Jane's Walk: Murals and Public Art in the Junction Triangle

Started in 2007, Jane's Walk is an annual event honouring the late urban thinker, activist, and writer Jane Jacobs. On May 7 and 8 2011, free walking tours will take place in cities all over Canada, the USA, and other countries around the world.

A local walking tour of Murals and Public Art in the Junction Triangle has been organized to take place on Saturday May 7, 2011, at 10:00am, starting from the Railway underpass on Bloor St., just west of Lansdowne Ave. The cost for all Jane's Walks is FREE.

"The Junction Triangle neighbourhood in west Toronto is bordered on all three sides by railway tracks and underpasses, making it an ideal place for public art. Our walk will explore painted murals, ghost signs, graffiti, and other public art throughout the neighbourhood."

More info about this walk is posted on the Jane's Walk website.

Note: There is also a followup walk on Sunday morning titled "Junction Triangle vacant TTC site".

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just amazed with the

just amazed with the perfection the color tone selected to complete the work. Street art is one form in which the innocence and the simplicity of the life is evident. Thanks for the beautiful share.

BlogTO's photo of the day

The March 30th 2011 Photo of the day on BlogTO includes part of Joel Richardson's mural on Dupont, east of Campbell:
http://www.blogto.com/photo_of_the_day/2011/03/you_are_here/

Jane's Walk: Graffiti, art, etc. discussion

During this Jane's Walk, we will be viewing a pretty wide range of art: Everything from commercial signs and city-sanctioned murals to illegal graffiti, tagging, and other street art. One of the purposes of the walk is to have moving, open discussion about all aspects of what are viewing. I imagine we might get some pretty divergent opinions on some of the artwork, especially the illegal stuff.

I'd love to hear peoples' opinions about our local street art before the walk too. Good, bad, ugly, indifferent?

The timing is interesting too, with recently ramped-up crackdowns on graffiti in Toronto. Who knows for sure, but our local landscape might even change significantly before this walk even happens.

Here are some recent links to other discussions about this graffiti crackdown in Toronto:

What are your thoughts?

A reply from Twitter

"Street art is a necessary means of expression for all ages & an essential dialogue between public & private space. And it always will be."

Street Art VS Random Tagging

I also think we should make a distinction between street art v.s. tagging. There are many very talented graffiti artists out there. When they paint a wall you can see good technique in their use of colour and themes being discussed visually. Then you have tagging. Within tagging, there are some good tags and at the same time many tags that merely look like it's done just out of spite or boredom. Random tagging done OVER someone else's mural, to me, slaps of disrespect of another's work. This type of tagging doesn't add to the work but is sprawled on top and looks to me to deface the original work.

There's a difference between adding to the original content of any given graffiti in a positive way and then there is badly executed tags that seem to be done by people with no respect or clue to the art of street graffiti.

My two cents. :)

Street Art

This city is totally lacking in street art. In Montreal there are several sculptures and statues in public spaces but in the T.O. there is so many missed opportunities where art can be present. For instance, the entrance to High Park off of Bloor street.

Great Event

Last year Bruce, Roy, and Hema did a wonderful job setting a casual stroll around the area where you pick up some tidbits of the goings on and history. I recommend people this as a great way to connect with your neighbourhood and your neighbours.