Posted on

Desire and the City: A Citizen’s Abandoned-Lot Design Consultancy (Sept. 7th & 14th at Civic Space)

Desire and the City

DESIRE AND THE CITY: A Citizen’s Abandoned-Lot Design Consultancy Led by Kiki Athanassiadis (Register Now!)

September 7th & September 14th, 2013 from 1-4pm – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario) 

Led by recent transplant and guest artist Kiki Athanassiadis, this is Part One of a citizen’s design workshop to imagine, design, build and deploy a non-permanent design solution for an empty lot near you.

Is there an empty lot that’s close to your heart? One that you think is great as is or, conversely, think could be put to much better use?

The aim of this 2-day design consultancy, where you become both client and designer, is to help you articulate via playful means, your desire for civic improvement.

For two Saturday afternoons in September, CIVIC Space will be transformed into your local pop-up design studio & consultancy. We will visit local empty lots, collect data and play with paper & reproductions of the sites and various design elements that each designer can assemble into their civic enhancement solutions.

Day 1: We concentrate on sites around Civic Space.

Day 2: Participants work on sites of specific interest to them – maybe ones located in their own neighbourhood!

This workshop is open to all! No design experience necessary. Please bring your camera if you have one.

For more information, please contact Kiki Athanassiadis here.

Please Register Below:

[gravityform id=”21″ name=”Desire and the City Registration Form” title=”false” description=”false”]

Posted on

PATHS (Practicing Art through Hide & Seek) Windsor: Sign up Now for this September!

PATHS

PATHS (Practicing Art through Hide & Seek): A Project Series by Andrew Lochhead – Sign up and Participate!

PATHS is part of an ongoing series of works and actions that explore notions of “play” as: an act of transgression, resistance, detournément, and subversion, a method of pedagogy, a means of investigating and exploring the urban environment & a means toward social engagement, in relation to the fine arts, – all within the context of our contemporary zeitgeist. Led by artist Andrew Lochhead, PATHS will consist of 3 games held at 3 locations in Windsor on September 20th, 21st, and 22nd.

Downtown (Friday, September 20th – 8:30pm-midnight) – Meet at Civic Space (411 Pelissier Street)

Devonshire Mall (Saturday, September 21st – 3-7pm) – Meet at doors by Tim Hortons (3100 Howard Avenue)

Jackson Park (Sunday, September 22nd – 3-7pm) – Meet at main gates of Jackson Park (Ouellette Avenue & Tecumseh Road)

Also, join us for a wrap party at 7pm at Villains Beastro on Sunday, September 22nd.

The game represents a fun way of engaging with an aspect of our city of which many of us are unfamiliar. We hope you can make it out.

Please use the form below to sign up for PATHS.

 

 

Posted on

Neighbourhood Spaces Interview with STAG Executive Director John Elliott

Next in the Neighbourhood Spaces (NS) mini-doc series is an interview with John Elliott, Executive Director of Sandwich Teen Action Group (STAG) in Windsor, ON. In this video, John talks about his organization, the importance of face-to-face communication, and community partnerships. STAG is a community-based charitable organization in the west end of Windsor, providing programs and support for at-risk youth. A former school, STAG offers an ideal location for the Centre, which will function as a music classroom, drop-in space and practice area for Neighbourhood Spaces (NS) artist-in-residence Kenneth MacLeod (Windsor).

Throughout his 6 week residency, Kenneth will oversee the project and offer free music instruction and workshops to neighbourhood youth ages 13-20. After the residency, Kenneth aims to continue the centre, creating a permanent space for youth to develop and expand their musical skills and abilities in Windsor.

He will also be at the Windsor Youth Centre (WYC), a drop-in Centre for homeless and at-risk youth ages 13-20 located in Wyandotte Town Centre. Every Wednesday he can be found jamming, teaching and learning with youth at the Centre.

Visit the NS Blog for more updates: www.acwr.net/ns-blog

NS is a collaborative partnership between the Arts Council – Windsor & Region, Broken City Lab and The City of Windsor (“the Collaborative”). This program is made possible through the generous financial support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Posted on

A Look at Neighbourhood Spaces Artist-in-Residence Kenneth MacLeod’s Project with WYC & STAG

Here’s another great peek at one of the ongoing Neighbourhood Spaces projects happening right now in Windsor. I love seeing these projects starting to unfold — it’s only been a few months since we pulled together the roster and so exciting to see it starting already.

Neighbourhood Spaces (NS) artist-in-residence Kenneth MacLeod (Windsor), will be developing and creating a new drop-in music resource and education centre at Sandwich Teen Action Group (STAG), a community-based charitable organization in the west end of Windsor, providing programs and support for at-risk youth. A former school, STAG offers an ideal location for the Centre, which will function as a music classroom, drop-in space and practice area.

Throughout his 6 week residency, Kenneth will oversee the project and offer free music instruction and workshops to neighbourhood youth ages 13-20. After the residency, Kenneth aims to continue the centre, creating a permanent space for youth to develop and expand their musical skills and abilities in Windsor.

He will also be at the Windsor Youth Centre (WYC), a drop-in Centre for homeless and at-risk youth ages 13-20 located in Wyandotte Town Centre. Every Wednesday he can be found jamming, teaching and learning with youth at the Centre.

Visit the NS Blog for more updates: www.acwr.net/ns-blog

NS is a collaborative partnership between the Arts Council – Windsor & Region, Broken City Lab and The City of Windsor (“the Collaborative”). This program is made possible through the generous financial support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Posted on

Day 3 & 4: Glaciers and Wreckage

IMG_2119(1)

Over the weekend, we took a trip out to the Bow Glacier to see first hand where Calgary’s only water source begins. The three hour drive proved to be rather scenic with beautiful mountains in the background.

IMG_2144(1)

Anticipating the scary scenario of encountering a bear, we equipped ourselves with a bear bell and bear spray. Both those items became useless when we spotted a bear and her cub on the side of the Trans Canada Highway. The black bear was so uninterested in us taking photos, she never looked up at us and just wandered back into the forest. I guess they’re not as scary as we thought.

IMG_2165(1)

Josh getting his first glimpse of the Bow Glacier.

IMG_2170(1)

After spending a few minutes staring at the glacier, we realized that we still had to hike to the top.

IMG_2175(1)

About an hour later, we arrived to the top of the waterfall. Seen above in the top right, this waterfall is spilling glacier water directly down into the Bow Lake and eventually feeding the Bow River. It’s pretty amazing to imagine the distance the water travels; from the glacier all the way to the homes and gardens of Calgarians. The theme of time, flow, and repetition keep coming up in our research.

IMG_2198(1)

Yesterday, Randy Niessen, the Programming Coordinator at TRUCK Contemporary Art in Calgary and the Project Implementation and Development Lead for WATERSHED+, took us on a bike ride to see what’s left of the damage that the flood left behind.

Above: The 10 foot mark on the meter next to the bridge is how high the river rose in this area.

IMG_2203(1)

Trees completely ripped out of the ground.

IMG_2206(1)

Temporary fences mend the completely eroded trail.

IMG_2212(1)

Josh observing the wreckage. Behind him, once cemented stones have been completely ripped out of the ground.

IMG_2215(1)

This part of the trail is now completely gone.

IMG_2216(1)

A lot of sites throughout Calgary are still under repair. However, it’s quite amazing to note that the majority of flood issues were taken care of during the first week after the flood.

IMG_2220(1)

This bridge collapsed as the water rose and began eroding it. A cargo train was crossing over at the same time and it took search and rescue crews 12 hours to back the train safely off the bridge. They’re still working on its reconstruction.

More soon.