Moogee the Art Dog International PLC

http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Charles-Saatchi-supercollector-Moogee

Location: York Woods District Library

In 2007, ideas starting buzzing in the Jane-Finch community on what was needed to better support local artists and resident groups. Energy was created, and networking began to talk about the neighbourhoods creative needs. Since then, artists and organizations catering to various interests, age groups, and art forms have unified in collaboration with the City of Toronto, and the Toronto Public Library. On June 29th, the result of these efforts will come together at the grand opening of the York Woods Arts Hub. This week, I had the opportunity to listen in on a planning meeting and sit down with Laura Metcalfe (City of Toronto), Sun a.k.a The Real Sun (No Mans Land, Lost Lyrics), and Sabrina Gopaul (Black Creek Community Health Centre, The Life Movement, Jane-Finch.com), to discuss what has gone into making The York Woods Arts Hub a reality. To read the full interview visit http://neighbourhoodarts.wordpress.com/

Be ready for a unique mix of presenters including a writer of fashion crime mysteries, directors of Moliere, an organizer of pillow fights, a wonderland creator, a Floating Museum curator, an expert on voyeurism, a tactile dinner planner and transformers of the underground.

Featured presenters:

. Ellen Byerrum, well-known Author of the Crime of Fashion mysteries

. Bruce Witzenburg of the Capitol Improv Group responsible for the No Pants Metro Ride, DC Pillow Fight and Survive DC

. Edgar Endress of the Floating Lab Collective known for transforming a taco delivery truck into a mobile museum

. Breeze Giannasio of the Arts Coalition for Dupont Underground on the quest of the DC Creative Community to revive the old Dupont Trolley Station into an Arts Hub

. Stanley Hallet, Architect and Professor, discusses Voyeurism and the Moving Image

. Cade Martin, Photographer known for his collaboration on the Wonderland Commemorative Book

. Carmen Wong of Banished Productions on the synæsthetic experience of A Tactile Dinner

. Bruce MacPhail and Oli Robinson, Cofounders of the Picnic Theater Company, give an exclusive peak behind the scenes of their outdoor summer production of Moliere’s “The Hypochondriac”

When: Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 8:00pm

Reception 8:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Presentations 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM
After Party 9:30 – Midnight with Music by Resident DJ Brien Watson

Where: 3334 Cady’s Alley, NW,
Washington, DC 20007 map

Ticket & Registration

Complimentary wine, beverage and finger food will be provided

Those of you not familiar with Pecha Kucha, here is the history:

Pecha Kucha is pronounced “pe-chak-cha”. It is the onomatopoeic Japanese word for the sound of conversation.

The Pecha Kucha event, is a pretty unique international movement that organizes forums in cities around the world for designers and other creative people to present and show their work in all media, including the visual arts, architecture, design, music, fashion, film and literature in an exhilarating kaleidoscope of inspirations, ideas and work.

Pecha Kucha Night originally was devised in 2003 by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo’s Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa), as a way to attract people to Super Deluxe, their experimental event space in Roppongi. Pecha Kucha Night events consist of around a dozen presentations, each presenter having 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds. Each presenter has just 6 minutes 40 seconds to explain their ideas before the next presenter takes the stage. Conceived as a venue through which young designers could meet, show their work, exchange ideas, and network, the format keeps presentations concise, fast-paced and entertaining.

In 2004 Pecha Kucha began running in a few cities in Europe, and has since spread virally since has become a worldwide phenomenon, now running in more than 260 cities in almost every corner of the globe including our beloved Washington, DC.

Pecha Kucha DC was organized and launched in early 2007 by two sisters Rouzita and Bita Vahhabaghai creator of the architectural, interior and graphic design service company, ita-design based in DC.

Bita Vahhabaghai

Rouzita Vahhabaghai

Here is a related video you may watch:

sun a.k.a The Real Sun, and Sabrina a.k.a Butterfly relax post interview

In 2007, ideas starting buzzing in the Jane-Finch community on what was needed to better support local artists and resident groups. Energy was created, and networking began to talk about the neighbourhoods creative needs. Since then, artists and organizations catering to various interests, age groups, and art forms have unified in collaboration with the City of Toronto, and the Toronto Public Library. On June 29^th, the result of these efforts will come together at the grand opening of the York Woods Arts Hub.

This week, I had the opportunity to listen in on a planning meeting and  sit down with Laura Metcalfe (City of Toronto), Sun a.k.a The Real Sun (No Mans Land, Lost Lyrics), and Sabrina Gopaul (Black Creek Community Health Centre, The Life Movement, Jane-Finch.com), to discuss what has gone into making The York Woods Arts Hub a reality.

How have local residents been involved in planning the York Woods Arts Hub (YWAH)?
Sun – It started as an email list, with a vision to connect different groups within the community. The idea was for a non physical space, like a network, where we wanted to connect artists and arts groups within the community. This evolved once we started to identify the common needs. Out of those discussions it was decided that we need physical space. There are a lot of artists and arts based programs out here that are working independently. There are many music studios in Jane Finch, and that also comes back to the territorial divides that happen. I think it’s important for an arts hub to be accessible in neutral ground where people feel ok to come. My hope for this space is that yes it will be a space where young artists can come to develop themselves, get training, and hold rehearsals, but also a community space, where groups can connect and collaborate.
Sabrina – [The earlier consultations] really frustrated me because it was all about this virtual reality and artists putting their tools online. That’s a huge barrier on the street level. People don’t know how to develop a web page, or put a cost to what they do.
Laura- That’s why having  a physical space that has computers and mentors, so people can actually come here and create those materials will hopefully fill that void.
Sabrina – The physical space is needed. The rest is just quick fixes and not really investing in the artist or the culture.

think it’s important for an arts hub to be accessible in neutral ground where people feel ok to come. My hope for this space is that yes it will be a space where young artists can come to develop themselves, get training, and hold rehearsals, but also a community space, where groups can connect and collaborate

What was the motivation behind the YWAH?
Laura – The City had a fund called Partnership Opportunity Legacy (POL) Fund, that was a result of the Mayors pledge to commit $13 million to capital projects in priority neighbourhoods. Through the Jane-Finch Neighbourhood Action partnership we tried to find out what the needs were. A lot of groups had no proper rehearsal or administration space, people doing things in their apartments all over the place. One group used to practice behind the gas station at the corner of Jane and Finch, now they practice at York University. None of them go to York University and security can kick them out. So they have no proper home and they’re a really talented dance groups. They won the Best Dance Crew contest on Much Music and several other awards. For a group of that level to have absolutely no infrastructure to support them is crazy. They are figuring it out on their own, and connections are forming, but we want to make the hub supportive to those networks.

How did the York Woods Library (YWL) get involved?
Sabrina – The idea of having a physical space in the Black Creek community be an arts hub is something that was identified. We know arts and culture live and bleed in Jane and Finch. When you look in the Jane Finch community, people are territorial with their space, there’s many barriers with using housing [for arts space]. For example, housing has been flexible, but is governed by it’s own policies.
Laura – The library is part of the City’s ABCC’s (Agency, Board, Commission, Corporation), and this made the process smoother to support the hub with the POL fund. Given the fact that YWL has a theatre, we recognize it is a community asset that should be used more for local artists.

How has funding been generated for the Arts Hub?
The primary funding is through the POL, then the library kicked in a little bit of money and we are still looking for programming funding.

What’s been most challenging in this process?
Sabrina –  Meeting times to engage the young people or those who are working 9-5 has effected momentum. Who is sitting at the table, what they are bringing. The library is bringing in their own vision, and the community really needs to be there to see it through. It’s been a conscious effort, but we need to continue.
Laura – We did outreach and asked a lot of community people to join the table. There are understandable reasons why at this stage it is hard for people to attend meetings. This is an incredibly dedicated volunteer community. The majority of people who are sitting at this table are not paid. It’s hard for artists who are struggling to make a living to commit to a free project. Our hope is to eventually get funding to provide honorariums to community members to contribute their work. But that has been one of the biggest challenges – trying to get programming money. As awesome as this space this will be, we need it to be resourced and that came out loud and clear at the community meeting. We need to have staff to coordinate and support artists who come through. It would make me sad if we put all this money and time into building a space that isn’t properly resourced. That’s the challenge ahead.

This is an incredibly dedicated volunteer community. The majority of people who are sitting at this table are not paid. It’s hard for artists who are struggling to make a living to commit to a free project. Our hope is to eventually get funding to provide honorariums to community members to contribute their work.

How are you working around this challenge?
Sabrina – A lot of artists do a million-and-one things, and part of their living is the product of their art. As membership increases, YWAH could be a place for social enterprise to incubate. Again, it’s making sure the space is resourced to facilitate that outcome. But it’s possible. I know a lot of moms who do art, crafts, sell them during the holidays, young women braid hair in the hallways of the buildings, and you know that’s how they get their lunch money. It’s now capitalizing on that and investing on how to make that your income.
Sun – Speaking from an artist point of view, it would be ideal if it was a space where we could produce and sell our art at the same time. Like how a hair dresser rents out a chair, and part of their commission goes back to the salon. It would be cool if we could have something like that, where artists could sell their stuff out of an arts hub store.

Everything is good in the initial stages when something gets launched, but in 5 years for us to take that forward, have it be sustainable, and expand it

What is your vision for the YWAH opening? 5 years from now?
Sun- For the opening to be a real ceremony where we bring people together, have a drumming circle, bless the entire space, be a launch that creates momentum, but that there will be something that comes after. Ideally we have resources in place and programs up and running immediately. For the arts groups in the community who are working independently to be at the launch, meet one another, for us to have welcome packages on how they can get involved, and keep a sustainable membership and momentum. I would love it if any young artist from the community could walk into that space and feel like they are at home, because they are among people who share their passion. Five years from now for that to be continuing. Everything is good in the initial stages when something gets launched, but in 5 years for us to take that forward, have it be sustainable, and expand it.
Laura -  Hopefully some of the artists who come through at the beginning will benefit from the space and in 5 years be successful and want to give back and mentor other artists. Build and continue.
Sabrina- It would definitely be stability for these groups. A lot of the coordinators of these initiatives, half their stress is time spent finding space. We need safe space that young people, participants, can feel like they’re welcome. They’re not going to be persecuted for being there, they won’t be harassed, they have a safe space to explore their art, to find new boundaries for their art, and find their identity through their art. It’s a home.
Sun – When I was in high school I didn’t have mentors, I kept my art to myself, and I didn’t have anyone to guide me. If I was that age again I’d want a space where I felt welcome and had positive role models to look up to and relate to me as an artist. You don’t know what that can do for somebody, especially a young artist, it can be a  pivotal point that can change your life forever. That would be amazing if we could provide that space, mentorship, and energy for young artists in the community.
A trend I see happening in the sector is that youth groups are working in isolation and reinventing the wheel because they don’t have mentors or elders to look up to and guide them through something that has already been done. We’re sitting here as youth saying “oh we have this great idea, we’re the first ones to do it”…But we’re not, it’s been done before, there’s a disconnect. I hope this will be a space where we can fill those voids and provide guidance.

—

Robyn Shyllit is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and a student in the Cities Centre Community Development Program at the University of Toronto completing a Masters degree in Planning.

Starting in 2002, the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) saw an increase of applications to its Community Arts program. Stemming from this influx, the TAC hosted a series of symposiums to identify the challenges and opportunities of artists and organizations working at the community level. In this process a pulse was generated, and a variety of reports have since been released discussing what is needed to better support and enhance capacity for community-engaged art in Toronto. On Thursday April 8^th, I spoke about some of these ideas with Leslie Francombe, Community Investment Manager for the Toronto Arts Foundation.

Different neighbourhoods need different things, and there are different artists living in different neighbourhoods, and different neighbourhoods have things happening already that they can activate

How did the concept of Arts Hubs evolve into the Neighbourhood Arts Network?
It’s a bit confusing because it evolved over a few years. We had to figure out what community arts organizations really needed by hosting symposiums and consultations to throw about ideas. We originally wanted to build capacity for community arts and get more funding for artists in Toronto. So we had this grand idea about initiating neighbourhood arts hubs throughout the City. It could be something in a library, like a booth where people could access information about arts in their neighbourhood. It could be a place already there in the neighbourhood, where we would label it as an ‘arts hub’. At that time we wanted to establish hubs in neighbourhoods that were lacking any sort of visible arts activity. But that was a huge project. There were a lot of people working on the ground already, and it really wasn’t going to help them. Every neighbourhood is different.

There is no way to create a specific model for a hub to replicate throughout Toronto. But you can have guidelines, helpful hints, mentorship, and become a resource for communities that are interested in building arts hubs

There is no way to create a specific model for a hub to replicate throughout Toronto. But you can have guidelines, helpful hints, mentorship, and become a resource for communities that are interested in building arts hubs. So that’s what the Neighbourhood Arts Network (NAN) is doing, as well as connecting all the artists together. We couldn’t access great partners without knowing who they are. So in order to get everybody together and make sure they are accessing information to get the most out of partnerships, NAN came forward. It was something that we could launch and get going right away as opposed to trying to build 30 hubs across the city… they are just too big a mountain.

Do you think the creation of arts hubs is a mountain that will never be climbed?
No not at all, because the NAN activates different organizations and people throughout the city. People can now see all the different things that are happening and say, “Wow – I want that in my neighbourhood!” It becomes organic. That’s the way it’s most successful – if the neighbourhood wants it to happen. Not if we come in and just plant a hub and say, “This is what you need.” Different neighbourhoods need different things, and there are different artists living in different neighbourhoods, and different neighbourhoods have things happening already that they can activate. Some neighbourhoods have schools that are empty or storefronts, they may not need a physical space, it all depends on that neighbourhood. We want to be a catalyst, and a resource to help people along.

connecting and getting to know each other is a huge move forward

A series of reports on community arts have been developed and released by the Toronto Arts Foundation over the past few years. What kinds of changes have you seen since this research has been done?
I think we’re going to see more over the next year now that we have the NAN. For example, we had a workshop run by TELUS on helping organizations put together proposals for funding from them. We have a plan for a series of networking events. I think we will really see the impact over the next year. But already at the TELUS event we were able to discover that a lot of the people in the room didn’t know each other. So connecting and getting to know each other is a huge move forward.

How does community arts, as a grassroots movement, work within the Culture Plan for the Creative City and the Creative City Planning Framework?
There’s been a lot of talk about the Creative City documents speaking the language of big powerful people. However a lot of this Creative City stuff is more about business creativity as opposed to the creativity of actual artists working with communities. So we have to educate the Creative City movement and keep it informed so it can truly see the advantage of community arts. We also have to let community arts practitioners know that they’re [city planning] not the enemy. We shouldn’t just shut the door because the language is different, because it may be a great way into the bigger picture. We want art and community-engaged art to be in that language and discussion.

we have to educate the Creative City movement and keep it informed so it can truly see the advantage of community arts. We also have to let community arts practitioners know that they’re [city planning] not the enemy

If you could waive a magic wand and make something happen today for community arts in Toronto, who would you waive it at, and what would you make happen?
Of course it would be good if the City just increased their funding and made a real statement to everybody to say that art is important to our neighbourhoods and to our city. Increase the pocket of money [for community arts] without taking away money from any of the other disciplines. Increase it by at least 4 times the amount they currently spend, if not more. The sector is huge and they have no operating money! It would make a big statement that community arts are important. The impact would be huge.

To join the Neighbourhood Arts Network visit http://www.neighbourhoodartsnetwork.org

To learn more about the Toronto Arts Foundation visit
http://www.torontoartsfoundation.org

—

Robyn Shyllit is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and a student in the Cities Centre Community Development Program at the University of Toronto completing a Masters degree in Planning.

She gave me some great insights into entrepreneurship and here are some of the sound bites I was so compelled with I had to write them down.

“When asking for input into your business or startup, never ask for more that 2 pieces of advice. Ask them for advice which is both perceptual and low cost.”

‘Think about your business in terms of the sequence of events. This is more important than the model itself.”

“The right words, in a certain order, make people do stuff.”

“Free creates lose caboose behavior. Think of your business like a nightclub. Free entry makes us feel as though what’s inside isn’t as valuable as when there is a cover charge.”

‘What can you do to bring the money forward? It might be as easy as asking your customers.”

‘What are the steps to money? How can you reduce the number of steps?”

Absolute gold as far as startup blog is concerned. Fiona has also written a book called ‘Niche Content Millionaire’ which I’m guessing (I haven’t read it yet) is full of awesome ideas…. simply because she has the runs on the board and has done it.

Startup blog says: Only take advice from those who have the done what they espouse.

And the future for ArtsHub is a ‘potential to grow into overseas markets to meet a universal need within the arts industry to be informed, connected and employed’. What more could you ask for?

http://www.artshub.co.uk/uk/default.asp

How do you celebrate ten years of friendship? A married couple might spend their ten-year anniversary enjoying an expensive dinner, or throwing crockery at each other’s heads. Ten years of service at work might get you a couple of months of long service leave, and possibly a shiny new badge. But there are no such traditions where friendship is concerned, so what to do?

Dave and Ern, also known as comedy duo ElbowSkin, have found one way to mark a decade of mateship – through their show, Sparring Partners, at this year’s Comedy Festival (their fifth). While the title might conjure images of the aforementioned married couple, Sparring Partners is all about the things Dave and Ern do to entertain themselves between (and sometime during) shifts at the local restaurant. Through stand up, videos and musical numbers, the boys give us an insight into the life of pranks, lost bets and failed relationships they’ve been through together since they first met at Eltham High in 1997.

Where comedy was once dominated by stoners and angry, shouty people, the last few years have seen a rise of a new breed of performer – the affable young man. The likes of local comics such as Lawrence Leung, Fox K, Adam Hills and Alan Brough all have a gentle, take-home-to-meet-your-Mum type of quality that provides a welcome antidote to today’s world rage. ElbowSkin belong squarely in this category – cheeky and cheerful and full of mischief, they’re the kind of performers you just want to be friends with. But they have a naughty streak as well, and aren’t afraid to take a taboo topic and run with it.

Along with ivory-tinkler Sammy J, ElbowSkin also form part of the new guard of musical comedy in Australia. Songs like I Love You, But Something’s Wrong show they have comic timing to burn. Slightly Left of Centre Girl, is the story of a high school romance trying to survive the rigours of university life. Mum’s My Dad takes an interesting angle on transvestism, while Bacon and Eggs is just good, old fashioned, silly fun. If Tripod ever hang up their guitars (read: if they can be prised from their cold, dead hands), ElbowSkin are poised and ready to take on the responsibility of providing our nation with its staple diet of musical punchlines.

To give themselves a break from belting out tunes all night, the boys also have a bunch of video treats lined up. Their favourite button appears to be the one labelled ‘fast-motion’, and despite decades of nauseating Benny Hill reruns the sight of a grinning loon running down the street at an unnatural speed is still enough to make my face hurt from laughing. Their exploration of why the chicken crossed the road is another hit, while a homage to Bob Dylan/Guns’n’Roses – Knock and then Run Away – is pure Aussie larrikin glee.

ElbowSkin – two sparring partners who bring their guitars to the ring and walk away with the title of ‘Next Big Thing’. There are a lot of reasons to come to this show. If you’re easily amused, you’ll love it, because so are Dave and Ern. Come if you want to see the future of musical comedy. But the best reason is that ElbowSkin is great, fall-off-your-seat-laughing fun. They won’t be up-and-coming for long, so get in now.