Wednesday was a big day in the SRSI spaces. Lea Bucknell held her Garden Party in 424 unveiling the portraits and stories that she made of Windsor residents, ProClick Factory arrives from Toronto, Thom Provost and Josh Babcock work on some hand-drawn diagrams.

Robin Fitzsimons has been training hard every day in the window spaces of 406. She has been receiving a few small donations in her jar, and will be headed down to the casino on Friday at 7pm to try her luck.

She has had many people join her for games of blackjack. Not only is she gaining experience by playing card games with people, but also the sit-down format leads to conversation between players.

Robin has made a few trips down to Caesars to scope it out and try playing a few games followed by Daragh, who will be incorporating this footage into the SRSI documentary.

Josh spent some time inventing at his desk in 406 Pelissier. He is posting his inventions on the wall behind his workstation as he progresses. Here is a pencil/pen combo and an interior hammock mockup.

This no-break auto bumper is an innovative idea. It would be interesting to pitch this idea to Chrysler or Ford to see what they think of his creativity.

Copyright issues are highlighted in Josh’s work. He is inventing things and then putting them on display for the public without claiming ownership to the design or idea. There is nothing saying that these renderings and innovations can not be taken and used by another individual.

Thom Provost spent his last day in 406 Pelissier sharing his creative ideas for a Detroit River Pedestrian walkway.

Walter came to hang out for a bit.

He sat down in the DoUC office and talked to Simon to help out with their Storefront Success Stories project.

Thom did some process drawings on receipt paper in the afternoon.

The long horizontal strip was a clear way to read the steps of how to built a floating platform out of plastic bottles.

Don’t you want to play Pictionary with this guy?

The ProClick Factory is here hosting YouTube Open Mic and utilizing a section of 406 as their workspace.

ProClick Factory has some free matches and swappable bags. Come in and request a video!

Sara enjoyed a nice bike ride around in 406 while Norm joined us later on at the Garden Party.

Logan Davis took over the window display in 410 Pelissier to install a litebrite board that he constructed. The piece is blacklit and looks really great, especially at night.

The work is designed so that people can change the pegs around on the board to spell words or make images. Right now it says “This City Is Our Canvas”.

Lea’s Garden Party was held after hours. This served as the closing celebration for her residency as well as a cumulation of her experiences meeting and talking with Windsor residents.

Lea’s planters are all filled with plants from the yards of homeowners in each ward of the city.

She marked the locations where she retrieved the pieces of soil and plants with pushpins. The visualization of her journey biking thorugh the city is a great demonstration of how feasible it is to travel by bike to get around.

These drawings of people who live in Windsor and take care of their yards and claim ownership of their city.

The personal stories and drawing serve as lea’s memories of her experiences in Windsor.

We prepared cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, PB&J sandwiches, fresh veggies and fruit, doughnuts and juice.

Lea was full of suspense all day, waiting to see who, out of all the people she met and invited, would show up to the party.

The party was well attended and a lot of visitors stopped by.

Everyone had a really good time and enjoyed chatting both inside and outside of 424 Pelissier.

Lea was reacquainted with many of the generous gardeners who offered her pieces of their gardens.

Norm was on duty, enjoying some fun times but also keeping a watchful eye out for trouble and hazards.

It was a lovely get-together with friends. Holding a garden party inside of a space meant for retail is unusual in of itself,  but then extending the party onto the road under construction is an awesome way to actively use the space that is not so welcoming to pedestrians currently.

Daragh has completed a promo of Andrea’s study of non-places so watch out for that next!

This project is generously supported by the City of Windsor: Cultural Affairs Office, Arts Council Windsor & Region, Windsor Pride, and the Ontario Arts Council.