The Best of Awards

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We know that a city is more than just buildings, roads, political decisions, pools, telephone poles, and parks. We know that it’s all of the little things that make this city great, or better yet, it’s all the little things that so many people we know do for us, knowingly or not, every day that make this city great. We think it’s long overdue that we help celebrate those people and we hope you’ll help us.

We want to have a big awards ceremony…really big actually. So, we’ll make the awards and host the party, all you have to do is find someone to nominate and show up to help us celebrate.

Here’s how it will work: You make a nomination below, we’ll mail you two invitations (one for you and one for the person you nominate), and then you both show up for our awards party on Thursday, May 8th, 2014 at 6:00PM.

**Don’t forget: The nominator is responsible for bringing the nominee to collect their award.


Submissions are now closed. Thank you to everyone who made a nomination for The Best of Awards! We’ll be in touch soon and see you on Thursday, May 8th at 6pm (CIVIC Space – 411 Pelissier Street, Windsor)

DIY Community for Youth – A Great Model for Learning Independently

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This is a bit of an unusual post I suppose, but something about this resource, DIY.org, struck a chord with me. Independent learning can be an incredible way for people to acquire skills outside of or alongside traditional education. An issue that seems to be gaining popularity in the discourse around traditional education is the speed by which it adapts to the world around it (read: too slowly). Services like DIY.org might just be the future of out-of-class learning for youth, and hopefully adults as well.

I also like how the modules are laid out. Each skill has its own hexagonal graphic and an amusing tagline (like the one for “beatmaker” in particular). I think it would make me want to finish them all. Some of the skills also seem to be geared towards building a future of doing things yourself, like beekeeping, making clothing, and repairing bicycles. Did I mention you earn a patch when you master a skill?

via: TreeHugger

Shaping our City: Brainstorming Session at Civic Space Tomorrow!

BCL Workshop

Friday, January 3rd, 2013 at 7pm – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario)

As static as Windsor might seem at times, it is definitely going through some changes. Our downtown is a lot brighter because of the large screens on the Windsor Star building, the University of Windsor’s downtown campus opens next year, the aquatic centre is opening this year, we have a new bridge that may be completed in 2020, the new Penalty Box location is reviving a historical building on University Avenue West, and the old Grace Hospital has been torn down.

In the vein of our previous project, City Counseling (Session #1), we’ll be talking through new ideas and changes happening in the city, as a group. The goal of this brainstorm session is to bring people together, learn something new about Windsor, and contribute creative perspectives for shaping this city. I hope you can make it down to Civic Space tomorrow at 7 pm (January 3rd) to contribute to these conversations.

This event is a collaboration with Life In a Border Town.

THANKSGIVING * DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIA * FOR THE LOVE OF GOD * POR EL AMOR DE DIOS * CLOTHING SWAP * MERCADO TRUEQUE DE ROPA BY RODRIGO MARTI

Rodrigo Marti (2013)

THANKSGIVING * DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIA * FOR THE LOVE OF GOD * POR EL AMOR DE DIOS * CLOTHING SWAP * MERCADO TRUEQUE DE ROPA

Open Monday-Thursday from 12pm-6pm between October 14th and November 2nd, 2013 – CIVIC Space (411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario) – Closing Reception on November 1st from 6-9pm

For Rodrigo Marti‘s residency/exhibition at CIVIC Space, the artist is considering the responsibility between Windsorites and the Temporary Foreign Worker population based around nearby Leamington.

The Ghanian-British philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah see’s cosmopolitanism, the way of the global citizen, as a position that will aid in filling the gap between groups and peoples in a globalized world. Our evolutionary specialty is in relating and maintaining a sense of responsibility for others through face-to-face relations (ie – our family, friends, immediate community), the problem Appiah asks us is how can we find and maintain a sense of responsibility for those distant groups and cultures that we now affect and interact with on a daily basis?

Using clothing and fashion as a starting point to consider identity, culture and place, the artist has set up a clothing swap installation open to the public from Monday-Thursday from 12-6 between October 14th and November 2nd, 2013. There will also be a closing reception held at CIVIC Space on Friday, November 1st from 6-9pm.

Please come visit, drop-off, pick-up, or exchange clothing!

Desire and the City Day 1: The Results

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This past Saturday, CIVIC Space saw the first session of Desire and the City, the first of a two-part design workshop created by our friend Kiki Athanassiadis. Kiki is interested in the potential that abandoned lots suggest, and since Windsor has many of them, there was an abundance of source material to pull from. She put together a kit for everyone to use; it consisted of survey forms to use at the abandoned lots, large black and white images of lots in Windsor, and images of objects printed on vellum that could be taped and overlapped. These materials allowed us to visualize our ideas in a very gratifying way (as you’ll see below).

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Kiki also posted some colour shots of general areas and a “master map” of where the sites are located in the city.

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Here Kiki explains her survey forms and what we might want to note once we head out to our desired lots.

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After Kiki describes the project and the instructions for how the session will work, we start to think about which lots we might visit. Sara and I decided to go East and visit a lot near Caesar’s Windsor.

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Here’s a closer shot of the survey forms. They are about half the size of a regular sheet of paper and bound with a think glue. They’re nice.

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Kiki shows us where the lots she’s photographed are located in relation to the downtown core.

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…and we’re on our way. Most of the pack decided to head West, but we went East.

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Embarrassingly enough, I forgot to get a shot of the property we chose. It looked like it was for sale, but the real estate signs and wooden posts were left in a heap in the middle of the lot. When we returned, we briefly shared our ideas. The ideas ranged from community garden proposals to a manmade volcano. We used the pages Kiki laid out to mock up our ideas in space. Obviously, there wasn’t a volcano printout, but most people found what they needed in the stack.

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Everyone got really invested in his/her creation and, consequently, we didn’t realize how quickly time was going by.

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Here’s a little covered garden / naturalized area tucked into the corner of this lot.

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Here is a celebratory lot between two commercial spaces, complete with bunting and all.

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I didn’t know a pallet pathway was a possibility until I saw this idea. The pallets could also be filled with something, or be used as planters.

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Here’s something you don’t see enough of: public tree houses. There really isn’t a compelling reason why something like this couldn’t exist, besides the issue of accessibility. It also looks like the main treehouse is a garden…interesting.

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Here is a pretty serious community garden proposal that covers a whole abandoned lot with greenery. It looks like it might also house a massive compost bin. Impressive!

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This proposal looks like a fairly substantial gazebo structure or performance stage. I like the way it works with the shape of the railroad ties pictured beneath it.

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There’s more to come, so please join us for the second day of Desire and the City on Saturday, September 14th from 1-4pm at CIVIC Space. Don’t forget to register here. Hope to see you!

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:


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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.


 

 

The Peripatetic Library: Drouillard Versions, a Project & Residency by Dan McCafferty

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The Peripatetic Library: Drouillard Versions, a Project & Residency by Dan McCafferty

In Residence until August 8th at Civic Space – 411 Pelissier Street, Windsor, Ontario

Daniel McCafferty, a local artist, educator, and member of Public Design Unit is currently in residence at Civic Space developing a mobile library / studio site in the Drouillard neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario.

The project will be used as an opportunity to establish a space to gather many types of information from the neighbourhood, whereby residents of the community can contribute material to the library. Materials produced will also be made available to community members for their own personal use.

Acting as your convivial librarian, McCafferty will represent the collected materials, and establish a method for distributing, disseminating, archiving and providing access.

The hope is to contribute an image of the dynamics of the Drouillard neighbourhood. Stop by Civic Space  for opportunities to contribute to the project and engage with Dan over the next week. 

Windsor is Forever: A Short Documentary

With Portland-based artist-in-residence, Jason Sturgill, we reframed his previous project, Art is Forever, as Windsor is Forever  – a community-driven art and tattoo project that gave Windsor residents an opportunity to make a permanent commitment to the city. Participants chose from a flash tattoo set created in collaboration with local artists and illustrators to receive as their free tattoos, which were offered free of charge by Dave Kant of Advanced Tattoo, and Jon Jimenez and Steve Jones of Flying Dagger Tattoo.

During the event, Andrew Frickey captured the tattoo artists at work and conducted interviews. The results were compiled into a short documentary which can be viewed above.

We’d like to thank everyone who came out for the sketch night and to everyone who helped make this project possible.

Tattoos by Dave Kant, Steve Jones & Jon Jimenez.

Short Film Directed and Edited by Andrew Frickey