Art as Medicine
Art as Medicine
Hosted by: Veronica Johnny
Featuring Indigenous Workshop Facilitators: Joanne Okimawininew Dallaire and Veronica Johnny
Art as Medicine is a half-day workshop that focuses on both traditional and contemporary explorations of the relationship between health and art from an Indigenous perspective.
Par of the Emergence Symposium and NYA’s Beyond Access, Beyond the Creative Workshop Series.
Veronica Johnny
Veronica Johnny is a two-spirit, multi-disciplinary, Indigenous artist. She is Cree/French Metis on her mother’s side and Dene/Scottish First Nation on her father’s side. Veronica is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation; was born and raised in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories and presently lives in Northern Ontario.
From humble musical beginnings, Ms. Johnny has emerged as a dynamic force in the Canadian music & arts industry, working as a performer, producer, manager, promoter, writer, arts educator, workshop facilitator, entrepreneur, youth mentor, cultural knowledge keeper and Cree language advocate.
She is a singer/songwriter, contemporary Indigenous hand-drummer and also the front woman, vocalist and manager of The Johnnys, a high-energy rock’n’roll band she founded with husband Dave Johnny. Veronica has become a seasoned performer as both solo artist and a member of groups, amassed studio experience on either side of the mixing console, manages several artists & facilitates workshops for hundreds of youth, each year.
Joanne Okimawininew Dallaire
Joanne Okimawininew Dallaire LLD is proudly Cree, her ancestry is Omushkego from Attawapiskat and Mattice Ontario and Hull Quebec, calling Toronto home. Joanne has dedicated her career to counselling, advising and educating on Indigenous concerns, empowering and capacity building and advocating for change in terms of broader societal relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.Her over 30-year social service career has contributed to transforming the lives of individuals, and the culture of agencies and the recognition and respect for Indigenous people, concerns and contributions within mainstream society. Joanne facilitates and consults in the not for profit sector and Toronto District School Board, around hiring practices, staff training, group facilitation and policy and procedures development. She sits on several councils and committees.
Joanne received an Honorary Doctor of Laws in the Community Service Faculty at Ryerson University in recognition of her life’s work, the Minaake Award for Leadership, Herbert H Carnegie Amazing Aces Award for Courage, the City of Toronto Access, Equity and Human Rights Awards – Aboriginal Affairs Award.
She sits as the Elder for Ryerson University, Ryerson’s Aboriginal Education Council, and the Truth and Reconciliation directive for 10 years. “Her presence on this council is essential to its ability to work as a cohesive, respectful body responsible for the infusion of Indigenous curriculum, worldviews and overall presence in Ryerson University as a whole. It is in no way an exaggeration to say the progress that is envisioned for Ryerson University in terms of the mandate of the Indigenous Education Council would not be possible without the support, guidance and active engagement of Joanne.”
Joanne’s approaches to working with individuals as well as small and large groups are not only comprehensive but creative, effective and unique. Her work has transformed lives and improved relations between people and the community. She openly shares her own life’s journey through all forms of abuse, intergenerational trauma from Residential School and finding her profound sense of self. http://www.healingworks.ca/
Schedule
12:30-1:00: Registration and Light Refreshments
1:00-1:15: Introductions and Welcomes
1:15- 2:30: Workshop 1
2:30-2:45: Break
2:45-4:00: Workshop 2
4:00-4:30: Closing and De-brief/Networking
Date: November 22, 2018
Hours: 12:30pm-4:30pm
Place: North York Central Library
Address: 5120 Yonge St. North York, ON
About Us
North York Arts (NYA) collaborates with artists, arts organizations, and partners to develop, strengthen, and promote cultural programming and initiatives for North York communities
Contact us
North York Arts
(Toronto Centre for the Arts)
5040 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON, M2N 6R8
info@northyorkarts.org
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Walk Together Children: A Cross – Cultural Celebration
Walk Together Children
Musicians, dancers, and other artists from Toronto’s African, Jewish and Shia Ismaili Muslim diasporas unite in a joyful sharing of their cultural traditions.
Headlined by soprano Denise Williams, the event brings together some of our best-known performers – pianists Brahm Goldhamer and Nina Shapilsky, percussionists Sam Donkoh and Daniel Barnes, clarinettist Ben MacDonald; members of the Toronto Ismaili Muslim Youth Choir, directed by Adrian Savin and Salima Dhanani; and Ismaili dancers. Guest artists include tenor Mitch Smolkin, dub poet Clifton Joseph, dancer Shakeil Rollock, and pianist Babak Naseri.
The program will include songs of inspiration, evocative melodies of yearning, lively dances from Africa, and joyous klezmer numbers, sung in many languages.
The afternoon will also honour Canada’s First Nations by having singer/songwriter Aqua Nibii Waawaaskone open the event.
The event dovetails with the Diamond Jubilee of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, and his aspiration for global pluralism: that the peoples of the world collaborate and learn from one another, and live together in peace.
Presented by the Children of Abraham Collective under the ageis of No Strings Theatre in partnership with North York Arts (NYA).
Pop Up exhibition by Art Ignite:
To compliment Walk together Children, we will be hosting a pop-up exhibition by Art Ignite’s workshop Repainting Perceptions.
Repainting Perceptions was a photo and painting workshop where residents from the Flemingdon and Thorncliffe Park communities had the space to share their stories, challenge religious and cultural stereotyping, and break through social isolation.
Date: Sunday October 14, 2018
Time: 3PM
Place: George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts
Address: 5040 Yonge St, North York, ON M2N 6R8
Website: www.denisewilliamssoprano.com
About Us
North York Arts (NYA) collaborates with artists, arts organizations, and partners to develop, strengthen, and promote cultural programming and initiatives for North York communities
Contact us
North York Arts
(Toronto Centre for the Arts)
5040 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON, M2N 6R8
info@northyorkarts.org
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Toronto Outdoor Picture Show 2018
Toronto Outdoor Picture Show 2018
Toronto Outdoor Picture Show will present an outdoor film series titled “Cinematic Cities” for the Parkway Forest Park community in North York. Each week of this series will explore a different international city’s depiction in cinema – from New York to Toronto, Cannes to Mumbai. Throughout the series, short films set in Toronto will complement the feature films, allowing the programme to explore the diverse stories of our hometown onscreen. The overarching “Cinematic Cities” theme will draw bridges between vibrant and complex cities around the world, while highlighting the people who make each of these cities unique.
We invite you to journey to Parkway Forest Park for a cinematic trip around the world, from your home across the street or across the city, just a stone’s throw from Don Mills station!
Date: Thursday evenings, August 9th to 30th, 2018
Time: TBA
Place: Parkway Forest Park
Address: 80 Parkway Forest Dr, Toronto, ON
Website: topictureshow.com
About Us
North York Arts (NYA) is an arts service organization designed to address the needs and interests of North York artists, arts organizations and residents.
Contact us
North York Arts
(Toronto Centre for the Arts)
5040 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON, M2N 6R8
info@northyorkarts.org
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Community Picnic
Community Picnic
The recent horrific tragedy has caused great sorrow. The Van Attack has also brought this community together.
To commemorate the many thousands of acts of kindness, goodness and love shared between people in the Willowdale community, many local groups and organizations (including the City of Toronto, TDSB, North York Arts, Orchestra Toronto, We Love Willowdale, and many others) are working together to organize a
COMMUNITY PICNIC in Mel Lastman Square!
This picnic will draw to a close the 26 Days of Music on Yonge, one day of music for every person injured or killed here in Willowdale on April 23rd.
So bring your family! Bring your own lunch and eat together as a wide family at tables that will spread across the entire Mel Lastman Square.
There will be kids’ activities, interactive art projects, live music, meditation, and much more!
Date: Monday May 21st, 2018
Time: 11am
Place: Mel Lastman Sqaure
Address: 5100 Yonge St, North York, ON M2N 5V7
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/444475982640709/
About Us
North York Arts (NYA) collaborates with artists, arts organizations, and partners to develop, strengthen, and promote cultural programming and initiatives for North York communities
Contact us
North York Arts
(Toronto Centre for the Arts)
5040 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON, M2N 6R8
info@northyorkarts.org
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Scotiabank Contact Festival: Ghosts of Monsters Exhibition
Ghosts of Monsters Exhibition
Ghosts of Monsters is a photographic installation of neighbourhood architecture, a representation of evolving tastes and an expression of shifting cultural capital. This three-year-long project observes how communities express themselves in outer urban contexts. It is grounded in two photo series, Ghosts of Monsters and ParkHome.
Ghosts of Monsters and ParkHome Details
Ghosts of Monsters
Artist Paola Poletto set out to photograph postwar homes for sale in a one kilometre square section of north Toronto known as Willowdale with the intention of returning to re-photograph the various sites after they were sold. Her goal was to combine the images of the older homes before their demolition (a.k.a. the “Ghost”) with the newer and much larger multi-level Neo-Eclectic replacement house (a.k.a. the “Monster”) that would inevitably assert their position on the various sites explored. This resulted in a series of 6 composite images overlaying the two types of homes on top of one another.
ParkHome
For the ParkHome series and bookwork, a street composition of 56 homes along Park Home Avenue combines the diverse front façades as viewed from the street with a backyard view of their collective landscape taken from the perspective of the adjoining cemetery. The conceptual narrative begins and ends with a military tank pointed toward City Hall, Queens Park, Lake Ontario, Tarontha, Taronto, Toranto, Torento, Toronto, Toronton, Tkaronto – “where there are trees standing in the water.”
The project set out to reflect the diversity of settlers, represented by their domestic architecture. The absence of bodies in these photographs avoids documentary as an endpoint. It is impossible to see neither ghosts nor monsters when viewing the source images independently. But when they are superimposed as a photocollage, we enable our imaginative eye to see into fluctuating and impermanent worlds that surround us every day. Indeed, a narrative that disrupts the idea of the colonial “heritage home” is also implied. And Willowdale’s most commonly used languages —English, Chinese, Farsi and Korean—are preset alongside the photo collages within the bookwork, considering multiple voices through the process of translation.
About the Artist(s)
Paola Poletto’s work shifts between DIY and institutional-based practice. Comfortable in both artistic and creative paradigms, she is consistently fascinated with representations of collaborative productions where visual constructions are transformed into rigorous narratives that express multiple points of view. Paola’s independent practice includes photography, bookmaking, installations and project management. She is the independent curator of several art/lit projects which include: Kiss Machine (2000-5), Inflatable Museum (2001), Girls and Guns (2004), Boredom Fighters! (2008), Tel-talk: art interventions in telephone booths (2012) and Oh Dear: public art (2013).
Ghosts of Monsters is produced by Paola Poletto with Flavio Trevisan, Brendan George Ko and Paul Hong. Writer Paul Hong contributes a speculative fiction set amongst the urbanscapes explored, photo-based artist Brendan George Ko worked with Paola to create the photo collages, and artist and founder of Hex Editions, Flavio Trevisan, collaborated on the design and production of the bookwork, PARKHOME, for OOL imprint.
Exhibition Dates: May 10 – 27, 2018
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 1 – 6 pm;
Weekend Hours: Saturday May 26 and Sunday May 27, 10 am – 5 pm
Place: Toronto Centre for the Arts, Lower Gallery, 5040 Yonge Street
About Us
North York Arts (NYA) is an arts service organization designed to address the needs and interests of North York artists, arts organizations and residents.
Contact us
North York Arts
(Toronto Centre for the Arts)
5040 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON, M2N 6R8
info@northyorkarts.org
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Doors Open
Save the Date! Doors open Toronto 2018
NYA is excited to be participating in Doors Open Toronto this year alongside Toronto Centre for the Arts. For more information on TCA programming click here.
This year, Doors Open Toronto will shine the spotlight on the city’s film and television industry. NYA will be showcasing Ghost of Monsters – part of the Scotiabank CONTACT festival, and more!
Date: May 26 – 27, 2018
Place: Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St.
About Us
North York Arts (NYA) collaborates with artists, arts organizations, and partners to develop, strengthen, and promote cultural programming and initiatives for North York communities
Contact us
North York Arts
(Toronto Centre for the Arts)
5040 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON, M2N 6R8
info@northyorkarts.org
Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm
Myseum Intersections: From the Drum to the DJ and Beyond
From the Drum to the DJ and Beyond
Toronto is a place where traditions converge, evolve and transform. From the Drum to the DJ and Beyond is an exploration of drumming traditions that have found a home in Toronto. Participants will learn about the influence these beats have on turntablism and beat-making, now and into the future.
Part of Myseum Intersections: An annual festival that explores intersectional perspectives of Toronto through collaborative exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours.
Presented in partnership with Love Music Initiative, Aqua Music, and Ephraim’s Place Community Centre.
Date: March 24 2018
Time: 2 – 5pm
Place: Ephraim’s Place Community Centre
MyseumX Shuttle Bus will be available on March 24, please register here.
Schedule
2 – 2:45pm
Indigenous Drum Circle facilitated by Aqua Music
3 – 3:30pm
Presentation of Drum to DJ hosted by Love Music Initiative with Aqua Music
3:30 – 4:30pm
Drum to DJ presentation with hands-on demos facilitated by Love Music Initiative
4:30pm
Open community jam
5pm
Community dinner
The Freshman
SLAPSTICK BY STARLIGHT
Open-air screening of “The Freshman”
A silent comedy film with a live musical score by The Holy Grasp.
The classic Harold Lloyd silent comedy The Freshmen is reinvented with a brand-new live musical score! Toronto musicians The Holy Gasp have composed original music for the film, and will perform their score alongside the film. Fans of Toronto Outdoor Picture Show’s previous live-score screenings will not want to miss this latest production. A must-see event!
Saturday, August 26th 2017
Eats & Treats @ 7pm. Film @ 8:30pm
Free
BYOBlanket & Chairs
Accessible venue
Film will be screened with intertitles
Parkway Forest Park, North York
80 Parkway Forest Dr, Toronto, ON, Canada
Scheduled rain date: August 29, Parkway Forest Park
Blowout Symposium
BLOWOUT SYMPOSIUM
Blowout Fest 2017
A Collaborative mixed media experience to celebrate Deeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival’s 50th anniversary through Caribbean and Afro-Diasporic art.
Toronto Urban Book Expo – What a Bam Bam Visual Arts Exhibit Creatives Connect Live: Interview with Pete Rock & CL Smooth Moderated by Saukrates.
Sunday, August 6th 2017
12pm- 8pm
Toronto Centre for the Arts
5040 Yonge St, North York, ON M2N 6R8
Gallery Space & Studio Theatre
