XYZines
Project Summary
In partnership with Facing History and Ourselves, Toronto Art Book Fair and Koffler.Digital, Paperhouse Outreach Collective will facilitate a four-month zine, artist book, and digital residency at the Cedarbrae Library, beginning August 2018.
XYZines: from Analogue to Digital (XYZines) will be a 3-tiered program for educators and youth (13 – 29) who identify or ally with LGBTQ+, Deaf, Mad, and disabled, and BIPOC communities, and will recruit a youth council to co-design a program that fuels creativity, leadership, and empowerment. With this, XYZines aims to bring issues identified by these discriminated-against communities forward, and encourage advocacy against systemic barriers and oppression.
XYZines will feature a series of workshops and events focusing on hands-on creative skills, story-telling tools, and digital skills building workshops, culminating into a youth-led exhibition and Zine Fair at Cedarbrae Library in December 2018.
XYZines is funded by Toronto Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts with support from Facing History and Ourselves and Koffler Centre of the Arts.
XYZines Youth Council
The Youth Council will be compiled of eight Scarborough-based youth who identify as one or multiple: LGBTQ+, Deaf, Mad, and disabled, and BIPOC, and will work directly with program staff and artist facilitators. The Youth Council will co-design and co-lead outreach and programming in the Fall with a focus on youth-led workshops, exhibitions, and XYZines Fair. Youth will have the opportunity to build their leadership skills, while simultaneously growing their creative skills, both analogue and digital. Our shared goal is to create an empowering peer-to-peer learning model and leadership experience, while cultivating a supportive community network.
XYZines Events & Workshops
Artist Salon + Break Out Sessions: Art As Social Practice
Sunday, September 9, 2018
2pm to 5pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
RSVP: Facebook | bit.ly/artassocialpractice
The term social practice has quickly become a popular term used to describe artists and curators whose work is informed by and depends on relationships and social engagement with community. This salon brings together artists, community organizers, and arts professionals to discuss their unique definitions of “social practice” and to explore how, and why community engagement informs their work. These panelists will share methods of collaboration, and consider how their work affects political and social change within their particular communities and beyond.
Moderated by Letticia Cosbert.
Featuring artists Mari Ramsawakh, Sage Lovell, Sheila Sampath, and Y+ (Tiffany Schofield and Dorica Manuel).
Letticia Cosbert is a Toronto based writer and editor, and is currently the Digital Content Coordinator at the Koffler Centre of the Arts. Letticia studied Classics, earning a B.A. from the University of Toronto, and an M.A. from Western University, where she specialized in erotic Latin poetry. Her writing and editorial work has been featured in Ephemera Magazine, Sophomore Magazine, The Ethnic Aisle, and publications by Gardiner Museum, YTB Gallery, Xpace, and Trinity Square Video. — LetticiaCosbert.com | IG: @prettiletti
Mari Ramsawakh is a disabled, nonbinary and queer writer, model, and podcaster. They have written about race, gender, sexuality, ability, and cannabis legalization. They co-host a podcast called Sick Sad World with their best friend and they model part-time. They have also spoken at Playground Conference in Toronto and BEDx in Montreal. Mari’s work is focused on increasing representation for racialized, queer, and disabled people in modelling, in journalism, and in other forms of media. — IndivisibleWriting.com | IG @merkyy_waters | TW @merkyywaters
Sage Lovell is a Queer Nonbinary Canadian Deaf Artist who likes to work their magic using different art mediums to shift perspectives and spaces. As an individual who works across multiple disciplines; it is essential for them to incorporate their passions of film, languages, theatre, and accessibility into pieces of art. — DeafSpectrum.com | IG @deaf.spectrum
Sheila is an artist, educator and activist designer with a background in community organizing. She is the principal and creative director of The Public, a social justice design studio working to democratize design practices for community self-determination; the editorial and art director of Shameless magazine, a national feminist magazine for teen girls and trans youth, and an assistant professor of alternative and speculative practices at OCAD University in the Faculty of Design. Her first book, Letters Lived, was published in 2013, and her art practice explores memory, diaspora, and intergenerational trauma. — ThePublicStudio.ca | IG @sheilasheila | TW @sheilasheila
Y+ is a multi-disciplinary artist collective based in Scarborough, comprised of Danièle Dennis, Daniel Griffin Hunt, Dorica Manuel and Tiffany Schofield. Their collaborative artistic and curatorial work is centred on community-building, with a focus on emerging practices and suburban spaces. In 2015, the collective founded Y+ contemporary, an artist-run studio and gallery space. They have presented projects across the GTA, including a forthcoming project for Nuit Blanche Toronto (our roots are here, amongst the grasses, 2018), the Art Gallery of Mississauga (Hiba Abdallah: Souvenir Shop, 2017), Myseum of Toronto (In the Shadow of Paradise, 2017), and the Scarborough Museum (Striking Scarborough, 2016). Their work has been featured in the Toronto Star and C Magazine. — YplusContemporary.com | IG @ypluscontemporary
– ASL PROVIDED –
Artist Salon + Break Out Sessions: Art as Livelihood
Sunday, September 16, 2018
2pm to 5pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
RSVP: Facebook | bit.ly/artaslivelihood
How does a passion for arts and culture become a sustainable and long term career? What are the various avenues available, both traditional and non-traditional? These panelists will discuss practical strategies for embarking on a career in the arts, tackling topics such as freelancing, making and publishing your work independently, art school education versus non traditional educational models, and tools for measuring individual success.
Moderated by Letticia Cosbert.
Featuring artists Born in the North (Gregory Mitchell), Laura Rojas, and Lido Pimienta.
Letticia Cosbert is a Toronto based writer and editor, and is currently the Digital Content Coordinator at the Koffler Centre of the Arts. Letticia studied Classics, earning a B.A. from the University of Toronto, and an M.A. from Western University, where she specialized in erotic Latin poetry. Her writing and editorial work has been featured in Ephemera Magazine, Sophomore Magazine, The Ethnic Aisle, and publications by Gardiner Museum, YTB Gallery, Xpace, and Trinity Square Video. — letticiacosbert.com | IG @prettiletti
Gregory Mitchell is a multidisciplinary artist and musician. He is one half of the twin brother design duo Born In The North. Originally from Halifax , Nova Scotia and a graduate of New York City College of Technology. He creates a body of work inspired by his Mi’kmaq ancestry and influenced by contemporary design. — borninthenorth.com | IG @born.in.the.north
Laura Rojas is a Colombian-born, Toronto-based artist and designer with experience in studio and freelance settings. Laura recently graduated from the Cross-Disciplinary Art program specializing in Publications at OCAD University. While at OCAD, Laura co-led the Student Press where she worked on design, criticism, and publishing projects while collaborating with groups in and outside the university community. She is interested in using design as a tool for education and activism– her thesis project, Bananaland, explored the history and impact of the banana industry in Latin America. Currently, Laura works as a designer at Bruce Mau. — laurarojas.ca | IG @laurrojas
Lido Pimienta is a Toronto-based, Colombian-born interdisciplinary musician and artist-curator. She has performed, exhibited, and curated around the world since 2002, exploring the politics of gender, race, motherhood, identity and the construct of the Canadian landscape in the Latin American diaspora and vernacular. Her most recent album La Papessa was self-released, and the winner of the 2017 Polaris Music Prize. Currently, Pimienta is working on a new album titled Miss Colombia and wrapping up the international tour of La Papessa, while exhibiting her artwork and raising her three kids. — lidoimienta.bandcamp.com | IG @lidopimienta TW @lidopimienta
– ASL PROVIDED –
Lettering by Hand
Saturday, September 22, 2018
2:00pm to 5:00pm
Come learn how to do cool-swag-wicked-awesome-sauce-bananas-bonkers-sick lettering by hand! Play around with graffiti style writing and a lot of other types of fonts, and make stickers while decorating a mirror for cool Instagram selfies. Raised on video games, hip hop, and comic books, Scarborough bred Nigel Martin is a young, talented developing artist with a deep rooted interest and involvement in community arts.
Artist Salon + Break Out Sessions: Art & Body
Sunday, September 23, 2018
2pm to 5pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
RSVP: Facebook | bit.ly/artasbody
The human body is central to how we understand many cultural and social phenomena, and has inspired artists and thinkers for millennia. This panel invites artists whose work is concerned with portraits and representation of the human form to discuss their artistic motives and inspirations, and to explore the ways in which their work has helped discover and create community.
Moderated by Letticia Cosbert.
Featuring artists Curtia Wright, Farihah Shah, Maanii Oakes, Sorlie Madox.
Letticia Cosbert is a Toronto based writer and editor, and is currently the Digital Content Coordinator at the Koffler Centre of the Arts. Letticia studied Classics, earning a B.A. from the University of Toronto, and an M.A. from Western University, where she specialized in erotic Latin poetry. Her writing and editorial work has been featured in Ephemera Magazine, Sophomore Magazine, The Ethnic Aisle, and publications by Gardiner Museum, YTB Gallery, Xpace, and Trinity Square Video. — Letticiacosbert.com | IG @prettiletti
Curtia Wright‘s art practice revolves around the idea that the human body is in constant collaboration with its surroundings; often in ways that exceed the boundaries of physical reality. She creates images that exist on both analog and digital planes through their production and execution; “I believe these alternating layers of production reference the discourse between the human body and environment.” She’s interested in the way societies perceptions of bodies, specifically black bodies, have the ability to form and deform them while changing their narratives without consent. — www.curtiawright.com | IG @curtia
Farihah Shah is a lens-based artist originally from Edmonton, Alberta now based in Bradford, Ontario. She holds a BHRM from York University and a BFA in Photography with a minor in Integrated Media from OCAD University in Toronto, Ontario.Farihah’s practice includes an array of conceptual, street, and studio photography, time-based film work, multi-media installations and performance based works that explore issues of racial identity, constructed and natural landscapes, personal and collective memory, and private and public spaces. Her work has been displayed in galleries in Finland, Germany, Scotland, South Korea and Canada and she was a featured artist on CBC Arts’ online series This Art Works! — fshah.format.com| IG @rihah TW @arihahs
Maanii Oakes is a Swampy Cree Anishnabek and Kanienkehaka cultural tattoo practitioner and visual artist in the medium of skin stitch, handpoke, pencil crayon and most recently raw hide sculpture. Her new work, currently showing at Tandled Arts and Disability, as part of the Flourishing Grant, references exvotos paintings and catholic imagery in scenes of the global and native north, and otherwise materialize in 3D reproductions of skin stitching to be experienced by disabled and diverse audience using raw hide and sinew. — Cargocollective.com/maaniioakes
Sorlie Madox (University of Toronto B.A. – Japanese Studies; OCAD B.F.A. – Ceramics + Metalsmithing) Sorlie is a cartoonist-artist-writer-scholar-chajin-queer-patient-potter-craftsperson-designer. Since MS has put her in a wheelchair, these formerly fixed things have become moving targets that she races to catch and re-incorporate into her life as a maker. — secretteatime.com | IG @secretteatime
– ASL PROVIDED –
GET YOUR COIN
On getting paid, When to say yes & How to say no
Hosted by Lido Pimienta
Monday, September 24, 2018
5:30pm to 8pm
Learn the ins and outs of art entrepreneurship – from being assertive in payment negotiations with clients, to objectively dealing with music bookers and venues, plus why it’s important to always having / making our own contracts, and so much more! Lido Pimienta, Toronto-based artist, musician, curator and mother of two, will share her tools, experiences, and successes gathered as an independent artist and boss over the last 10 years, when she decided to stop working for anyone but herself. Join this important conversation and learn the skills necessary to be an independent and sustainable artist / business in the arts industry, in an accessible, fun and inclusive environment. Although focused in art entrepreneurship; this workshop information/knowledge* can be applied to other industries as well.
Lido Pimienta is a Toronto-based, Colombian-born interdisciplinary musician and artist-curator. She has performed, exhibited, and curated around the world since 2002, exploring the politics of gender, race, motherhood, identity and the construct of the Canadian landscape in the Latin American diaspora and vernacular. Her most recent album La Papessa was self-released, and the winner of the 2017 Polaris Music Prize. Currently, Pimienta is working on a new album titled Miss Colombia and wrapping up the international tour of La Papessa, while exhibiting her artwork and raising her three kids. — Lidopimienta.bandcamp.com | IG @lidopimienta TW @lidopimienta
Affirmation Art with Hana aka Frizzkidart
Saturday, September 29, 2018
2pm to 5pm
Do you want to make art for social change? Come learn how to make affirmation art from local artist and author, Hana Shafi. Affirmation art is art that boosts your self-esteem, art that makes you feel good about yourself, art that helps you through difficult feelings!
Hana Shafi is a writer and artist who illustrates under the name Frizz Kid. Both her visual art and writing frequently explore themes such as feminism, body politics, racism, and pop culture with an affinity to horror. A graduate of Ryerson University’s Journalism Program, she has published articles in publications such as The Walrus, Hazlitt, This Magazine, Torontoist, Huffington Post, and has been featured on Buzzfeed India, Buzzfeed Canada, CBC, Flare Magazine, Mashable, and Shameless, Known on Instagram for her weekly affirmation series, she is also the recipient of the Women Who Inspire Award, from the Canadian Council for Muslim Women. — IG @FrizzKidArt
Priya Rehal is a Phd dropout, account manager by day and artist by night. They belong to the Punjabi diaspora and they love to play Yoshi’s island and making art for their little sticker and zine company, Sticky Mangos. — IG @preezilla | IG @stickymangos
Futuring a Zine
Monday, October 1, 2018
4pm – 7pm
SIGN UP
Part group discussion, part reading salon, part creation lab, “Futuring a Zine” engages participants in a discussion on zines by people of colour and the means in which indie print-culture can galvanize movements for racialized people. This workshop invites participants to envision a future world that relates to them and create a mini zine or contribute to a collaborative zine of their social justice dreams.
Whitney French is a storyteller and a multi-disciplinary artist. founder and co-editor and of the nation-wide publication From the Root Zine, a platform for Black Indigenous and Woman of Colour artists. Recently Whitney French launched the successful workshop series titled: Writing While Black, an initiative to develop a community of black writers.
“DIY style publishing has been a passion of mine for a long time and although I have a lot of stories to tell and things to share, it is more important to remember that these tales need a home. Self-publishing my book and zines offers autonomy and a direct link to engaged readers.”
Whitneyfrenchwrites.com | FB /whitneyfrenchwrites IG @whitneyfrenchwrites TW @WhitneyFrench1
Ones and Zeroes
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
4pm – 7pm
In this workshop we’ll discover what the 01100101s of binary *actually mean*, and how computers use them to store and transmit messages for humans! We’ll then write some code for Arduino, print out our own binary messages with receipt printers and thermal paper, and think critically about the social effects of the assumptions built into early computer systems.
Phil Scheihauf is a Toronto-based Queer artist and teacher, thinking about how to challenge ingrained cultural norms that touch their own experiences. Their work is not only a means of introspection, but an invitation for others to see, relate to, and question pieces of ourselves that are not easy to share. In teaching, they focus on accessibility and engaging audiences not normally made to feel welcome in traditional tech spaces. — phil.schleihauf.ca | IG @onesandzerosca TW @onesandzerosca FB @onesandzerosca
Stop. Listen. Think. Tiny Drops Of Ink Make An Ocean Blink
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
4pm – 8pm
This workshop is a hands-on exploration of books, the language of paper, ink, images. It is also a workshop+discussion on how to not only understand them and foster a healthy relationship with them but also how to potentially go about writing one through creative inquiry and discipline.
Asad Chishti is the Inventor at Chairs and Tables and the Assistant Director of Adjacent Furniture. He has bicycled across Turtle Island twice. Once to research happiness, and second to combine cartography and marginalized histories as a response to Canada turning 150. Currently he operates at the intersection of publishing, printing, and journalism. — notes.chairsandtables.org | IG @asad_ch @chairstablesorg @adjacentfurniture TW @asad_ch @chairstablesorg
Reclaiming Our Voices: Blackout Poetry I
Thursday, October 4, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Blackout poetry is a form of found poetry, where the writer takes away words from existing writing to create poems with the words that are left over. Using poems that have been celebrated in the Canadian canon, we will engage in blackout poetry, using these exercises to think through what it means to reclaim our narratives, and tell our own stories.
Jasmine Gui is the founder of Project 40 Collective, a pan-Asian artist collective based in Toronto, and managing editor at LooseLeaf magazine. She is a producer in community arts and an interdisciplinary writer. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Spectatorial, Panorama Journal, Softblow, ricepaper, and Hart House Review. Her poetry chapbook, boke was published in 2017. — Jaziimun.com | FB @jaziimun IG @jaziimun TW @jaziimun
Deaf Slam Poetry
Saturday, October 6, 2018
1pm – 4pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
Experience the visual-tactile beauty of American Sign Language (ASL) through Signed Poetry. Create new written works and witness them being transformed into life through the dance of our hands.
Sage Lovell is a Queer Nonbinary Canadian Deaf Artist who likes to work their magic using different art mediums to shift perspectives and spaces. As an individual who works across multiple disciplines; it is essential for them to incorporate their passions of film, languages, theatre, and accessibility into pieces of art. — Deafspectrum.com | IG @deaf.spectrum
Photo credit: Alex Filipe
– ASL PROVIDED –
Reclaiming Our Voices: Blackout Poetry II
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Blackout poetry is a form of found poetry, where the writer takes away words from existing writing to create poems with the words that are left over. Using poems that have been celebrated in the Canadian canon, we will engage in blackout poetry, using these exercises to think through what it means to reclaim our narratives, and tell our own stories.
Jasmine Gui is the founder of Project 40 Collective, a pan-Asian artist collective based in Toronto, and managing editor at LooseLeaf magazine. She is a producer in community arts and an interdisciplinary writer. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Spectatorial, Panorama Journal, Softblow, ricepaper, and Hart House Review. Her poetry chapbook, boke was published in 2017. — Jaziimun.com | FB @jaziimun IG @jaziimun TW @jaziimun
Poetry is Everywhere
Thursday, October 11, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Poetry is everywhere, and in everything – including you! In this workshop, we will be exploring poetry by talking about it, reading it, sharing it, and writing some poems of our very own with the help of writing exercises and creative prompts. We will also be looking at the work of poets writing here and now, in your city, and what it means to be a poet in 2018.
Terrence Abrahams is a poet who lives and writes quietly in Toronto. His work has been a part of Hobart, the Poetry Annals, the Puritan, (parenthetical), and many gendered mothers, among others. He is currently an MA student at Ryerson University studying contemporary literature with a focus on Canadian poetry. He also makes his own zines and chapbooks, knows a little too much about deer, and would love to read any poetry you send his way. — Trabrahams.tumblr.com | TW @trabrahams
Bridging Text and Images in Zines
Saturday, October 13, 2018
1pm – 4pm
Come learn different approaches to building content for zines! We will address zine genres, layouts and basic construction as well as help attendees develop content by merging text and image in strategic and experimental ways. This workshop is suitable for anyone who has a desire to share information with their community through independent publishing – no previous is experience necessary but prepared content and ideas are welcome!
Eli Howey is an artist and cartoonist based in Toronto. They use watercolour and gouache to create hand-painted art comics and large scale works on paper. Their artwork aims to reinterpret the body within an imaginative framework and open it up to symbols that are expansive, building towards an imaginative-poetic-visual language to visualize buried and potential new ideas. — Elihowey.ca | IG @ehowwy
The Tiger is Out! Exploring Ways of Making Word-Art
Monday, October 15, 2018
4pm – 7pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
Everyone knows a picture is worth a thousand words – but what happens when you put a thousand words on a picture? This workshop will be exploring ways of making text-based art, such as found poetry, visual poetry, word art, and more. Feel free to bring your own writing, an old book you’ve been want chop up, or any other text-based material that can be transformed into something totally new.
Terrence Abrahams is a poet who lives and writes quietly in Toronto. His work has been a part of Hobart, the Poetry Annals, the Puritan, (parenthetical), and many gendered mothers, among others. He is currently an MA student at Ryerson University studying contemporary literature with a focus on Canadian poetry. He also makes his own zines and chapbooks, knows a little too much about deer, and would love to read any poetry you send his way. — Trabrahams.tumblr.com | TW @trabrahams
– ASL PROVIDED –
One Page Zines
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
4pm – 7pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
In this workshop attendees will create a zine comprising of a single sheet of paper, folded and split up into several sections to create a unique multi paged zine. Zines can be narrative based or simply a collection of images or poetry. Workshop attendees are encouraged to go with the flow of zine creation and create a full zine in the allotted time.
Curtia Wright‘s art practice revolves around the idea that the human body is in constant collaboration with its surroundings; often in ways that exceed the boundaries of physical reality. She creates images that exist on both analog and digital planes through their production and execution; “I believe these alternating layers of production reference the discourse between the human body and environment.” She’s interested in the way societies perceptions of bodies, specifically black bodies, have the ability to form and deform them while changing their narratives without consent. — www.curtiawright.com | IG @curtia
– ASL PROVIDED –
Meditative Art Workshop
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
4pm – 7pm
The Meditative Art workshop is a relaxed way to learn and practice painting, drawing and other forms of art in a supportive environment. We will work on artworks that focus on expressing your style though different exercises. Rather than thinking about the final product we will be able to make art that will help improve engaging with ourselves. The aim is to have a peaceful, supportive and safe space. At the end of the workshop we will talk to each other about our work.
Mennen Broomes is currently studying art and exploring the various events in communities that involve it. She has remained drawn to art for five years which has allowed her to acquire a lot of information and improve in the time frame! I enjoy working with mediums such as pencil, ink, watercolor, and acrylic mainly to produce realistic portraits. — IG @ar.tescape | TW @BroomesMennen | FB @ItsMennen
Marbling
Thursday, October 18, 2018
4pm – 8pm
Marbling is a traditional technique of floating ink on top of water and transferring it to porous materials. Known in Japan as Suminagashi and as Ebru in Turkey, marbling goes as far back as the 15th century!
Come learn how to marble on paper and fabric using acrylic inks and create your own decorative patterned papers and fabric. Marbled papers make for great collages, zines and book-making, while marbled fabric can be used in patches, totes, bandanas, and other fun textile projects.
Flora Shum is an artist, educator, and cultural worker. She is the co-director of Paperhouse Studio and Paperhouse Outreach Collective, where she carries forward the vision for paper as the medium, and designs community arts programming for underrepresented youth. Her artistic practice explores found objects, historical Crafts and digital media, utilizing processes and the medium to communicate alternative histories, a personal narrative, and the nuances of racial micro-aggressions. She has exhibited internationally and locally, sits on the board of Hand Papermaking Magazine (Minnesota, U.S.), and is a teaching assistant at OCAD University and instructs at both Paperhouse Studio and Open Studio. — IG @flrshm
What Binds Us? – Collaging and Bookmaking
Saturday, October 20, 2018
1pm – 4pm
In this session, we will explore how our identities are formed through our experiences and inheritances through narrative prompts and facilitated conversation around objects, memories, and histories. Participants are invited to collage pieces together during this conversation and will learn to stitch their collages together with the Japanese stab stitch.
Jasmine Gui is the founder of Project 40 Collective, a pan-Asian artist collective based in Toronto, and managing editor at LooseLeaf magazine. She is a producer in community arts and an interdisciplinary writer. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Spectatorial, Panorama Journal, Softblow, ricepaper, and Hart House Review. Her poetry chapbook, boke was published in 2017. — Jaziimun.com | FB @jaziimun IG @jaziimun TW @jaziimun
Risograph Printing
Monday, October 22, 2018
4pm – 7pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
Come learn what a Risograph is and all the basics of risograph printing! In this workshop participants will learn how to prepare artwork for printing and have the opportunity to explore the capabilities of riso printing. Attendees will also learn where they can print future work locally and affordably! No print / prior Riso experience required!
Eli Howey is an artist and cartoonist based in Toronto. They use watercolour and gouache to create hand-painted art comics and large scale works on paper. Their artwork aims to reinterpret the body within an imaginative framework and open it up to symbols that are expansive, building towards an imaginative-poetic-visual language to visualize buried and potential new ideas.— Elihowey.ca | IG @ehowwy
– ASL PROVIDED –
Making Worlds in Virtual Reality I
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
4pm – 7pm
VIRTUAL REALITY | Presented in partnership with Trinity Square Video, this workshop facilitated by Jonathan Carroll – a member of Toronto collective Tough Guy Mountain – will look at how to use a video game engine to tell new kinds of stories in interactive, immersive virtual reality using the free game engine Unity.
Jonathan Carroll is a game design artist who designs software as part of the collective Tough Guy Mountain & creator of the Brandscape, a studio for experimental digital art production. — Postcapitalist.club | IG @jonathaniscarroll
This workshop is co-hosted in collaboration with Koffler.Digital
KOFFLER.DIGITAL is a program of the Koffler Centre of the Arts that provides a virtual space where artists working in the field of New Media/New Genres are able to create, experiment and develop new work; and where conversation and dialogue between artists, activists and creatives is encouraged and documented. Koffler.Digital is committed to the intersection of social justice and artistic practice that is central to the mandate of the Koffler Centre of the Arts. We collaborate with artists, authors and individuals whose work engages issues affecting marginalized communities; who explore injustice and who look to spur constructive change and dialogue in regard to the current socio-political climate.— koffler.digital | IG @kofflerarts | FB @KofflerArts
Screen Printing T-shirts & Totes
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
4pm – 8pm
Come learn how to print with a silk screen onto textiles! Screen printing is a printmaking technique utilizing a photo-sensitive emulsion to develop images on a silk mesh. Ink is passed through open areas while negatives areas are blocked out. Designs for this workshop will be created by Cedarbrae youth and t-shirts, totes, and scrap fabric will be provided (limited quantities), however you are welcome to bring your own textiles to print on.
Flora Shum is an artist, educator, and cultural worker. She is the co-director of Paperhouse Studio and Paperhouse Outreach Collective, where she carries forward the vision for paper as the medium, and designs community arts programming for underrepresented youth. Her artistic practice explores found objects, historical Crafts and digital media, utilizing processes and the medium to communicate alternative histories, a personal narrative, and the nuances of racial micro-aggressions. She has exhibited internationally and locally, sits on the board of Hand Papermaking Magazine (Minnesota, U.S.), and is a teaching assistant at OCAD University and instructs at both Paperhouse Studio and Open Studio. — IG @flrshm
Myth Zines
Thursday, October 25, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Get ready to conquer the basics of InDesign & Photoshop, & to master the art of publication production. Participants will build their own mystical creatures inspired by personal tales. Together, a whole new world will be created & documented in the pages of a collaborative myth zine.
Kendra Yee is a Toronto-based artist, designer, & curator. — kendrayee.com | IG @kendrayee
This workshop is co-hosted in collaboration with Koffler.Digital
KOFFLER.DIGITAL is a program of the Koffler Centre of the Arts that provides a virtual space where artists working in the field of New Media/New Genres are able to create, experiment and develop new work; and where conversation and dialogue between artists, activists and creatives is encouraged and documented. Koffler.Digital is committed to the intersection of social justice and artistic practice that is central to the mandate of the Koffler Centre of the Arts. We collaborate with artists, authors and individuals whose work engages issues affecting marginalized communities; who explore injustice and who look to spur constructive change and dialogue in regard to the current socio-political climate. — koffler.digital | IG @kofflerarts | FB @KofflerArts
Cut it Out
Saturday, October 27, 2018
1pm – 4pm
This workshop invites participants to reexamine & reinterpret materials available at the Cedarbrae library through the medium of paper cutting. In Chinese folk traditions, paper cutting has been used to decorate doors & windows to bring good luck, health & prosperity. In many ways, they are manifestations of the creator’s wishes. Using the resources available in the library as a starting point, participants will imagine the changes they wish to see in the future based on their findings of the past, emphasizing their role as changemakers in this process.
Shellie Zhang (b. 1991, Beijing, China) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto/Tkaronto, Canada.— shelliezhang.com | IG @soft_turnip_cake
This workshop is co-hosted in collaboration with Koffler.Digital
KOFFLER.DIGITAL is a program of the Koffler Centre of the Arts that provides a virtual space where artists working in the field of New Media/New Genres are able to create, experiment and develop new work; and where conversation and dialogue between artists, activists and creatives is encouraged and documented. Koffler.Digital is committed to the intersection of social justice and artistic practice that is central to the mandate of the Koffler Centre of the Arts. We collaborate with artists, authors and individuals whose work engages issues affecting marginalized communities; who explore injustice and who look to spur constructive change and dialogue in regard to the current socio-political climate.
koffler.digital | IG @kofflerarts | FB @KofflerArts
Making Worlds in Virtual Reality II
Monday, October 29, 2018
4pm – 7pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
VIRTUAL REALITY | Presented in partnership with Trinity Square Video, this workshop facilitated by Jonathan Carroll – a member of Toronto collective Tough Guy Mountain – will look at how to use a video game engine to tell new kinds of stories in interactive, immersive virtual reality using the free game engine Unity.
Jonathan Carroll is a game design artist who designs software as part of the collective Tough Guy Mountain & creator of the Brandscape, a studio for experimental digital art production. — Postcapitalist.club | IG @jonathaniscarroll
– ASL PROVIDED –
Stewing Stories
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Stewing Stories invites participants to satay, boil, and ferment their food stories and experiences with other participants to examine how food is nourishment, sustenance, and commemorative. Breaking down food myths and recalling food traditions, participants will contribute to creating a communal colouring zine that they will pamphlet stitch book-bind.
Abby Ho is community arts organizer and multidisciplinary artist. Sculptural drawings, paper cut-outs and painting are her main mediums to capture moments of nostalgia and quiet happenings.
Mirae Lee is an emerging cultural producer and an interdisciplinary artist who mainly engages in visual mixed media and bilingual prose. Her creative practice is rooted in her ongoing negotiation with her hyphenated identity and positionality on the land she resides and those share shares it with.
Project 40 Collective is a pan-Asian artists’ community dedicated to offering opportunities for creatives whose voices are often hidden in the arts scene. The Collective aims to create spaces where we can critically engage with shared and individual identities and experiences, while working in solidarity to build an inclusive community. — P40collective.ca | IG @projectx40c TW @projectx40c
Tactile Books
Thursday, November 1, 2018
4pm – 8pm
Explore your sense of touch as a way to tell stories, using felt, thread, wool, paper, glue and more. What can texture mean? Rough and smooth, warm and cool help us to build a picture in our mind. Participants will make simple books to tell a story with a focus on illustrating the story with tactile instead of visual elements. Workshop is open to blind, low vision, partially-sighted or fully sighted participation. Explore what it means to make art with and for your sense of touch!
Emily Cook is a visual artist, arts educator, and cultural administrator. She studied printmaking at Ontario College of Art and Design and holds an MFA from Louisiana State University. She runs Paperhouse Studio – an experimental studio rooted in paper as the medium – with Flora Shum. Her practice includes book arts, papermaking and installation. As a founding member of Paperhouse Outreach Collective, she works on arts and cultural initiatives that create meaningful opportunities for artists who may otherwise find themselves faced with barriers to success. She has had low vision since birth and has recently started exploring disability as a part of her identity.
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Image description: White paper on with a patterned textured surface of dots and lines. Tools on top of the paper two tools one metal and one bone. Red squares of felt. Everything is sitting on top of a green cutting matt.
Blot Books
Sunday, November 4, 2018
1:30pm – 4:30pm
FREE Childcare provided
Learn to make hand-bound books with abstract painted paper. Learn to fold and sew books together then find your own stories in the abstract shapes! This class is for parents and kids to make together! Come and bring your family. Childcare for smaller children will be available but all activities will be designed to be done with adults and kids together.
Alison is an artist, craftsperson, and parent. She has many years experience working with children in educational and community based projects. She has always been interested in children and art and how the two can be merged. Alison holds a BFA from the University of Guelph.
Sarah is also an artist and parent. Her past and present interests include walking as both method and practice explored through art and geography, and most recently co-working and co-learning with children. She has exhibited and held workshops internationally. Sarah holds a BFA from OCADU and MA Geography from Queen Mary University of London.
Together, Sarah and Alison started MOTHRA, a project for artist-parents and caregivers and their children that comprises of a zine, a social network, and artist residencies. MOTHRA emerged from a group Sarah facilitated in Oxford UK for artist-parents.
mothra-artist-parents.tumblr.com |sarahvbcullen.tumblr.com
IG @the_misspencil, @artistparents, @goldiemilks | TW @MOTHRA_Art
This workshop is hosted in collaboration with Critical Distance Centre for Curators.
Critical Distance Centre for Curators is a not-for-profit project space, publisher, and professional network that fosters collaborative and cross-disciplinary practices, underrepresented artists and art forms, and community outreach in art and exhibition-making. As an open platform for diverse curatorial and artistic perspectives, Critical Distance engages and informs audiences from all walks of life through our kid- and adult-friendly exhibitions, publications, and educational programming.
Criticaldistance.ca | IG @critical.distance TW @CuratorsCentre
– FREE CHILDCARE PROVIDED –
Podcast Making
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Participants will learn the basics of podcast-making, using the digital tools to formulate their thoughts & ideas into a podcast, & learning how to get a podcast into people’s earbuds when it’s done.
Aliya Pabani is a multidisciplinary artist & host/producer of Canadaland’s arts & culture podcast The Imposter. — canadalandshow.com | @aliyapabani
This workshop is co-hosted in collaboration with Koffler.Digital
KOFFLER.DIGITAL is a program of the Koffler Centre of the Arts that provides a virtual space where artists working in the field of New Media/New Genres are able to create, experiment and develop new work; and where conversation and dialogue between artists, activists and creatives is encouraged and documented. Koffler.Digital is committed to the intersection of social justice and artistic practice that is central to the mandate of the Koffler Centre of the Arts. We collaborate with artists, authors and individuals whose work engages issues affecting marginalized communities; who explore injustice and who look to spur constructive change and dialogue in regard to the current socio-political climate. — koffler.digital | IG @kofflerarts | FB @KofflerArts
Graphic Design
Thursday, November 8, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Introducing participants to basic graphic design principals, collage & scanning techniques, this workshop will take a hands-on approach to the process of designing posters. Participants will use the library as an archive of content to scan & modify into their own artwork, designed to be printed on tote bags.
Amarindi Norbert is a Toronto-based Multi-Disciplinary Graphic Designer specializing in UX & Interactive Design. — IG @amarindiThis workshop is co-hosted in collaboration with Koffler.Digital
KOFFLER.DIGITAL is a program of the Koffler Centre of the Arts that provides a virtual space where artists working in the field of New Media/New Genres are able to create, experiment and develop new work; and where conversation and dialogue between artists, activists and creatives is encouraged and documented. Koffler.Digital is committed to the intersection of social justice and artistic practice that is central to the mandate of the Koffler Centre of the Arts. We collaborate with artists, authors and individuals whose work engages issues affecting marginalized communities; who explore injustice and who look to spur constructive change and dialogue in regard to the current socio-political climate. — koffler.digital | IG @kofflerarts | FB @KofflerArts
Sister Co-Resister: How to Make a Feminist Zine (Part 1)
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
4pm – 8pm
In this session, participants will explore the radical act of self-publishing as a creative outlet and a means for resisting oppression. We will explore the origins of zine culture, and how these little paper booklets are still relevant and meaningful in our digital age through writing and art-making activities. Participants will have the opportunity to produce their own mini-zines and/or contribute to a group zine project which will be continued and completed in the 2nd session on November 20th. Poets, doodlers, artists, superfans, really – anyone with any kind of interest can make a zine!
Sister Co-Resister is a feminist art platform project focused on collaborative art-making and trans-disciplinary exchange. Crisscrossing skill sharing, intersectional feminism and contemporary art; Sister Co-Resister uses their collaborative platform for intersectional feminist artists who use anti-oppression and art activism through social practice, installation, performance and publishing, as a catalyst for social change.
Pamila Matharu is an South Asian immigrant-settler with an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, educator, and cultural producer. She engages close readings of gaps, omissions and fissures of the unexamined intersectional life and the everyday. She uses collage, analogue/digital media (audio/video/image) and printed matter in her practice.
Annanda DeSilva is mixed-race queer artist, writer, and performer whose work centres DIY culture and skill-sharing as a means of dismantling oppressive systems such as patriarchy, racism, ableism and capitalism. She has facilitated creative community workshops on zine making and other DIY skills for community organizations as well as the University of Guelph and University of Toronto.
Comics Workshop
Thursday, November 15, 2018
4pm – 7pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
Challenging participants to expand their perceptions of storytelling through comics, this workshop will allow participants to develop their use of complexity, time, space & expression in their drawings. Participants will then be encouraged to use the tools provided to produce a one-page comic of their own.
Walter Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working across writing, drawing, performance & sculpture. — wwalterscott.com
– ASL PROVIDED –
Origami Under the Sea
Friday, November 16, 2018
4:30pm – 5:30pm
Fun with the art of paper folding. Introducing kids age 6-13 to the japanese art of origami. Make friendly sea creatures to take home with you!
Paper will be provided.
Mai Vy is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist that writes, draws, and plays around with tactile materials. — IG @maivi_n_
Character Design for Everyone
Saturday, November 17, 2018
1pm – 4pm
Character Design for everyone!
Inclusive Character Design 101: We will learn about techniques of creating Original Characters by hand We will also be talking about ideas such as, how to make your stories inclusive. We will cover how to write, draw, and create stories centering diverse characters. After all, representation matters! Especially if they’re done right.
Carlisle Robinson is a Canadian and American comic creator and illustrator. They are passionate about educating the public with rarely told stories by the minority groups, especially deaf people. They went to Gallaudet University for undergrad. They graduated from The Center for Cartoon Studies in Spring 2015 with a Master of Fine Arts. They currently reside in Toronto with their cats. — Carlisle-robinson.com | IG @carodoodles
Ancient Future
Scroll Making with Mani Mazinani
Sunday, November 18, 2018
1:30pm – 4:30pm
- FREE Childcare provided -
Artist Mani Mazinani leads a family scroll-making workshop. Scrolls have been used since ancient times as a highly portable way to keep records and tell stories, and we will explore both traditional and new ways to make scrolls as a family. Open to all ages, this workshop includes strategies to engage everyone from grandparents to kids in a project that may be continued for years to come. Along with the hands-on activity, we will briefly discuss the history of scrolls and consider new ways of thinking about and using the scroll format for the future.
Mani Mazinani makes artworks in multiple media including installation, video, film, photography, painting, printmaking, multiples, sound and music. His work directs attention to the physicality and logic of his subject medium. Mazinani’s works have been exhibited in North America, Europe and Asia. A new sound installation work is currently on exhibition at the The Bentway until November 30th. — manimazinani.net | IG @manimazinani | TW @manimazinani
This workshop is hosted in collaboration with Critical Distance Centre for Curators.
Critical Distance Centre for Curators is a not-for-profit project space, publisher, and professional network that fosters collaborative and cross-disciplinary practices, underrepresented artists and art forms, and community outreach in art and exhibition-making. As an open platform for diverse curatorial and artistic perspectives, Critical Distance engages and informs audiences from all walks of life through our kid- and adult-friendly exhibitions, publications, and educational programming. — Criticaldistance.ca | IG @critical.distance TW @CuratorsCentre
– FREE CHILDCARE PROVIDED –
Insta Story
Monday, November 19, 2018
4pm – 7pm
Turning offline experiences into online storytelling, this workshop will take a closer look at our everyday surroundings; through means of writing & illustration we will turn these experiences into art. The focus of this workshop is to awaken one’s inner artist, emphasizing that the only tools you need are your senses. Ultimately the workshop will give participants a chance to successfully create a body of art that lives IRL & URL.
Tabban Soleimani is 70% artist, 30% .gif maker & 100% hilarious. — tabban.ca | IG @tabban___
Meghan Prospoer is a creative writer based out of Toronto. — IG @_isthatmeg/
This workshop is co-hosted in collaboration with Koffler.Digital
KOFFLER.DIGITAL is a program of the Koffler Centre of the Arts that provides a virtual space where artists working in the field of New Media/New Genres are able to create, experiment and develop new work; and where conversation and dialogue between artists, activists and creatives is encouraged and documented. Koffler.Digital is committed to the intersection of social justice and artistic practice that is central to the mandate of the Koffler Centre of the Arts. We collaborate with artists, authors and individuals whose work engages issues affecting marginalized communities; who explore injustice and who look to spur constructive change and dialogue in regard to the current socio-political climate. — koffler.digital | IG @kofflerarts | FB @KofflerArts
Sister Co-Resister: How to Make a Feminist Zine (Part 2)
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
4pm – 8pm
– ASL PROVIDED –
In this 2nd session, returning participants will build on their skills from the previous session and new participants will be introduced to the material covered from the last session. We will explore i) how to create multiple zines with the photocopier, ii) how to thematically link diverse content, and iii) how to make a collaborative layout work. Participants will have the opportunity to produce their own mini-zines and/or contribute to a group zine project which will culminate in tonight’s session. Poets, doodlers, artists, superfans, really – anyone with any kind of interest can make a zine!
Sister Co-Resister is a feminist art platform project focused on collaborative art-making and trans-disciplinary exchange. Crisscrossing skill sharing, intersectional feminism and contemporary art; Sister Co-Resister uses their collaborative platform for intersectional feminist artists who use anti-oppression and art activism through social practice, installation, performance and publishing, as a catalyst for social change.
Pamila Matharu is an South Asian immigrant-settler with an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, educator, and cultural producer. She engages close readings of gaps, omissions and fissures of the unexamined intersectional life and the everyday. She uses collage, analogue/digital media (audio/video/image) and printed matter in her practice.
Annanda DeSilva is mixed-race queer artist, writer, and performer whose work centres DIY culture and skill-sharing as a means of dismantling oppressive systems such as patriarchy, racism, ableism and capitalism. She has facilitated creative community workshops on zine making and other DIY skills for community organizations as well as the University of Guelph and University of Toronto.
– ASL PROVIDED –
Community Newspaper
Thursday, November 22, 2018
4pm – 8pm
The Community Newspaper workshop invites participants to share what they feel are the most important things for others to know about the Cedarbrae Library and the broader Scarborough community through drawing, writing, or collage. All of the art and writing produced in the workshop will be combined to create a collaborative, community newspaper that will be available for free at the Cedarbrae Library.
Lex is an interdisciplinary writer and researcher with interests in publishing, as well as community and youth arts education. Their work has been featured at Pride Toronto, Ignite Gallery, and Edition Art Book Fair. Lex is currently an Editor for the OCAD U Student Press and the Journal of Visual and Critical Studies. — Lexb.ca | IG @personal.item
Origami Under the Sea
Friday, November 23, 2018
4:30pm – 5:30pm
Fun with the art of paper folding. Introducing kids age 6-13 to the japanese art of origami. Make friendly sea creatures to take home with you!
Paper will be provided.
Mai Vy is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist that writes, draws, and plays around with tactile materials. — IG @maivi_n_
Screen Printing Postcards
Friday, November 23, 2018
4pm – 8pm
Hand-print postcards for your family or pals! We’ll explore how professional artists use screen-printing, plus you’ll get the chance to make your own cut out stencil designs, learn the basics, and make your own postcards to share with others!
Robbie Adolfo is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer who draws inspiration from video games and the unstoppable power of friendship. He is currently studying design at George Brown while also making art and exploring arts education. — cargocollective.com/rbadolfo | IG @jtpks
Posters for Change
Monday, November 26, 2018
10am – 12pm
Learn the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator and explore different ways of combining and manipulating photos, text, illustration, and other graphic elements to create impactful posters about topics/issues that are close to your heart. No design experience necessary! Feel free to bring photos that you would like to incorporate into your designs.
Marianne Rellin is a full-time arts administrator and part-time graphic designer. She is interested in community arts, urban and social choreographies, and art for social change. She currently lives and works in Scarborough. — IG @mariannerellin | TW @mariannerellin
Reflection & Documentation: Navigating Mental Health through Journaling
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
4pm – 8pm
A workshop centered around mental health and healing through the act of journal making.
The BAU (Black Artists Union) assists in the movement and exhibition of artists and creators of the African diaspora. We aim to represent the ideas and work of contemporary Black creators. As art being a language to connect with others, this is a platform to help develop skills for navigating and engaging in art spaces. — IG @baucollective
Buttonmaking
Friday, November 30, 2018
6.45pm – 8pm
Have you ever wanted to make your own buttons? Buttons are cute and fun, but also an accessible form of activism. Register to come make your own buttons for free! Priya Rehal is a Phd dropout, account manager by day and artist by night. They belong to the Punjabi diaspora and they love to play Yoshi’s island and making art for their little sticker and zine company, Sticky Mangos. — IG @preezilla | IG @stickymangos
Comics and Journaling
Saturday, December 1st, 2018
2:30pm – 5:30pm
Have you ever wanted to make your own comics? Do you already make your own comics? Would you like to learn how to design and develop your own characters? Come learn from a local artist! Free workshop, please register because there’s limited space.
Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud is a genderfluid mixed kid (Guyanese/Newfie) artist. They draw tender and loving depictions of queers of colour. They write about diaspora and depression, colonization and trauma, and resilience and healing. Their poetry is about survival. Away from art, Jasmine lives as a demigirlfriend, pet parent, and zucchini. — Jasminepersaud.portfoliobox.netIG @jasminedrawing TW @jaseminedrawing FB @jasminedrawing
Priya Rehal is a Phd dropout, account manager by day and artist by night. They belong to the Punjabi diaspora and they love to play Yoshi’s island and making art for their little sticker and zine company, Sticky Mangos. — IG @preezilla | IG @stickymangos
Tote Making
Monday, December 14, 2018
10am – 2pm
[SCHOOL GROUP ONLY]
In this free workshop participants will be led through the process of sewing their own tote bags. This will include basic machine stitching. By the end of this workshop, participants will have their own handmade tote bag, as well as some basic sewing skills. Participants are encouraged to bring any fabric they would love to incorporate into the design.
Clara Lynas is a Toronto based artist and writer, currently attending OCAD University. She loves to paint, create books, and walk her dog. She aspires to learn and grow and spend each day living in love. — IG @claralynas
Paper Automata
Thursday, December 6, 2018
4pm – 8pm
This workshop will explore using architectural techniques to construct mobile paper structures that represent one’s inner psyche. Inspired by the traditional art practice of shadow puppets, the participants will hopefully come away with a deeper understanding of structure forms and how to integrate interactivity/ mobility and print media.
Krista Barleta is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in Visual Studies from U of T and New Media from Ryerson. With her main mediums of illustration and installation, she chases the vision of a balance between the old and the new, and the power of art in accessing the alternate dimension of cyberspace. — kbarleta@wordpress.ca | IG @Krist.__0
Japanese Stab Binding Workshop
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
4pm – 7pm
In this workshop participants will explore the Japanese method of bookbinding. Together we will learn the stitching method, create templates, and bind our own books. Participants will come away with their own hand-bound sketchbook or notebook!
Clara Lynas is a Toronto based artist and writer, currently attending OCAD University. She loves to paint, create books, and walk her dog. She aspires to learn and grow and spend each day living in love. — IG @claralynas
Krista Barleta is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in Visual Studies from U of T and New Media from Ryerson. With her main mediums of illustration and installation, she chases the vision of a balance between the old and the new, and the power of art in accessing the alternate dimension of cyberspace. — kbarleta@wordpress.ca | IG @Krist.__0
Robbie Adolfo is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer who draws inspiration from video games and the unstoppable power of friendship. He is currently studying design at George Brown while also making art and exploring arts education. — cargocollective.com/rbadolfo | IG @jtpks
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