Cornerstone future site

PROMISE IN THE PARK: 
CORNERSTONE: OPEN STUDIO
Winchester Square Park Pebble Mosaic Project

JOIN OUR Creative Community: This 2-week studio intensive is open everyone. Join one or all open studio workshops for this legacy project and be part of bringing new public art to Winchester Square Park.  Drop by anytime during our open hours. The pebble mosaic will be installed and unveiled in October, followed by a community celebration. Launch and unveiling date to be announced.

September 15th to 30th: 
Diane Frankling Co-op, Community Room 85 Bleecker Street

Tuesday September 15, 5pm to 9pm
Wednesday September 16, 5pm to 9pm
Thursday September 17, 5pm to 9pm
Saturday September 19, 1pm to 5pm

Tuesday September 22, 5pm to 9pm
Wednesday September 23, 5pm to 9pm
Thursday September 24, 5pm to 9pm
Saturday September 26, 1pm to 5pm

What is Cornerstone?
Cornerstone is an 8' diameter pebble mosaic that will be made in a welcoming open studio, and then installed in Winchester Square Park. Corner Stone is one component of a larger community-based art project that has engaged 600+ community members since January 2014.
 


Future site of Cornerstone pebble mosaic

History and Future of Promise in the Park and Cornerstone
Born from this large-scale, multiyear, community engaged art project:
 
Year 1:ARTS-BASED research and CONSULTATION with 200+ adults, children, seniors, and youth in the Wellesley/ Carlton/ Sherbourne area to develop overall concept and themes and motif for project.
Year 2: PUBLIC ART: with 400+ community members, making and unveiling of Hatch (Winchester Public School 14’ x 8’ mosaic pubic artwork) and Birds of a Feather (Ernescliffe Housing Co-op mosaic public artwork multi-component installation) in May 2015, and upcoming in September and October 2015, and Corner Stone
Year 3: WORKSHOPS: song, movement, creative writing, visual art, and fabric and hand-stitching art
Year 4: COMMUNITY PERFORMANCE: utilising the prior three years of programming and community building Promise in the Park culminates in a public community performance work! 

Promise in the Park: The Winchester Park Public Art Project

We're proud to announce Promise in the Park Project: The Winchester Park Public Art Project. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. At this time we'd like to recognize our community partners, and particularly Diane Frankling Co-operative Homes, the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council, and Jumblies Theatre's Artistic Director Ruth Howard and Managing Director Keith McNair for mentorship. 

http://grant.otf.ca/grantlistings.aspx?year=2013&catchment=Toronto

Promise in the Park is a multidisciplinary project that will cultivate community engagement in arts in Toronto’s Winchester Park neighbourhood while creating public art that is based upon the local stories and traditions of the people living there. Through a 4-year artistic process, we will showcase, cross pollinate, and grow the unknown or unacknowledged cultural riches that are present in the area, catalyze new social connections, and increase neighbourhood safety by revitalizing its public spaces.

Promise in the Park builds upon Red Dress Productions’ artistic residency with Diane Frankling Co-operative Homes (formerly Bleecker Street-Co-operative @85 Bleecker St.) between 2006 and 2012 that engaged 400+ volunteer project contributors and culminated in three large-scale mosaic public artworks. Motivated to extend the legacy of social inclusion beyond its membership and into the wider Winchester Park neighbourhod, Red Dress Productions has been called upon upon by Diane Frankling Housing Co-op’s membership to develop the framework for and lead Promise in the Park.

The artistic processes, production, and public presentation inherently cultivate a context for inclusive and co-creative social and civic engagement across difference in the Winchester Park neighbourhood. Promise in the Park will be realized through community and park transformation and will work to better welcome, reflect, and include the diversity of people who live in the area. 

Public artworks, conceptualized and produced through collaborative artistic practices, will remain in a string of Winchester area parks. These artworks will physically and visually connect the neighbourhood, and will also serve as the a site for a large-scale Community Play.

Red Dress Productions will begin working with communities in the Winchester Park area on Promise in the Park in January 2014.