Profile: The Toronto Fringe

The Toronto Fringe is more than just a summer festival. Youth and artists outreach activities, The Next Stage Theatre Festival, Tent Talks, and ongoing events throughout the year serve the theatre community at large. The Fringe Creation Lab, at the Centre for Social Innovation Annex, “welcomes independent artists year round, encouraging their creative work by offering them affordable space to make art, congregate and innovate.” (Lisa, ArtBridges)

Profile: The Toronto Fringe
Status: Charitable organization
Main communities served: Everyone
Location/Region served: City of Toronto
Language used: English
Arts focus: Theatre, dance, performing arts, visual arts
Summary of Main Art Activities: The Toronto Fringe provides creative opportunities for artists and audiences by producing two important festivals – the Toronto Fringe Festival and the Next Stage Theatre Festival – and by running outreach activities that benefit youth, artists and the theatre community at large. Our home, the Fringe Creation Lab at the Centre for Social Innovation Annex, welcomes independent artists year round, encouraging their creative work by offering them affordable space to make art, congregate and innovate.
Mandate: The Toronto Fringe provides access to creative opportunities for artists and audiences.
Strengths: We offer affordable opportunities for performing artists to produce their work, as well as subsidized rehearsal space starting at $6/hour.
Contact: general@fringetoronto.com
Phone number: 416-966-1062
E-mail: general@fringetoronto.com
Website: www.fringetoronto.com
Address: 720 Bathurst Street, Suite 403

- submitted by the Toronto Fringe

To read other ArtBridges’ posts about the Toronto Fringe, please click here.
See ArtBridges’ Google map for contact info.

For ArtBridges/ToileDesArts sponsorship opportunities: Simon Constam, Sponsorship Director, simon@artbridges.ca, 905-537-7227
Return to ArtBridges/ToileDesArts homepage

Profile: Black Bird North Arts (ON)

Black Bird North Arts is based in Ottertail Bruce Mines, Ontario, but works with First Nations communities from across the province. They are currently collaborating on a mural arts project with Mississauga First Nation in Blind River, Ontario, that partners youth with Elders from the community. Past initiatives include a community revitalization project in Attawapiskat First Nation that saw their local band office transformed.
(Cora, ArtBridges)

Profile: Black Bird North Arts
Status: Not-for-profit project and organization
Community Served: Youth, Adults, Elders, First Nations
Arts Focus: Community murals, painting workshops, installations
Language(s): English
Location: Bruce Mines, Ontario – Huron Shore – Lake Superior
Mandate: To create community mural projects with youth. Workshops and site specific art projects with northern, including fly-in remote, communities that may have limited access to arts programming.
Main Arts Activities / Projects:
- Black Bird North Arts is currently working with Mississauga First Nation located in Blind River, Ontario. The youth mural project collaborates with an Elder’s painting workshop. Throughout the process youth and Elders will have an opportunity to share images and ideas. A community feast follows in June 2013.
- Ongoing workshops facilitated by resident guest artist at Black Bird Studio.
Contact: Sharon Hunter
Phone Number: 705-785-3789
E-mail: blackbirdnortharts@yahoo.ca
Website: In development. Visit the Facebook page and BlackBirdNorthArt.Tumblr.com
Address: PO Box #7, R.R. #2, Ottertail-Bruce Mines, ON P0R 1C0

- Submitted by Sharon Hunter, Black Bird North Arts
All photos courtesy of Black Bird North Arts

TOP: Photo by Adam Biehler, taken in Attawapiskat, Ontario
BELOW: Before and after photos of Attawapiskat Band Office

See ArtBridges’ Google map for contact info.

For ArtBridges/ToileDesArts sponsorship opportunities: Simon Constam, Sponsorship Director, simon.constam@gmail.com, 905-537-7227
Return to ArtBridges/ToileDesArts homepage

Profile: Aanmitaagzi (North Bay, ON)

Read our post about Aanmitaagzi. Located in North Bay, it is a multi-disciplinary professional artist-run company serving artists and community members from Nipissing First Nation and the surrounding area, and linked to provincial and national networks.

Profile: Aanmitaagzi
Co-productions:
When Will You Rage?
With Penny Couchie and Alejandro Ronceria
Violence the Next Generation
With Spiderwoman Theatre
Community Arts Project:
Dances of Resistance
A three year community engaged arts project which will culminate in a large scale theatre production.
Status: Not-for-profit
Community Served: Community members of the Nipissing First Nation, North Bay and the surrounding area. Of special focus are Aboriginal and intergenerational participants.
First Nation: Anishinabe, Mohawk, Sto:lo
Arts Focus: Multi-arts: dance / theatre, visual arts, song, videography and interdisciplinary collaboration
Language(s): English.
Location: Nipissing First Nation, North Bay
Mandate: Aanmitaagzi is a multi-disciplinary professional artist-run company serving artists and community members from Nipissing First Nation and the surrounding area, and linked to provincial and national networks. We are committed to fostering a vibrant arts community in Nipissing, nurturing traditional Aboriginal arts practices which span a middle ground between professional and community arts, and exploring how we can carry forward our traditional practices in a meaningful contemporary context. Aanmitaagzi combines art making, education, professional development & social activism.
Vision: We believe that through the arts we can…

Profile: Rue Studio (Sheguiandah, Manitoulin Island, ON)

Profile: Rue Studio
Status: Non-profit
Community Served: Rue Studio is open to everyone in the universe!
Arts Focus: The focus is always changing here – we have a printmaking studio (stone lithography, screen printing, relief printing), sewing stations, musical instruments paired with great acoustics, an heirloom garden for digging into, ample floor space for dancing, and neighbouring wilderness for land art projects and outdoor installations.
Language(s): English, Lithuanian, French and some Anishinaabemowin
Location: Sheguiandah, on Manitoulin Island, Ontario
Mandate: The focus here is social and eco-justice, bridging communities and offering a neutral, comfortable space for people to bring their ideas and identities. We trust in art and see it as a powerful form of expression and communication.
Main Arts Activities/Projects: Rue Studio offers a residency program which welcomes artists of all disciplines to spend a week or two on-site completing a project of their choice. We also run workshops varying in themes from bookbinding to sauerkraut making to organic gardening techniques. The studio hosts several events throughout the year, including musical performances, clothing swaps and art show in the on-site gallery. We are currently working with 4elements Living Arts, a local community-based organization (4elementslivingarts.org) on “The Bonnie Blink Project” which involves Queen’s University Geography students, artists and community members investigating land use histories, alternative mapping exercises and story sharing.
Contact: Ruta Tribinevicius
Phone Number: (705) 368-1438
E-mail: ruta@riseup.net
Website: www.ruestudio.ca
Address: 100 Townline Road, Sheguiandah, Manitoulin Island, ON P0P 1W0

Submitted by Ruta Tribinevicius, Rue Studio
All photos courtesy of Ruta Tribinevicius

Please see ArtBridges’ Google Map for location and contact information.

Profile: Red Sky Performance (Toronto)

Profile: Red Sky Performance
Status: Not-for-profit
Community Served: Adults, family, children, and First Nations, new generations
Arts Focus: English
Location: Toronto
Mandate: Internationally renowned for its artistry and innovation, Red Sky Performance is Canada’s leading company of world Indigenous performance in dance, theatre and music. This multi-award-winning Toronto-based company was founded by Artistic Director Sandra Laronde in 2000.
Red Sky creates, produces and tours original work for adult and family audiences on stages across Canada and the world. Our work highlights the originality, promise and potential of what is possible within Indigenous contemporary performance.
Since its inception, Red Sky has captured and ignited the imagination of close to 450,000 people from nine countries on four continents.
Red Sky serves to introduce audiences to the excitement of contemporary Indigenous artistic genres and originality. A core element of our mission is to provide a deep and positive experience of contemporary Indigenous culture.
Main Arts Activities/Projects:
THE GREAT MOUNTAIN – is an eco-adventure story in the guise of an action-packed play that entertains and empowers the imaginations of children and families alike. This production enjoyed 20 performances on the mainstage of Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre, and then toured extensively across Canada and the United States, reaching over 30,000 children since touring in February 2012.

TONO – is the winner of a 2010 Dora Mavor Moore Award and two awards at the 2010 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. Tono is a visually brilliant dance and live music creation that connects the world Indigenous cultures of Canada, the United States, Mongolia and China. Tono is heavily grounded in the theme of horse culture, spanning plains traditions in Asia and North America. Tono’s world stage line-up includes: the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad; opening for the 2010 World Expo Shanghai in China; 2008 Beijing Cultural Olympiad; Meet in Beijing Festival; International Arts and Culture Festival in Inner Mongolia; State Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; The Banff Centre; Luminato Festival; Montreal’s Place des Arts, and opened the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards at Edmonton’s Jubilee Theatre to 2,000 people which was also televised with a reach of 30 million on APTN and Global Television.

DEEP WATERS PROJECT – In 2008, Red Sky launched a new pilot project called the Deep Waters Project with the Temagami Artistic Collective to respond to the challenges of Temagami, Bear Island Reserve and the surrounding communities in northern Ontario. The two main objectives of Deep Waters: (1) the development of northern Aboriginal presenters, and (2) the sustainability of arts presentation within Aboriginal communities.

COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS – Red Sky engages in both short and long term projects with communities, offering development revitalization projects, outreach and mentoring initiatives, lecture presentations, company classes, workshops, and open rehearsals to enrich our communities.
Contact: Sandra Laronde, Artistic Director
Phone Number: (416) 585-9969
E-mail: sandra@redskyperformance.com
Website: www.redskyperformance.com
Address: 401 Richmond St. W., Suite 420, Toronto, ON M5V 3A8

Submitted by Tanya D’Souza, Executive Assistant, Red Sky Performance
Photos from a production of Tono, courtesy of Don Lee

Please see ArtBridges’ Google map for more information.

Profile: Artcirq (Igloolik, NU)

Profile: Artcirq
Status: Not-for-profit organization
Community Served: Children, youth and adults
Arts Focus: Circus, media arts, music
Language(s): Inuktitut, English
Location: Igloolik, Nunavut
Mandate: Bridge traditional culture to modern artistic practices in order to create meaningful and creative works through the performing arts, music and video as well as to allow Inuit artists to express and redefine themselves in their changing world.
Main Arts Activities/Projects: To offer open regular circus and Inuit games workshops to children and youth in the community of Igloolik as well as to give unique and uplifting performances to audiences in Igloolik, in other northern communities and around the world to inspire others and represent Inuit culture.
Since the group’s foundation in 1999, Artcirq has performed for all types of events including several performances at various arts festivals across Canada, at the Canadian Ambassador’s Residence in Paris for the 10th Anniversary Celebrations for the creation of Nunavut, under the World Wildlife Foundation Arctic Tent at the United Nations COP15 Climate Change submit in Copenhagen, in the Sahara desert during the Festival du Desert (Essekane, Mali) and in BC Place Stadium for the Victory Celebrations at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.
Contact: Guillaume Saladin
Website: www.artcirq.org

Submitted by Cara Di Staulo, Artcirq
Photo courtesy of Artcirq

Please see ArtBridges’ Google map for more information.

Profile: Raven Spirit Dance (Vancouver and the Yukon)

Profile: Raven Spirit Dance
Status: Not-for-profit
Community Served: Raven Spirit Dance works with many communities, including dancers (Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal/professional and non-professional), the artistic community, designers of many disciplines and our own local communities that include youth and seniors. We also work with other communities when we tour and travel.
Arts Focus: Contemporary Aboriginal Dance Company
Language: English
Location: Reside in Vancouver, BC but with strong creative connections to the Yukon
Mandate: Raven Spirit Dance Society’s mandate is to create, develop and produce exceptional contemporary dance that is rooted in traditional and contemporary Aboriginal worldview.
Main Arts Activities/Projects: Raven Spirit is active in contemporary dance and Aboriginal communities by teaching, facilitating workshops, mentoring and residencies. In 2012, Raven Spirit performed shows from 4 different works and recently toured Gathering Light nationally with performances at the Canada Dance Festival, Rubaboo Festival, Adaka Festival and at K.I.A.C. in Dawson City, Yukon. The company is currently in research, development and creation with 4 new projects – Northern Journey, Confluence, La Espalda and a new TYA (theatre for young audiences) show.
Contact: Janice Beley, General Manger
Phone Number: (604) 646-0010
E-mail: info@ravenspiritdance.com
Website: www.ravenspiritdance.com
Address: 677 Davie Street, 7th floor, Vancouver, BC V6B 2G6

Submitted by Janice Beley, Raven Spirit Dance

Above left: Ashes on the Water / Performer: Jeanette Kotowich / Photo Credit: Chris Randle
Above right: Frost Exploding Trees Moon / Performer: Michelle Olson / Photo Credit: Chris Randle

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Profile: Dancers of Damelahamid (West Vancouver)

Profile: Dancers of Damelahamid
Status: Not-for-profit
Community Served: Youth, adults
Arts Focus: Dance
Language(s): English
Location: West Vancouver
Mandate: Dancers of Damelahamid Artistic Mandate:
- To revive First Nations’ heritage through story, dance and song in order for our ancestral knowledge to be understood, accepted and maintained by future generations as their cultural identity.
- To further cross-cultural acceptance by establishing our heritage within the greater community.
- To foster a greater understanding of the richness of First Nations’ culture.
Main Arts Activities/Projects: Since 2004, the Dancers of Damelahamid has established itself as a preeminent professional Aboriginal dance company that has self-produced several theatre based productions, and the creation of newly choreographed dance works while asserting time honoured practices. The first full-length works choreographed and produced – Setting the Path (2004), Sharing the Spirit (2007) and Visitors Who Never Left (2009) – carried forward the traditional dances. Dancing our Stories (2010) and Spirit and Tradition (2010)  as well as their current signature dance piece Spirit Transforming (2012) – began the creation of new dance pieces, although still based on our traditional forms. It is the current directive of the Dancers of Damelahamid to redefine and characterize our practice to honour this history in order that the dances may continue to be tangible and accessible for the next generations.

Dancers of Damelahamid have facilitated and presented workshops and outreach activities on story, song and dance for K-12 schools, post-secondary institutions, and museums. This important work supports the company’s mandate and ability to influence social change through art.

Upcoming project… The Coastal First Nations Dance Festival March 6-10, 2013
The Dancers of Damelahamid produce the annual Coastal First Nations Dance Festival in partnership with the UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. The Festival is a celebration of the stories, songs and dances of the Indigenous peoples of the northwest coast of North America. The festival presents the rich cultural traditions practiced by dance groups from British Columbia, the Yukon, Alaska and Washington State as well as guest international artists and demonstrates that these traditions are very much alive, vibrant and relevant today.

Contact: Margaret Grenier, Executive and Artistic Director
Phone Number: (604) 922-5277
E-mail: info@damelahamid.ca
Website: www.damelahamid.ca
Address: 200-100 Park Royal South, West Vancouver, BC, V7T 1A2

Posted with permission from Margaret Grenier, Dancers of Damelahamid
Photo credit: Ana Pedrero

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Profile: Scarborough Arts (Scarborough, ON)

Profile: Scarborough Arts
Status: Not-for-profit charitable organization
Community served: Youth, Children, Adults, Seniors in Scarborough
Region served: Scarborough
Languages used: English (portions of website translated into Tagalog, Tamil, Mandarin, Cantonese, French)
Arts focus: Multi-arts (visual, media, theatre, dance, music, literary)

Summary of Main Art Activities: Scarborough Arts has maintained a solid roster of programs for many years, and places great emphasis on strong partnerships with locally embedded community and arts organizations. As the only Local Arts Service Organization in the east end, our projects aim to span the gaps throughout Scarborough’s under-served and Priority Neighbourhoods, providing programs and services that emphasize community engagement, provide professional development to artists and teach broadly based, transferable skills to youth.
Selected recent activities include:
Kaleidoscope is an intercultural arts program that helps school communities across Scarborough explore cultural diversity and creative expression through the arts. With the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Kaleidoscope visits schools in under-served communities across Scarborough, providing activities including digital storytelling, mural art, music, performing arts and creative movement/dance.

EAST is a 3-year program for youth where participants create, write and record original music while learning about project management and event planning, under the guidance of industry professionals. EAST uses the universal medium of arts and creativity to encourage healthy, innovative forms of self expression, teach broadly based transferable life skills, provide new and engaging social experiences, help identify future post-secondary and employment directions, and provide direct employment preparation training.

The Big Art Book is a fresh assortment of creativity for community members of all ages from across Scarborough. Featuring a digital anthology of work by local and emerging artists and writers and a variety of activities, The Big Art Book provides a free, accessible opportunity for Scarborough residents to share creative ideas, meet others and engage with local creative communities.

Mandate/Mission: Scarborough Arts develops, delivers and promotes arts programming and cultural initiatives in collaboration and partnership with the community. We bring artists to the community and the community to the arts.
Vision: Scarborough is a diverse community with a creative pulse. Our lives are connected and enriched by all forms of art and culture in which everyone can participate.
Scarborough Arts Values:
• All forms of creative and artistic expression
• Innovation
• Engagement and inclusion
• Diversity
• Accessibility
• Accountability

Contact: Tim Whalley, Executive Director
Phone number: 416 698-7322
E-mail: info@scarborougharts.com
Website: www.scarborougharts.com
Address: 1859 Kingston Road, Scarborough, ON M1N 1T3

-submitted by Tim Whalley, Executive Director, Scarborough Arts

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Profile: 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education (Toronto)

Profile: 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education
Status: Not-for-profit
Community served: Children, youth, adults, newcomers, artists, musicians, First Nations, etc.
Region served: Annex
Language: English
Arts focus: visual art, media art, theatre, dance, music, science, film, puppetry, circus.
Summary of Main Art Activities: 918 Bathurst is a multi-purpose arts center and events venue. Gallery 918 is both a for-rent exhibition space as well as a gallery showcasing curated work selected to promote a variety of cultural initiatives from around our community, Toronto and Canada at large.
Mandate: The Centre facilitates, presents and provides a nurturing space for projects, classes, workshops, exhibitions and performances that serve the artistic, creative, intellectual, professional and personal development of individuals and organizations in Toronto.
Contact: Sean Lehane- Director. Jaclyn Blumas- Curator
Phone number: 416-538-0868
E-mail: info@918bathurst.com
Website: www.918bathurst.com
Address: 918 Bathurst Street. Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 3G5

-submitted by Jaclyn Blumas, Curator, 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education

Please see ArtBridges Google map for more information.