RED DRESS PRODUCTIONS (RDP) is a Toronto-based, not-for-profit, professional, arts company that creates and disseminates interdisciplinary art and performance projects and works with/in communities on community-engaged public artworks. We work to:
· Support self-presentation by providing artistic leadership, resources, tools, and mentorship toward collaborative artistic practices, particularly where the effects of oppression and inequity impede the well being of individuals and communities.
· Produce original artwork that strives for innovation, technical excellence and that elicits dialogue and creative exchange across difference.
· Transform public spaces with public art that reflects and engages the communities that live there.
· Create opportunities for people to explore and develop their creativity.
· Increase civic engagement through public art.
· Provide accessible art making opportunities by working with people of diverse abilities, skills, ages, identities, and experiences. Everyone is welcome and every contribution is valued.
· Cultivate equity-seeking emerging artists by making mentorship, learning, and experimentation a central component of our work.
Red Dress Productions grounds itself in the knowledge that art is an essential contributor to culture, social change, vibrant neighbourhoods, and healthy communities.
Since 2005, RDP has: directly engaged 1400+ contributors in the conceptual development and building of 6 community engaged public artwork projects; produced 5 original interdisciplinary stage performances; toured to more than 8 urban and rural Canadian communities; and created 15 paid apprenticeship positions for youth under the age of 25.
Current projects include: a community engaged public artwork project with Central Toronto Community Health Centres; an event series in partnership with Mayworks Festival; and the production of trace, an interdisciplinary art work (integrating sound art, musical composition, video, live performance, and environmental installation) in partnership with FADO Performance Art and New Adventures in Sound Art.
RDP BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Tariq Sami
Lee Shields
JP Hornick
Chris Veldhoven
RDP CORE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Anna Camilleri | Founding Artistic Director
Anna Camilleri has been cultivating a multi-disciplinary arts practice since 1995, incorporating creative writing, public art, visual art, storytelling and performance, research, and collaborative and community engaged practices. Anna has performed for the last fifteen years in Canada and the US, and is a founding member of Swell, which is the (re)iteration of Taste This, a collaborative storytelling performance troupe that co-authored Boys Like Her: Transfictions. She is writer and performer of one-woman shows Still Breathing Fire and Sounds Siren Red, author of I Am a Red Dress: Incantations on a Grandmother, a Mother and a Daughter, editor of Red Light, co-editor of Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity, co-author of Boys Like Her: Transfictions, and writer/director of two nationally broadcast CBC radio works. Her book and performance works have been widely reviewed and cited, and she has been recognized with awards and distinctions from the LAMBDA Literary Foundation, the Association of Independent Publishers, and the American Library of Congress. Her books are included in the University of Toronto’s Fisher Rare Books Library Queer Canadian Literature Collection.
Anna has also worked with a diversity of organizations including Mayworks Festival, the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, and the Canadian Auto Worker’s Union. Form 2004 to 2010 (inclusive) she was artist-in-residence at Central Toronto Youth Services with the Gender Play Theatre Project. She is currently in her second year as writer-in-residence at the Triangle School, Canada’s first and only alternative high school for LGBT students. As lead visual artist and project director, Anna has led seven large-scale community engaged public artwork mosaic projects.
Tristan R. Whiston | Founding Artistic Director
Tristan R. Whiston is a multidisciplinary artist who has worked in Toronto's independent theatre community for the past 20 years as a director, writer, and performer. His work as an audio artist over the past five years has gained him international acclaim and attention. Tristan wrote and directed five audio documentaries for CBC; most notably, his work, Middle C, won the 2007 Premios Ondas Award for International Radio and the silver medal at the 2007 New York International Radio Programming. In 2010, Middle C was selected as CBC’s entry for the Global Perspectives Series; as a result, audiences of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Netherlands, Australian Broadcast Corporation, Radio-Television Hong Kong, Radio New Zealand and South Africa FM heard Middle C. In 2008, Tristan completed a residency with New Adventures in Sound Art, which resulted in a new sound piece entitled Requiem for a Boxer, which played on CBC Radio, and as part of the Deep Wireless Radio Conference. As the Artist-in-Residence at Central Toronto Youth Services (2004 to 2010 inclusive), Tristan directed Gender Play, a theatre project working with LGBTQ youth exploring issues and experiences of gender. Currently, Tristan is working with Moynan King on an integrated art and sound performance piece called trace, which will be presented by FADO and New Adventures in Sound Art in August 2012. As community artist, Tristan has co-led six community engaged public artwork mosaic projects with Anna Camilleri.
Heidi Cho | Community Artist
Heidi Cho is an emerging multi-disciplinary community artist working in silk-screening, mosaic, animation, drawing, and zine production. As a young queer artist of colour, art has provided an important outlet to share her story, and deepen her social justice activism. Heidi apprenticed with Red Dress Productions on two large-scale community engaged public artworks, and has since become an important part of our team. Heidi has also worked with Sketch, the People Project, and St. Emilie Skillshare.
Chantelle Gobeil | Community Artist
Chantelle Gobeil is mixed media visual artist working in paint (oils and acrylics), mosaic, and glass, and a community artist working with elders. She is a graduate of Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Studio Art). Chantelle first joined Red Dress Productions as a community contributor with the 519 Centre Mosaic Project in 2010, and has since become an important part of our team.
Jay Stewart | Technician
Jay Stewart is a passionate artist currently studying graphic design. Her inspiration derives from graffiti, real hip hop, and positivity. Her experience ranges from working as a mosaic artist and technician with Red Dress Production to murals from west to east of Toronto. She has worked in many diverse communities of Toronto to inspire and mentor youth interested in the arts. Visit her website at jaystewarts.com
Jay Stewart | Technician
Jay Stewart is a passionate artist currently studying graphic design. Her inspiration derives from graffiti, real hip hop, and positivity. Her experience ranges from working as a mosaic artist and technician with Red Dress Production to murals from west to east of Toronto. She has worked in many diverse communities of Toronto to inspire and mentor youth interested in the arts. Visit her website at jaystewarts.com
Katie Yealland | Photographer and Technician
Katie Yealland has worked as an electrician and camera operator in commercial film production since 1997, however she is primarily and proudly one of the very few female grips in Canada. For those of us who aren’t versed in film lingo, grips are lighting and rigging technicians who work closely with the camera department to build, maintain, and rig all equipment that supports cameras, and with the electrical department to create lighting set-ups. Katie first joined Red Dress Productions as a community contributor with the 519 Centre Mosaic Project in 2010, and has since become a core team member.
SELECTED COLLABORATIVE AND COMMUNITY ENGAGED PUBLIC ARTWORKS
· Untitled (tba), 2012, The Bleecker Co-operative Memorial Project, based in the Carlton/ Sherbourne neighbourhood, Toronto (4’ tall x 20’ wide). 250+ community members contributed to the conceptual development, design, and production of this new mixed media dimensional artwork (carpentry, mosaic, ceramic, collage).
· Many Hands Make Light Work, 2011, Sherbourne Health Centre Community Mosaic, based in the Gerrard/ Sherbourne neighbourhood, Toronto (8’ tall x 18’ wide). 300+ community members contributed to the conceptual development, design, and production of this public artwork.
· Flux, 2010, The 519 Church Street Community Center, based in the Church/Wellesley neighbourhood, Toronto (27’ long x 5’ wide mosaic). 300+ community members contributed to the conceptual development, design, and production of this public artwork work.
· Making Art and Community Together, 2009, The Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto, based in the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood, Toronto (4 panels, each 5' wide x 2.5' high mosaic). 150+ community members contributed to the conceptual development, design, and production of this public artwork work.
· Scape, 2007, Bleecker Street Co-operative, based in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood, Toronto (17' wide x 5' high mosaic). 100+ community members contributed to the conceptual development, design, and production of this public artwork work.
· Mosaic: A Community Tribute, 2006, Bleecker Street Co-operative, based in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood, Toronto (12' high x 8' high mosaic). 150+ community members contributed to the conceptual development, design, and production of this public artwork work.
SELECTED Interdisciplinary Performance/STAGE WORKS
· So the Story Goes, 2010 and 2009. A multi-disciplinary performance by SweLL (Camilleri, Ivan Coyote, Lyndell Montgomery, Leslie Peters), presented by Red Dress Productions at: Vancouver’s Pride in Art Festival, August 2009, Roundhouse Theatre; Mayworks Festival, Toronto, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre; April 2010, SAW Gallery Theatre, Ottawa, April 2010; and Vancouver East Cultural Centre, Sept. 2010.
· Still Breathing Fire, full production in July 2008, Vancouver’s 10th Annual Pride in Art Festival
· Never Man’s Land, full production in February 2008, Alchemy Theatre
· Sounds Siren Red, workshop production in December 2004 (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), full professional production in January 2006 (Alchemy Theatre), and one-off performances in Victoria, Vancouver, Kingston, Boston and Seattle
· The Acting Out Against Violence Project, a multi phase Ontario-wide public education community arts initiative in partnership with the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre and the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres featuring performance, art-making workshops, and discussion forums, 2006.
· Acting Out Against Violence Resource Guide, a 70+-page text available in English, Spanish, and French
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