The U of T Daniels Faculty, the Daniels Art Directive (DAD) and Elder Whabagoon are issuing a Call for Proposals for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Artists living in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) to create a temporary mural on the north façade of the Daniels Building. We are answering the U of T Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action #2: “A strategy for the funding and placement of more Indigenous public art across all three campuses should be developed, in close consultation with local Indigenous communities.”
Supported By
This inaugural Indigenous mural project at the Daniels Building is guided by Elder Whabagoon, an Ojibway Elder who sits with the Loon Clan. She is a member of the Lac Seul First Nation, a Keeper of the Sacred Pipes, and a 60’s Scoop survivor. Elder Whabagoon is the inaugural First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean at the Daniels Faculty.
The Daniels Art Directive (DAD) is a student-led group that creates exhibitions, workshops, and community projects. They curated the first mural on the Daniels Building: “Support Black Designers.” mural, with its designers and Daniels alumnae Ashita Parekh and Tolu Alabi, installed from October 2020 to May 2021.
The project is supported by the Daniels Faculty. We are hoping for more funding to support the Artist, the Advisory Panel, workshops, and consultations. If you’d like to support this initiative, please contact danielsartdirective@gmail.com.
Advisory Panel
The Indigenous Advisory Panel will select the Artist and guide the project team. We are grateful to the Advisory Panel for their guidance and service: James Bird, Melissa Deleary, Jaime Kearns, Robin Rice, Brenda Wastasecoot. The mural will contribute a greater understanding of Indigenous artistic expressions, peoples, and cultures.
Call for Proposals
We are pleased to share our Call for Proposals (included in the form). All interested artists should complete all three sections of the online form, or fillable PDF. The due date is Saturday July 31, 11:59 pm (EDT). We will support accessibility accommodations. Please save your form as you go. If you are submitting the PDF, please email: danielsartdirective@gmail.com.
Budget / Artist Fee
This art commission includes an Artist fee of $7000 and a materials budget of $5000. We are currently seeking more funding to expand the budget.
Templates for Submissions
We have included a drawing of the elevation of the Daniels Building north façade, available as a PNG, PDF, Illustrator (.ai), and Rhino (.3dm) file. Please use our supplied budget Excel spreadsheet template. Here is the folder of our templates.
Site History
The land of 1 Spadina Crescent has been the home and an important trail of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. Spadina is synonymous with Ishpadinaa, meaning “a place on a hill” from Anishinaabe.
We are currently seeking more information from researchers at the University of Toronto and other institutions about the Borden Buildings (563 & 487 Spadina Crescent) where the Borden Dairy Company invested in malnutrition experiments on Indigenous children. The North Borden Building now houses U of T’s First Nation House.
1 Spadina Crescent, now the Daniels Building, was built originally to house Knox College – a Presbyterian theological school that was run by the Presbyterian Church of Canada, who ran 11 of the 130 residential schools in Canada. We will share this deeper history of the site as we receive the information from validated sources.
You can engage with Toronto’s significant Indigenous history and presence through the Driftscape app, for free on Apple and Android devices.
Information Session
We have hosted a virtual information session where we went through the Call for Proposals and answered questions. Please visit the Daniels Youtube to see a recording of this session.
For more information please visit:
www.daniels.utoronto.ca/
Contacts
If you have questions about this project or wish to support, please contact danielsartdirective@gmail.com (Facebook, Instagram, Website).
For media, please contact Hannah Brokenshire, Senior Communications and Media Relations Officer.
We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land. We encourage everyone to learn the true Indigenous history of the land that they currently call home. We are grateful to all those who came before us.
