Junction Triangle

Joel Richardson has completed his new (replacement) mural on the south side of Dupont St. between Campbell and Lansdowne Avenues. He's having an official launch celebration on Sunday October 23, 5-6PM at the mural. Here are the details from the Facebook events page:

• Time: Sunday, October 23 · 5:00pm - 6:00pm
• Location: Dupont Street Mural - Dupont West of Lansdowne
• More Info: Wear a suit and bring a camera and help me celebrate the finishing of my mural. I would like to thank everyone who has helped to make this happen, I will be giving away free limited edition commemorative buttons to everyone who attends.

Meeting notice from Ward 18 City Councillor Ana Bailão. You can download a PDF copy of the meeting flyer here.

I invite all residents to an upcoming meeting to discuss ways to improve local traffic issues.

This is an opportunity to establish a "Local Traffic Working Group" to start creating a traffic master plan that focuses on addressing the issues that many local residents and staff have identified.

JOIN US:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
JOEL RICHARDSON BEGINS DUPONT STREET MURAL

Joel Richardson has begun to paint his new mural on Dupont Street West of Lansdowne. You can follow the whole process on his blog @ joelrichardson.com/blog as the artist, dressed in a tuxedo, paints a replacement to his mural erased by the City of Toronto earlier this year. The current mural was unanimously endorsed at a community meeting in August.

The artist will be keeping bankers hours at the wall for the next three weeks. Please feel free to drop by and see the progress.

Please Contact: Joel Richardson - joel@joelricahrdson.com

Saturday September 10th
June Harlowe Foods (1627 Dupont St. at Edwin Ave.)

Buy a $5 sticker or a $20 drawing to help support the new Dupont mural.

* Joel will screen his new Fairytale Documentary The Suit man and The Stencil

Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 1 p.m.

Second Floor Meeting Room, Perth/Dupont Library at 1589 Dupont Street

Following the recent public meeting, the Junction Triangle Library Expansion Committee will form a working group to organize the community consultation process and fundraising initiative. The meeting is open to anyone who would like to work on the campaign. If you would like to join us, drop us a line at librarycommittee@junctiontriangle.ca

Today, Torontoist has published A Spotter's Guide to Endangered Library Branches, highlighting some of the Toronto Public Library branches that are in danger of being cut by City Council. The first branch they feature is our very own Perth/Dupont Branch.

A few quotes from the article:

On page 152 of KPMG's core service review report—which identifies City services that could be cut or reduced for cost savings—is a column marked "Key Opportunities" that contains a single bullet point. "Some library branches could be closed," it says.

Specific proposals for cuts are still a long way off. Thursday night's (and Friday morning's) marathon executive committee meeting was only the prelude to a longer fight that will culminate next year, when it comes time to approve 2012's budget. But if library branches are to be closed, it seems likely that the most vulnerable ones will be those that do the least business.

The following notice comes from one of the meeting organizers:

The Perth/Dupont branch of the Toronto Public Library is popular spot in the Junction Triangle. Demand for its services has more than doubled since opening in 1977, and with the neighbourhood thriving, it will surely continue to grow. This bustling branch is one of the smallest in the Toronto Public Library system at 3600 square feet spread over three floors. With just a handful of reading spaces and computer workstations, the library struggles to accommodate groups in the tiny, second-floor meeting room. There is no elevator and washrooms are in the basement.

How can library services in the Junction Triangle be expanded in the current environment of fiscal restraint at City Hall? Is it possible to renovate or build a new library? Councillor Bailao supports the idea of matching contributions raised by the community with City money using Section 37 funds (i.e., fees paid by property developers for zoning allowances on building projects).

Our neighbourhood is undergoing a significant amount of development and the opportunity to obtain Section 37 funds for public projects like libraries now exists in the Junction Triangle. With the active support of the Councillor, a group of local residents is forming a committee to expand library services at the Perth/Dupont branch.

If you are interested in helping a great library grow, you are invited to the first meeting of the Junction Triangle Library Expansion Committee on Tuesday, August 16 at 7 p.m. in the Perth/Dupont Library (second floor meeting room) at 1589 Dupont Street.

There will be a public meeting regarding the railway underpass mural on the south side of Dupont St. between Campbell and Lansdowne Avenues. You may recall that this is the location of local artist Joel Richardson's mural, which was accidentally removed by the City (more details about that incident can be found here).

Meeting details:

When: Thursday, July 28, 7PM
Where: St. Luigi's school, 2 Ruskin Ave.

The following is a press release from artist Joel Richardson:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CITY MEETING REGARDING JOEL RICHARDSON’S DUPONT STREET MURAL ERASED BY THE CITY

In June the City of Toronto painted over the mural of artist Joel Richardson, a mural the City had commissioned Richardson to paint. After realizing the mistake the city invited Richardson to paint another mural on the same spot.

On July 28th Richardson along with Graffiti writer AMOS, will unveil their new design for the Dupont Street Mural.

The meeting will take place at St. Luigi’s Catholic School, on July 28th, at 7pm. The meeting will be a referendum on Richardson and AMOS’s new mural design.

Richardson and AMOS invite press, artists, and the community to come out and vote, wear a suit and tie to support their new mural plans.

Councilor Ana Bailao will host the meeting.

Bomb Shelter owner and Street Art go to guy ZION will also be in attendance to speak of the importance of art on our streets in a continued campaign to gain recognition of the importance and relevance of Street Art.

Photo by Martin Reis, in the Junction Triangle photo pool on Flickr.

I mentioned this briefly yesterday: The "Suit Stencil" mural by Joel Richardson in the railway underpass on the south side of Dupont St., between Campbell and Lansdowne Avenues was whitewashed by the City this week.

This is a bizarre twist in Toronto's recently-escalated "War on Graffiti", as Joel worked with the City to install this mural, in addition to his other mural on the north side of the street.

David Rider has an article about this in the Toronto Star. A few key quotes:

Artist Joel Richardson says the city has painted over a popular Dupont St. mural that it paid him $2,000 to create, an apparent misfire in Mayor Rob Ford’s war on graffiti.

A city spokeswoman says the railway underpass wall was returned to drab grey because Richardson’s artwork was unauthorized, uncommissioned, political and may have “referred to (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper.”

The painter and filmmaker kicked off work on the new mural last Sept. 25 with a community party. He had spent at least 30 hours on it, with about another 10 to go, when he learned Monday the city had used grey and white paint to completely blot out the mathematical formula incorporating Morse code symbols and grim-faced businessmen with yellow halos.

Elyse Parker, a director in the city’s transportation services department, said the artwork was erased after a resident complained it was political. City records suggested the older north wall mural was commissioned, but not the one on the south wall, she said.

“This was not approved by the city and we would not endorse any kind of mural with political messaging,” she said. “There was some discussion that the mural referred to Stephen Harper. That’s the suggestion, that’s what it looked like to us.”

Richardson says the mural “had nothing to do with Stephen Harper” — while it is “subversive and anti-freewheeling capitalism” — and his friend Benjamin Blais was the model for the businessman.

Vic Gedris, who runs the Junction Triangle website and led the Jane’s Walk that saw participants question Robertson about his mural, said the city recently painted over graffiti by “Posterchild” in a different, nearby underpass depicting Harper in riot gear.

www.justkidnaround.ca
1615 Dupont St., between Edwin and Franklin (map)