Junction Triangle

Annette sent the following event announcement:

Come and join me to Create a Halloween card & gift item Learn paper crafting & stamping techniques
PERTH DUPONT PUBLIC LIBRARY
Tuesday, September 27, 2010
From 6:30 – 8:00 PM
1589 Dupont St (upstairs)
Contact for Registration:
Email: artandsoulcreative@gmail.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

Photo by Martin Reis, in the Junction Triangle Flickr Pool

Sometime during the night of August 16-17, the brand new mural under the Wallace Ave. Footbridge was severely vandalized. It's not the first time that this mural was tagged, including while it was still a work in progress. Artist Richard Mongiat has fixed it each time.

Personally, as much as I actually enjoy good street art and graffiti, simple vandalism of other peoples' work is extremely disrespectful. And it makes me enjoy other street art less.

The wonderful Dusk Dances makes its last area appearance starting tonight and running to Sunday. Always eclectic and offbeat this is a great family opportunity to see some of Canada's most innovative and talented dancers. This year has a great lineup including Santee Smith, a Mohawk from Six Nations who always brings great passion to her works. Dusk Dance events are always fun, enlightening, and PWYC!

• First Nation’s dancer and choreographer Santee Smith, with Kaha:wi – a piece celebrating the feminine spirit and Iroquoian traditions

Details from the Facebook event page:

Bending the Rails: documentary about the diesel trains

Time: Tuesday, August 30 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Revue Cinema

More Info: Free screening at the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles) Tuesday August 30 @ 7:00PM. MP Andrew Cash, Councillor Ana Bailão, MPP Cheri DiNovo, filmmaker Jeff Winch and Paul Gorczynski from the office of Peggy Nash will be in attendance. Q&A after screening (running time 45 mins)

The Junction Triangle in Toronto is surrounded by railway lines. Very soon those rails will bring excessive toxic diesel pollution to the neighbourhood, courtesy of the Ontario Government.

Citizens all along the rail corridor want clean electric trains, but Premier Dalton McGuinty isn’t listening.

With government sorely letting it down, the scrappy Junction Triangle fights on.

But the diesel trains are coming closer and time is running out

For more info, contact jw@jeffwinch.com.

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.

I don't normally post too many events happening outside of the Junction Triangle, but I make the occasional exception when it's nearby, put on by one of our locals, and is generally pretty cool. :) Besides, the Revue Cinema is just a short walk from the JT, and sort of fills that role of "local theatre" for us. And with the ongoing construction on Roncesvalles, our neighbours down there could use a bit of support. So check this out if you get a chance.

The Revue Revue Variety Show

Go Local! See It Live!

The best local performers in comedy, dance and video come together for a night of live theatre at the historic Revue Cinema.

100% organic performances from:

Nikki Payne
Winston Spear
Mark Walker
Hunter Collins
Vaudeville Duo Parker and Seville
Ron Sparks and Kevin MacDonald
Sketch Troupe Frenzy
Miko Sobriera
Host Carolyn Bennett
With imported musician Randall Spear from Quebec City

When: Saturday June 25, 9pm
Where: Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles Avenue
Why: Because the Revue is the best
How much: $10 for members/$12 for non-members

A night on the town – close by!

THE END OF CONSTRUCTION IS NEAR! LET’S CELEBRATE.

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.

The Clay & Paper Theatre's Cycling Oriented Puppet Squad (CYCLOPS) are hosting a series of Friday night group bike rides this summer. There will be a ride along the West Toronto Railpath on Friday July 8th, starting from Dufferin Grove Park.

Here are the details from the CYCLOPS events page:

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 the vacant TTC site on Lansdowne Ave. has been organized to take place on Sunday May 8, 2011, at 10:00am, starting from the corner of Lansdowne Ave. and Jenet Ave. (one block north of the Lansdowne subway station). The cost for all Jane's Walks is FREE.

A former TTC maintenance yard sits vacant at Landsdowne, just south of Wallace Ave., north of Bloor. This walk will be in two parts; the first a discussion of the history of the site, and the sources/conflicts from the pollution, and a walk around the site observing and discussing a work of art produced by Marianne Lovink and Scott Eunson. Lovink and Eunson won a commission from the City of Toronto to beautify the site during the period in which it is vacant while the soil is reclaimed from industrial pollution.

Afterwards, we may be follow up with a local walk around adjacent parts of the Junction Triangle looking at other public art and features.