We’ve been really lucky.

For a couple of years now, we’ve been able to do the work that we’ve wanted to do, make the kinds of changes that we want to see, and create a set of projects that have kept us interested in staying in Windsor.

The Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation wrapped up a couple weeks ago. For 30 days, we hosted 25 amazing artists and artist collectives, all of whom worked in downtown Windsor and generated a huge number of new ideas, initiatives, and relationships.

For 30 days, we were very, very lucky.

From June 11th to July 11th, we saw projects that redefined the idea of what BIAs could do, generated new models for micro-economies by exchanging food for stories, unravelled and reassembled long lost sweaters, and introduced an unprecedented level of investigation into the personal histories found in homes (and gardens) across the city.

Projects that openly played with urban infrastructures, investigated the potential for utilizing the postal service for remembering forgotten places, and made many, many, many kinds of maps will all have a lasting impact on the people who were lucky enough to encounter them.

Workshops for children and adults made real and impacting use of open spaces, stories around our border realities were eagerly shared, and many delicious pies, meals and snacks were collaboratively prepared and enjoyed over insightful conversations using fresh and local ingredients.

Installations lit up and animated storefronts, interrupted the social experience of public spaces, and imagined the collapse of municipalities generated a new way to look at materials and architecture.

Performative works demonstrated DIY surveillance methodologies, actively spent time in marginalized spaces, infused the local economy with gambling earnings from the casino, and generated a factory from social media technologies.

All of these things happened here in Windsor in just 30 days.

SRSI created a concentrated series of activities that demonstrated the potential in rethinking how we attribute value to space, changed how we might think about creative activity impacting a community, and looked at the possibility to forget about a set of economic development strategies that haven’t worked for quite some time.

The things that we’ve felt about Windsor — its potential, its frustrations, and the novel possibility for generating creative work that can only happen here — were all reinforced through this residency project. We have to admit that we’ll probably do it again, in some fashion, because we believe that the projects we saw unfold are only the beginning of the incredible things that can happen in this city.

We want to thank everyone who participated in this project — without you, this would not have been possible. Your work made an impact on us, and we might argue, the entire city. Thank you.

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

Over the weekend, Emily Colombo wrapped up Miss Em’s Friendly Services with an awesome zine-like handout. Lots of food was prepared and shared.

On Saturday, Emily made a tasty fruit soup using fresh berries from the Downtown Windsor Farmer’s Market.

Joe has been a regular, visiting SRSI almost daily. He knows a lot about the city and has been great company to the residents over the course of the month. Thanks Joe! Emily got some maps of windsor printed for her recipe books, inverting the colours on the map to create a different effect.

On Sunday she wrote out all of the recipes she made over the course of her residency and photocopied them onto the back of the maps.

Tying brown string around them makes them seem like a personal handmade gift. Emily’s recipes all consist of fresh ingredients and local produce.

She even included ways to love your city and fix your bike, two things she did a lot of during her time spent in Windsor.

Merry Ellen came by to do one last batch of pies; rhubarb flip and bumbleberry.

Jolie stopped in and brought us a watermelon to share.

Emily installed her recipe books all around the street outside of 406 Pelissier. There were some left near the bench on Park Street where she was set up for her free lunches. More were tied to the orange construction fence around the perimeter. Emily gave so much to the community of Windsor, fixing broken bikes and making fresh, healthy and free meals for passersby and then giving them a fool-proof way to make their own dishes using the same fresh ingredients.

We did one last action before locking up on Sunday in preparation for cleanup on Monday. We left the two plants that were acquired during the 30 days or SRSI out on the park bench on Park Street so that someone who would enjoy them would take them home.

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

Friday was the last open house for SRSI. Norman Eberstein read some of his log entries written during his job, Emily made some amazing snacks for us, Kero busted out his Lemur, and Laura did another payphone intervention.

Norman was feeling not quite himself on Friday morning when he came in. He got his nose pierced overnight and had a generally sad demeanor.

He stayed for a few hours and then went home to prepare for his log reading later on in the evening.

Chris moved his workspace to 406 Pelissier in honour of the open house event. The change of atmosphere helped him concentrate and get a lot of work done on the Storefront Success Stories Tip Sheet that will be released on Monday.

Daragh was filming, like usual. He has been working on shooting some B roll this weekend before he heads back to Toronto. Emily made the tastiest hors d’oeuvres for us, rice wraps with fresh mango and mint, and bread with cream cheese, tomato, basil and walnut. Delicious!

Kero provided music for the open house with the Lemur.

He spent some time showing Josh, Justin and I the very fun interfaces on the touch screen pad.

Kero is an absolute genius. His presence in the city and the work he produces is essential to putting the Windsor/Detroit region on the map.

Laura set up shop with his GMBLL payphone. Sara had fun interacting with the phone and getting a gum ball in return.

The large space was perfect for some acrobatic dance moves.

Friends gathered inside to wait for Norman’s performance to start.

Justin and Stephen Surlin spent some time talking about the Arduino text piece Justin made for the windows.

Norman’s talk started around 8pm.

He opened up with a few really bad ice breakers.

Reading some excerpts from his security guard log, Norman talked about his calling to help people and the seriousness of the job.

After he was done, Norman was answering questions from the audience and reflecting on his time spent in Windsor working as security for SRSI.

Stephen got in trouble shortly after for getting ahold of the log and browsing through its contents. Norman was not impressed.

After, some people ventured outside to go with Laura to the corner of Wyandotte and Ouellette to install another PL1999.

Laura met up with a visual art student who was eager to participate in the installation and learn about Bell Payphone Labs.

Justin went out as well and took some nice shots of the disco ball.

The student posed for a few shots inside the booth.

On this busy intersection, it’s hard to say how long the PL1999 remained intact, or how many people saw the disco balls before they were removed.

This weekend we are hosting Merry Ellen Scully Mosna for one more round of pies, The Department of Unusual Certainties are finishing up their tipsheet, and BCL is starting to clean up the spaces on Pelissier, leaving them ready to go for the Visual Fringe Festival starting July 16.

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

Thursday was the Storefront Success Stories Speed Dating for Store Owners event down on Pelissier for SRSI, and Justin set up a window installation using the Arduino.

Using the same format as the text on the billboards running in Windsor until July 15th as part of the conclusion of Save The City, The Arduino in the window is displaying a list of sentences creating a randomized narrative of a city.

This pieces highlights the organic nature of cities, which go through boom and bust cycles over time.

The narrative of a constantly shifting city is important to Windsor, in it’s current state of regeneration and regrowth.

Lee and Justin had a conversation in the Bookmobile Reading Room filmed by Daragh for his SRSI documentary.

Later on, Lee interviewed Daragh for her own research purposes.

Justin was happy about his mended laundry hamper that Miss Em’s Friendly Services sewed and returned to him.

Emily returned to the heat to set up her free lunch and tea outside.

She added some chalk to the concrete wall to attract some hungry passersby.

She has been getting excellent reviews on her fresh veggie creations and is making a recipe book that will be available after she goes back to Sault Ste Marie.

Laura was in Bell Payphone Labs character as she gathered consumer reviews for the GMBLL design. People had mixed reactions to the payphone turned gumball machine, thinking it was either a clever idea or not so practical.

Chris and Simon were well prepared for their Speed Dating for Store Owners event held in 406 Pelissier.

They had a great turnout, there were 20 store owners n the downtown BIA who participated in the event.

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The business owners had a good time meeting each other and discussing issues related to the success of their stores.

After almost four weeks of hard work facilitating this event among other things, Chris and Simon stepped back and let the participants lead the discussion.

Food for the event was generously donated by Drunkin’ Burrito.

Having a wide range of types of businesses represented at the event, from retail stores to bars to community organizations, was crucial to the success of the meeting. It seems as though the participants left with some fresh ideas and plans to meet up again on a regular basis. Great Job to the DoUC and to the business owners for all their hardwork revitalizing and redefining the downtown core of Windsor!

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

SRSI participants hit the street today in the blistering heat to interact with passersby. Lee Rodney’s Border Bookmobile gets re-routed, Emily Colombo serves up some lunch and fixes a few bikes. The Department of Unusual Certainties is working hard planning their Speed Dating for Store Owners event on Thursday, July 8 7pm inside of 406 Pelissier.

The Imagination Lab workshops are now over, but the artwork remains on display until Friday, July 9.

Nicolette Westfall did a great job of putting together the crafts on display in this space.

All crafts are available to take home and enjoy for free!

Lee returned the Border Bookmobile to its location outside of 406 Pelissier on Park Street. Although it remained there unmentioned on Monday, there was a police officer who stopped by on his bike and told us to move the van to street parking.

Lee set up her reading station a little further down the road in front of a vacant convenience store. Luckily the sun wasn’t hitting this side of the road until the afternoon.

Lee set up a selection of books in front of this non-place.  She was able spark attention from people who exist downtown and are interested in local history. The Downtown Mosaic’s posters on the window of the vacant store that show before and after shots of a specific street corner lead to a certain kind of nostalgia that works well with Lee’s collection of books documenting Windsor and Detroit’s history.

Some friends stopped by to browse the books. Lee also spent some time conducting interviews with certain individuals later on in the day.

Emily made some cold avocado soup and had fresh bread donated from Black’s Bakery to enjoy.

Everyone had a lunch break to enjoy Miss Em’s soup and also to entice others to try some as well. Emily got into some good conversations today.

Simon and Chris of the Storefront Success Stories project have been putting on many hats throughout the month. Yesterday they were wrapping up on some graphic design for their event Speed Dating for Store Owners tonight at 7pm in 406 Pelissier, a cumulation to their work in Windsor surveying downtown businesses and connecting local business owners.

The illustrations in this instructional guide were made using InDesign by taking photos and tracing the figures along with minimal contextual detail.

Laura took her now functioning GMBLL payphone out to the street to test the consumer market.

She set up in a location where people coming or going from the parking garage above cannot avoid her. Unfortunately the dust from the construction was so bad in the afternoon that everyone had to come in a bit early. It was a nice relief from the heat, however.

Emily helped Daragh tune up his bike right before being forced indoors by the dust and the heat. The current participants will be back out engaging the public tomorrow and all the way through the weekend.

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

Monday saw the last new residents move in to the SRSI spaces; Lee Rodney’s Bookmobile Reading Room and Emily Colombo’s friendly services. To get footage for the SRSI documentary, Daragh followed Norman around, who was on his A game all day.

Norman’s logs present a personal perspective on his security guard experiences.

Lee Rodney arrived with her Bookmobile. Norman helped guide the van onto the cement on Park Street in front of 406 Pelissier.

Lee put a few decals onto the side of the van and moved the seats into 406 Pelissier to set up a Reading Room.

Her collection of literature pertaining to border relations and border issues will be available to browse down on Pelissier until Friday, July 9.

The corner space in 406 was full of activity with three different projects consecutively running in there until the end of the program on Sunday, July 11.

Lee has some bookmobile shirts she will be giving away during her residency.

She has placed a series of maps in the window showing the Detroit/Windsor region from various decades.

This specific map was released by the Detroit & Canada Tunnel Corporation.

Laura spent most of the day working with some power tools to get her GMBLL payphone up and running.

This phone gives personalized messages to those who interact with it and also dispenses gum balls for 25 cents. It will remain in 406 Pelissier until Sunday, July 11.

Emily Colombo is here from Sault Ste Marie providing free and friendly services to Windsor residents.

She will be making lunch daily and is enticing people to bring her broken objects so that she may fix them.

Yesterday she had a very big pot of chili slow cooking for most of the day making the space smell delicious.

She also made sun tea and invited people walking on the hot street to come in and cool off with a glass. Emily will be doing a collection of different interventions daily  until the end SRSI so come out and get one last glimpse of what’s been going on!

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

424 Pelissier was a fun space for kids to be creative all day on Sunday as part of Imagination Lab. Merry Ellen set up her baking station over in that space. Later Sunday night, I accompanied Laura to do some more installations.

The kids had a lot fo fun interacting with each other and learning about sharing and co-operating.

The use of natural ingredients to make crafts produce great scents in the space.

The open environment lets the children make their own choices on materials to use.

Ayesha and Nicolette did an awesome job organizing Imagination Lab and participating in the fun.

The kids all had a really great and memorable time!

Merry Ellen brought an apple raspberry pie that incorporated the leftover juice from the Indian Road cherries from last Sunday.

She had pre-made blueberry and rhubarb filling and balls of pie dough for easy pie building on-location.

Merry Ellen will be back Sunday, July 11 as part of the SRSI three-day closing ceremonies occurring July 9 -11.

The kids enjoyed a break from creating to enjoy some homemade pie. They were very appreciative and greatful for the pie from Merry Ellen!

As a small intervention to the infrastructure and colour scheme of the road under construction, Nicolette chose to release these black rocks into the middle of the road.

The stones contrasted greatly with the white and grey construction rocks and looked a bit odd and misplaced in the middle of the road. By the end of the day, the cars coming out of the parking garage had run over the rocks to the point where the white dust had covered them making them almost unnoticeable.

Laura and I met up at dusk to install two more PL1999 payphones.

The first location had quite a few people around and a lot of them were watching us. One man was quite literally 6 feet away facing us and staring.

This is a google street view image of the first location. The payphone is pretty much out in the open.

The pl1999 looks absolutely gorgeous!!

The man approached the booth the check out what Laura had done immediately after we had left by foot. This morning Laura saw that the PL1999 had been removed overnight, most likely soon after it was installed.

The installation of the PL1999 is very quick. Luckily I was able to get some good shots with my camera later on in the night when I had figured out some settings. It was my first time really taking pictures at night so it was a learning experience for me too, amplified by the rapid installation on Laura’s part.

This one was installed on the corner of Victoria and Chatham. It was still up last night around 1am, but we haven’t been down to see if it remains since then.

We used a strobe light on this one instead of just a regular light to create a different effect.

Mission Complete.

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

Last night Laura went out to install some PL1999 payphones, Kyle Bishop of Andand Collective arrives, and Josh does some more inventions.

Kyle came down from Waterloo to start developing his Amalgamation of Windsor and Waterloo into the city of W. He will be hitting the streets campaigning with a team of recruiters later on this week and continuing into the weekend for our Closing Ceremonies.

Kyle brought a map depicting what the amalgamated city would look like.

Josh did some more inventions on Friday to leave up in his space before his return during the week.

I love the side note ‘for home and office!’ This project is somewhat mocking consumerism and reminds me a bit of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job.

The Top Secret Prototype Documentation packages are all ready to be handed out. If you are interested in doing your own payphone intervention, please come down to visit Laura in 406.

Laura prepares for her guerilla night intervention by doing some tests with the disco ball and lights .

I tried to take some photos of Laura’s test installation in the bathroom of 406, but my camera skills are not that awesome yet. It was a spectacular bathroom experience, trust me.

Laura went out to two locations at dusk to install the disco balls. One was at California and Wyandotte and the other was across from the Lebel School of Visual Arts at Huron Church and College.

She went by one of them this morning and it had already been removed.

Look out for these party booths around the city over the course of the week including instructions on how to re-install them.

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

Friday was Robin’s big day, as she trained hard outside on the sidewalk then headed down to Caesars around 7pm.

Robin decided to move her gambling table out onto the sidewalk on Park Street to entice passersby to play with her.

She had quite a few more players with tips throughout the day to practice with and gain knowledge from.

Around 6:30 Robin counted the money in the donation jar. She was a little short of $100 so we added to the pile to make it an even number easy to read the profit percentage.

Robin brought along a friend, Laura, Daragh and Justin to follow her down to the Casino.

As no photography of gambling is allowed on premises, robin entered with her friend as the rest of us waited outside for the results.

Robin came out with a big smile and some good news.

She won $67 on her original $100 making a 67% profit on her money.

Robin will be sending in the money to the Windsor Essex Small Business Centre with a letter explaining her performance when she returns to Toronto.

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

Daragh Sankey has been working hard to release this promo video documenting Andrea Carvalho‘s three tactics to engage in non-places in the city of Windsor. Daragh is filming, logging and editing as much as he can during his residency, and will complete the post-production of the documentary later on this year.

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