Th Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic

This is where we began.

And this is where we are now. Thanks to Rafaela Vidinha Dominici for still photography of the completed work, pictured in this series.


MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK
June 2011
18’ long x 8’ high

Many Hands Make Light Work: a partnership between Sherbourne Health Centre and Red Dress Productions. 300+ community members contributed to the conceptual development and building of this mosaic between January and June 2011. At 12 community consultations, we brainstormed, we told stories, and we made art with a range of materials including pastel and foam plate printing on fabric and paper. At the end of each consultation, we reviewed our findings from this participatory arts-based research (notes, brainstorm maps, sketches, and prints). Many individual and group pieces were created, and themes emerged: a desire to welcome people to the centre; diversity, inclusion, access, and safety; the connection between health, communities, and our environment; mentorship; transformation and life transitions.

Lead visual artist Anna Camilleri stewarded the progression of this arts-based research into a design, and the mosaic studio was opened. We built the mosaic together: 2000+ volunteer hours were invested into the creation of this public artwork.


The Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic Project was led by project directors and lead artists Anna Camilleri and Tristan R. Whiston of Red Dress Productions, with community art apprentices Heidi Cho, Rafaela Vidinha Dominici, Daniel Ellis, and Jay Stewart, and associate artists Chantelle Gobeil and Katie Yealland.


We’re grateful to the individuals and organizations who supported this project in a variety of ways: Suhail Abualsameed, Melissa Benner, Dr. Decina, Janet Godin, Amy Goudge, Ryan Hayward, Mark Jankie, Michael Kell, Doug Kerr, Loree Lawrence, Tim Leeder, Skye Louis, Suzy Malik, Caelin Meredith, Jose Portilla, Pam Sloan, Andrew Suri, and Mike Yealland; Neighbourhood Arts Network; staff and students at the Sherbourne Chiropractic Clinic; Bleecker Street Co-operative Homes; Tile City Ltd.; working group committee members Clare Nobbs, Nancy Granda, Jen Keystone, Mark Egtesadi, Heidi Cho, Nicole MacLellan, and Marc Piccinato; installation technicians Katie Yealland, Doug Reid, and Hunter Marino; and the board of directors and staff of the Sherbourne Health Centre. Special thanks to Clare Nobbs and Suzanne Boggild for championing this project.

Project contributors include A.J., Allias, Suhail Abualsameed, Kacii Alexus, Teresa Allen, Nickolai Anderson, Anne, Antonio, Alvaro, Terrance B, Shanea B, Carl B, Alexander Baali, Matt Bahen, Joshua Bailey, Lynden Bailey, Maxine Y. Baines, Kanthy Bala, Nivedita Bala, Christine Balmes, Lorraine Barnaby, Selina Bavinka, Elisa Bekri, Adam Benn, Drew Birka, Gary Blaize, Stephan Blizzard, Sabrina Bloomberry, Melodie Boccioletti, Suzanne Boggild, Daniel Bois, Neil Boyce, Afi Browne, Catherine Bruhier, Elizabeth Burns, Richard Burns, Dana Bustard, Craig C., John Caffery, Anna Campbell, Zulema Cardenas, Jessica Carfagnini, Richard Carrier-Bragg, Bryanna Carter, Angela Cassidy, Cecilia, Sara Chambers, Parul Chaturvedi, Bernice Chau, Chris, Michele Clark, Damion Clunis, Ursula Conlon, Lexii Cooper, Muriel Cooper, Jeanette Cournoyer, Fran Creed, Kat Dandy, David, Sebastian Di Trolio, Aerissa Roy Dupuis, Dashiel Dwyer, Tammy Ebuen, Mark Egtesadi, Rachel Epstein, Megha Eswaran, Bradley Farough, Alex Filion, Ryan Firestone, Juilan Flemmings, Matt Caron Francino, Mararet (SP?) Franklin, Lisa Freeman, Alexander Gonzales, Ilaneet Goren, Amy Goudge, Gloria Gil, Lilian Gessner, Rachel Green, Markus Harwood Jones, Charlotte Hastings, Maxwell He, Ewaldine Hei, Bethan Amanda Henry, Lee Hicks, Holly, Mike Holton, Avery Hornick-Rowe, JP Hornick, Katy Hornsby, Lisa Huang, Joey Huff, Alicia In Baptiste, Teruma Ikeda, Mark Jankie, Heidi Janson, Clare Jarrold, Chris Jeethan, Jen, Jessica, Jennifer Jewell, Murray Jose, Jude, Asif Kamal, Tjinomasa Kandundu, Thom Keeler, Michael Kell, Doug Kerr, Jen Keystone, Stella Kim, King, Ambrose Kirby, Adrian Kirkland, Kirien, Kaeren Knight, Gillian Kranias, Ursula Kranias-Stewart, Melissa Krause, Irene Lambert-Gobeil, Jessica Larabee, Bernadette Lettner, Chelsey Lichtman, Alex Looky, Lauren M – B, Madhushan, Terry MacDougall, Jordyn Mackay, Nicole MacLellan, Jim Maggi, Alice Man, Zara Mansion, Codey Margeson, Justin Matthews, Julie Marentette, Hunter Marino, Maritza, Maxwell, Kathryn Maxwell, Melinda, Felipe Mendes, Patrick Miclette, Joey Miles, Shamiia Miller, Al Milton, Heron Mitchell, Jordyn Monroe, Snoopy Monroe, TKO Monroe, Twysted Monroe, Alain Mootoo, Aintony Mortimore, Anthony Moscar, Ice Musceo, Devan Nambiar, Mahes Nampi, Crysta Neilson, Zoe Neilson, Clare Nobbs, Colin O’Brien, Liam O’Handley, Geramie O’Shea, Amy O’Sullivan, Pam, Ena Papp, Jevon Papp, EK Park, Ann-Marie Peart, Julia A. Perez, Leslie Peters, Danny Phan, Marc Piccinata, Jose Portilla, Emery Potter, Jothi Ramesh, Jade Reid, Remy, Janet Rowe, Aerissa Roy-Dupuis, Selena Roposo-Rois, Rose, Judy Rowley, Paul Andrew Rye, Dane S., Jamie S, David Sanders, Alyssa Santos-Romeiro, Mateo Santos-Romeiro, Vera Santos, Scarlett, Dane Scott, Michael Schwartz, Katya Sh, Jennifer Shandard, Dwayne Shaw, Shawna, Lee Shields, Dane Shortt, Keith Showers, Shyana, Fox Silver, Jason Sinclair, Mala Singh, J. Sloat-Spencer, Maverick Smith, Laura Sparrow, Silas Sparrow, Andy Sprung, Michael St. Clair, Juno Stewart, Nick Torok, Corzi Toussaint, Natalyn Tremblay, Donna Turner, Natasha Tutt, Donny Vivid, Benjamin Walsh, Jing Wang, Mark Warren, Dorothy Whiston, Paige Whitewax, Paris Wright, Ryan Woods, Marcos Zelaya, Yadira Zelaya, Amele Zewge-Teffera, Heidy Zunn, and others who have chosen to remain anonymous.

The Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic Project has been made possible thanks to the citizens of Ontario through the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Photos from our Unveiling and Reception on June 21, 2011

200+ contributors and community members celebrated the unveiling of the Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic. Thanks for making it such a joyous occasion. A plaque recognizing the artwork’s title, and all project contributors and supporters will be installed in September, 2011.


Thanks to Heidi Cho and Boyd Kodak for unveiling and reception still photography (pictured in this post); gracious event host Clare Nobbs; speakers Skye Louis (Neighbourhood Arts Network), Loree Lawrence (Ontario Arts Council), and Doug Kerr and Suzanne Boggild (Sherbourne Heatlh Centre); reception event planners Clare Nobbs, Heidi Cho, Daniel Ellis, Caelin Meredith, Nancy Granda; DJ Katie Yealland; and mosaic working group committee members Clare Nobbs, Nancy Granda, Jen Keystone, Mark Egtesadi, Heidi Cho, Nicole MacLellan, and Marc Piccinato. We'd also like to recognize maintenance and security staff teams at the Sherbourne Health Centre who supported the project in many ways.

“Keep doing this work in communities—it is revolutionary. It changes the world — it is what is meant by creating the world you want to live in.”
— Ambrose Kirby, SHC Mosaic Contributor

Apprentices Heidi Cho, Rafaela Vidinha Dominici, Daniel Jelani Ellis, and Jay Stewart.

Installation Photos from SHC Mosaic Project

Our unveiling and reception last night was a joyous event with many contributors and comunuity members present. We'll have more to say about that soon.

Queeries Magazine features SHC Mosaic Project

Thanks to Suzy Malik and Melissa Benner at Queeries for this article:
http://queeriesmag.com/index.php/2011/06/17/building-community-one-peice-at-a-time/

Neighbourhood Arts Network features Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic

Thanks to the Skye Louis and Amy Goudge at Neighbourhood Arts Network for featuring the Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic Project. We appreciate NAN's work on behalf of artists working in collaborative and community engaged practices!

Here's the link:
http://neighbourhoodarts.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/sherbourne-health-centre-mosaic/

Communities Activate to Make Change

Alvaro Orozco – a young artist who contributed to the Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic Project – is released from immigration detention on humanitarian and compassionate grounds!

Alvaro is a talented, passionate and motivated visual artist and photographer, dedicated advocate for queer and newcomer youth and recipient of the 2010 Street-Level Advocate Award from the Toronto Youth Cabinet and City of Toronto. Alvaro was arrested on May 13th, as an undocumented resident, and faced deportation to Nicaragua.

“Thank you. To all the people that signed petitions, that came out to rallies, all the organizations that have supported me, Thank you from the bottom of my heart. The detention centre is still full, with kids and families. It’s not fair. It’s not fair that police are working with immigration to arrest people. We need change now. I hope that people in the community will continue to fight for justice for immigrants and refugees.” Alvaro Orozco, May 31, 2011

No One Is Illegal – Toronto joins Toronto’s queer and arts community in celebrating the upcoming release of Alvaro Orozco from immigration detention. Alvaro had been in detention since Friday, May 13th, after being racially profiled and arrested by Toronto Police outside Ossington station.

Community power, grassroots organizing from St. John’s to Victoria, and Alvaro’s inspiring resilience in the face of immigration-detention created this people’s victory.

For more info, and to continue to support Status for All, go to the facebook group www.facebook.com/nooneisillegaltoronto

Final Week of Open Studio at the Sherbourne Health Centre

Tomorrow (Thursday, June 9th) is our last day of open studio at the Sherbourne Health Centre, and we're already lamenting packing up the studio. The project has been heaps of fun, and is worthy of a raucous celebration. We hope that each and every one of you (300+) contributors comes out to the unveiling and reception of this new public artwork on June 21st with your friends, family, and allies.

Many folks have asked what happens between now and June 21st . . . Are we done? As of Thursday June 9 we will be done building the mosaic, but there'll be a little more work to do. Later this week, a crew of us will be installing the panels on the exterior of the Sherbourne Health Centre. Once the panels are up, we'll spend a week doing some final tile work and grouting. The mosaic will be tarped, and ready for the big reveal on Tuesday, June 21st.

Comments? Feedback? Questions? Reflections?

The Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic Project is Red Dress Productions' 5th large-scale community engaged public artwork project, but it's the first time that we've produced an online gallery with weekly (often daily) project updates with the intent to increase access to the project.

Please take a moment to email us about this project, our online gallery, and/or your experience as a contributor. Sharing your thoughts, comments, or feedback is one important way you can support Red Dress Productions to continue making art with/in communities: reddressproductions@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Unveiling and Reception Party on Tuesday June 21, 2011 @ 7pm

More than 300 community members joined together over several months to create the Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic. Please join us in celebrating this new public artwork led by artists Anna Camilleri and Tristan R. Whiston of Red Dress Productions, with apprentices Heidi Cho, Rafaela Dominici Vidinha, Daniel Ellis, and Jay Stewart.


Unveiling & Reception
7pm, Tuesday June 21, 2011
The Sherbourne Health Centre, 333 Sherbourne Street

Refreshments & Special Guests
+ an opportunity to suggest a title for this new work

The Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic Project – a partnership between Red Dress Productions and Sherbourne Health Centre – has been made possible thanks to the Toronto Arts Council, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Information:
E-Mail: reddressproductions@gmail.com
Phone: 416. 629-8795