Deadline: 26-Aug-20
In partnership with the City of Toronto’s StreetARToronto Program, East End Arts invites artists to submit proposals to participate in Destination Danforth.
The purpose of this call is to gather a list of artists or artist collaborations who will be short-listed based on relevant professional credentials and preliminary design concepts.
The purpose of this call is to gather a list of artists or artist collaborations who will be short-listed based on relevant professional credentials and preliminary design concepts. Shortlisted artists will be contacted by August 31 and will receive an honorarium of $1000 to develop a final design concept, budget and material list. Final designs will be presented to the Destination Danforth Selection Committee on September 4th.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic the City of Toronto has fast-tracked implementing 40km of cycling infrastructure across Toronto, including the Danforth (from Broadview Avenue to Dawes Road). #DestinationDanforth aims to help local businesses recover from this pandemic, restore consumer confidence and give people safe alternatives to the TTC. The road to economic recovery goes through main street.
Themes
There are two themes they are addressing with this call, submissions can respond to one or both themes:
Theme One: Gratitude, Resilience, Hope
- The creativity of business owners on the Danforth is almost boundless. There are many creative and maker-based businesses across the four BIAs (some might even say that there’s an art to running a business). Over the course of this pandemic, communities throughout the Danforth – and indeed, the city, province, country, and beyond – have shown incredible care and love for one another, and this has manifested in the form of many public displays of art. Children’s chalk art, window scavenger hunts, light-up hearts made of blinking lights have filled the neighbourhoods with the evidence of this love. Let’s celebrate these already-thriving moments and enlarge them into wall sized murals. This theme invites submissions that tell stories of gratitude, resilience and hope for the Danforth Community. Even when this pandemic is long behind these murals will remain to remind them of their capacity to care and show-up for one another. The artworks should speak to and celebrate: the service local businesses bring to the communities that they support, the community members and residents who support them in return, and the benefits and opportunities to support local and celebrate community pride.
Theme Two: #EastEndLove
- #EastEndLove was a community-engaged public art project, presented by East End Arts through 2018 and 2019. This project used conversation, collaboration, stencil screen printing, and public art to facilitate difficult conversations, and to spread messages of love and inclusion in the community. #EastEndLove was born as a response to the increase in discriminatory discourse and vandalism in the east Toronto community, and aimed to unite community members while building stronger, more inclusive and responsive communities at large.Sadly, since the completion of this project East End Arts has observed specific neighbourhoods and communities in east Toronto being subjected to an alarming increase in instances of racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and hate, including vandalism, anti-Black racism, attacks on local residents and more. Clearly the work is not yet done. This theme invites submissions in support of Black Lives Matter. The artworks should speak to past and current injustice against visible minorities, and the importance, benefits and opportunities to build a better future through inclusion, collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Eligibility Criteria
- Artists located within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
Please note: They only require the proposal in written form (Maximum 500-words) and documentation of past works at this stage in the process. This will include:
- Artist Contact information
- Short description of the mural you propose (Maximum 500-words)
- Short bio including past experience working on outdoor projects of a similar nature and scale (Maximum 300-words)
- CV (2 pages maximum)
- Contact information for 2 references
- Maximum 3 images of past work (jpeg format 72 dpi, dimensions of 1024 pixels on longest side – approx. 500 KB) (Please indicate location and date of installation)
For more information, visit https://eastendarts.ca/call-for-artists-destination-danforth/