We started this collective about a year and a half ago, modelled after the Art Hive (check out this amazing Art Hive "How to" guide). Basically, the idea is the members of the collective have a focus and then seek out partners with similar goals and collaborate. In our case, we find creative inspiration from waste and try to share that creative joy with others.
This newsletter is all about our various collaborations and inspirations. Works-in-Progress has been exploring different ways to inspire: step by step hands on workshops, interactive workshops, show and tell sessions, and artist talks. We are so excited to have been awarded a grant (yay!) from the Ontario Arts Council that will allow us the opportunity to collaborate with educators. And locally, we are organizing a community back to school swap a month from now in midtown Toronto. Our collaborations with Building Roots and the textile museum continues to grow with more workshop and products.
We've sown the seeds now the harvest begins.
In this newsletter:
Back to School Swap
Funding update- we got a grant!
Roundup of August activities online: Artist inspirational videos
Community partner updates
Upcoming workshops: Building Roots and Textile Museum
Dates to remember
Links
September Back to School Clothing Swap
On September 19th Works-in-Progress will be transforming Mount Pleasant/Davisville front yards into back-to-school clothing swap stores. Spread out over a few blocks the sale will be united by a map so swappers can easily find the yard offering the size they are looking for. Visually host yards will be decorated with beautiful signs, bunting and children's clothing. Works-in-Progress will support our famous up-cycled t-shirt bags for people to bring home their spoils.
If you live in the area and are interested in hosting, volunteering or donating gently used (and clean!) children's clothing, please reach out to us at works.in.progressto@gmail.com. Alternatively, if you want to organize one in your neighbourhood and would like our help please contact us. We'd love to support you!
(Rain date September 20th.)
We Got A Grant!
Ontario Arts Council: Artists in Communities and School Projects
This Ontario Arts Council program supports the research, development and realization of community-engaged arts projects, with Ontario artists and community members working together to develop and design a creative experience. We are so grateful the OAC recognized our efforts and ideas by awarding Works-in-Progress a 2020 Artists in Communities and School Projects Grant.
With the OAC funding, WIP is partnering with artists and educators to develop up-cycling resources that put the onus on the maker to explore solutions. It is pretty cool and also may cover some of the work we have been exploring over the summer, with artists such as Gomo George, Gabrie Mills, Jiyoon Moon, Marnie Saskin, Tanya Murdoch and Leah Sanchez sharing material knowledge tools and techniques.
Thanks Ontario Arts Council! And many thanks to the artists and educators who have volunteered their time so far, we are looking forward to an ongoing creative and collaborative process.
Roundup of August online activities: inspirational videos from WIP artists
SHOW & TELL / BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS No matter how much or how little up-cycling we have done, we learn from each other. With this in mind, we started a series of show and tell sessions with some of our artists. The first session was CREATIVE ALTERATIONS: HACK YOUR CLOSET (recorded August 1) where Works-in-Progress Artists and UPcyclers shared past clothing related alteration and creation projects in a show and tell session. We've edited it down to an action packed 15 minute video on our website, so you can watch and get inspired on how to use old textiles to make new clothes for yourself, your kids or even your dolls!
ARTIST TALKS: Creative reuse requires knowledge of materials, help getting started, and, inspiration. We are beginning a series of artist talks from the artists & eco-workers in our collective and a perfect start to this series is co-founder Leah Sanchez. Leah gave an informative and interesting talk about the Resurrection Furniture and Found Objects Gallery project she co-founded in the Philippines in 2010 after a super typhoon created a city full of junk looking for love. A recording of the talk can be found here on our blog.
(Thanks to Kate Hamilton from Building Roots who originally included this talk in her Skill sharing online series this summer.)
Community partner updates
BUILDING ROOTS:The Building Roots Saturday market at Moss Park is still going strong. With live performers, fun giveaways and delicious food grown on their urban farm at The Ashbridges Estate there is plenty for all to take part and part and enjoy. Check out their new colouring book when you get a chance!
We were honoured to be invited to the Building Roots Brunch on a market Saturday (August 15) for Ashbridges Estate Farm volunteers. We have not dug in the dirt, but we have been encouraging and enabling an upcycling project through materials and info spearheaded by a catalyst of a person, Cairine.
Cairine is starting a line of masks, to be available at the Moss Park Market. The line will likely be called Stone Soup productions, in honour of the collaborative effort of the production; however, for for this first run we helped Carine get started with labels using the working title Comfort Zone.
Printing labels on fabric: It's easy to make your own professional looking labels! Instructions for printing on to cloth using an inkjet printer are on our useful info page
The Oakwood BIA is looking for an arts partner to jointly apply for a grant through the ARTWORXTO grant program. The program is part of Toronto's Year of Public art 2021. Read about that here.
The BIA wants to create an illuminated public art piece in Oakwood Village We worked with the coordinator last summer for their inaugural Urban Festival and found them to be very scrappy, good at doing more with less, and very fair (just like us!)
If you are an artist experienced in public art and/or lighting, and want to partner with them, the deadline for partnership discussion is September 1, deadline for grant is September 10. Please contact them at: coordinator@oakwoodvillage.ca
Upcoming Workshop collaborations
September (date TBD): The Building Roots Skill Sharing Online workshop series returns. WIP will have a segment on making cutlery wraps ( very handy for lunches and picnics).
There is a recent interest in a very old style of visible & decorative repair originating in Japan called Boro (which directly translates to English as "rags"). Originating in the 19th century, Boro uses a much older stitching technique called Sashiko (dating from around the 8th century) to create new fabric by piecing together worn out textiles.
Earlier this summer we collaborated with The Textile Museum of Canada on an interactive Visible Repair and Mending workshop, lead by one of our artists, Marnie Saskin. You can check it out here on our blog. As Marnie pointed out, the techniques she was sharing were inspired in some part by Boro.
If you want to see masters of this technique and get inspired, there is an exhibit on now in Toronto at the Japan Society gallery. They have also shared an interactive version online that allows people get up close with all the artworks on display.
