaging flow.
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Akash Inbakumar is a Tamil-Singalese Canadian artist based in Tkaronto. Their interdisciplinary practice uses installation, costumes, and performance to explore ideas of world-building, mythology, and kinship; entering partnerships with multiple mediums, tools, and processes, they conceive material-kin. These kin represent a world where craft objects play the role of carrying family lineage and storyteller, compared to the colonial west’s nuclear family. Queering the idea of how information can be passed down multi-generational/multi-specie networks. Inbakumar is a recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design University and has shown work at ArtAdress (Oakville) The Robert Mclaughlin Gallery (Oshawa), Artscape Gibraltar Point (Toronto), Patel Brown Gallery (Toronto), Xpace Cultural Center (Toronto) and Riverdale Hub (Toronto). Batik Booth Intro to Batik Dye using non toxic glue and watered down acrylic paint set up for all ages!
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Jennifer Matsalla Jennifer Matsalla is an artist and arts educator who uses various art forms as a meditative way to foster creativity. Her work involves mixed media styles surrounding drawing, painting, and collaging. Trading Cards Create your own trading cards using a mixed media approach. Participants are invited to create their own unique trading cards with collaging materials. People can design their own card from a giant deck of cards. Once completed they can leave the card they made behind and take one that someone else has left. This exciting activity promotes community based artwork that people can keep!
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Clay and Pottery with the Gardiner Museum
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Aerosol Area
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Plumb Paracord Party The Plumb Paracord Party workshop will inspire participants to play with the paracord, tying and untying knots; sharing their knowledge on how to tie knots along the way.
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Kabuté Join Cathleen Calica and Alexus Vernus for a mixed media workshop creating beautiful paper flowers and collaged textile bows.
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Placemaking is an approach that asks people to collectively reimagine and reshape public space to maximize its shared value. We're grateful for the supporters that recognize that importance and have made it possible for i-Sites to present placemaking installations.
The My Main Street Community Activator initiative provides support across southern Ontario for local community placemaking projects, including festivals and events, community enhancements, and streetscape improvements designed to draw visitors and increase local vibrancy. Thank you @mymainst, @canadianurbaninstitute and @feddevontario for supporting local communities and revitalizing main streets. Thank you to all our supporters, participants and visitors for making i-Sites possible!
