East End Arts and our partners are seeking women, transmasculine, transfeminine, Two Spirit and non-binary artists to be part of an exciting transformation of a laneway within the Riverside Business Improvement Area around Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue, Toronto, over summer and early fall 2021! Throughout this project, we are committed to exhibiting the work of artists from diverse communities with a specific commitment to featuring the work of artists who are Black, Indigenous and People of Colour . Applications are open until July 14, 2021, 11:59 PM EST.
ABOUT WOMEN PAINT RIVERSIDE
A partnership between East End Arts, Women Paint, Native Women in the Arts, and the Riverside BIA, ‘Women Paint Riverside’ is an exciting opportunity to beautify and enhance the Riverside neighbourhood with a series of interconnected murals, exploring the relationship between the vibrant urban Riverside community and the Don River from which it takes its name. The project builds upon the area’s existing public art legacy, and will feature the work of 10 street artists, as well as an opportunity for the participants from Girls Mural Camp 2021 to put what they learned at camp this summer to the test as apprentice mural artists.
Working with co-curatorial consultants Bareket Kezwer and Ariel Smith, Women Paint Riverside aims to bring diverse women, transfeminine, transmasculine, Two Spirit and non-binary street artists, muralists and graffiti writers together to create new work, bring attention to the importance of the Don River within an urban setting, and share their diverse stories in public spaces—a place these voices are often underrepresented.
Women Paint Riverside will take place on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, which is also the traditional territories of the Huron-Wendat, the Haudenosaunee confederacy and the Anishinaabe. This territory is subject to the dish with one spoon treaty, a covenant between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee to share and care for the land and resources in the lower Great Lakes area.
In many Indigenous nations across Turtle Island, women and Two Spirit people have long carried sacred responsibilities to protect the water, and are strong leaders in the growing movement for water sovereignty around the great lakes. Given the close relationship of the Riverside community to the Don River and Lake Ontario, the murals for this exciting laneway transformation will all explore the element of water.
Laneways and alleys have historically been areas that do not always feel safe for women and other gender marginalized people, and can be associated with the threat of violence. Projects like Women Paint and Girls Mural Camp take up space in the public sphere and help facilitate discussions about important issues that affect our overlapping communities such as misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, white supremacy, colonization and gentrification.
EXHIBIT THEME
“Currents of Change”
The Riverside neighbourhood is in the midst of a great shift. The Don River is at the heart of a huge infrastructure project looking at the ecology and the environment of the floodplain – literally changing the shape of the river. As we have seen in the many historic floods of recent years, despite our best efforts to control the element of water that is so closely knit with our community and our city, we remain lake people, and our lives are directed by the currents of change in those lakes and rivers. Some of these changes are massive, political and cultural, like moving a river, but some are tiny personal moments shared between people beside the water that forms the geography of this place we call home. We invite artists to consider in their proposed works the incredible power and beauty of these waters, their eons of supporting human life, and the urgency required to protect them.
Women Paint Riverside builds on Riverside’s long history and connection celebrating the Don River, and asks participating artists and viewers to remember our environment, ecology, mobility, built form in the neighbourhood, waterways, and the traditional keepers of those waterways.
The project will also build upon and connect to the existing repertoire of Riverside BIA’s ‘open air gallery’ of 10+ public art pieces, including the ‘Tkaranto Past, Tkaranto Future’. This work, completed in 2017 by artists Chief Lady Bird (Chippewa/Potawatomi), Odinamaad (Anishinaabe), Dave Monday Oguorie (Ojibwe/Nigerian), and Philip Cote (Shawnee/Lakota/Potawatomi/Ojibway/Algonquin), speaks to Indigenous knowledge and worldviews. Featuring a large eagle feather the artists shared the meaning: “The eagle feather is the highest honour you can receive, based on contribution to the community, given from one Indigenous person to another. The Tkaranto skyline provides a contemporary connection whereby the feather becomes your medicine and symbolizes the enduring Indigenous presence here in Tkaranto.” Indigenous community members spoke to how this mural had touched them and helped re-build connection by physically inviting and recognizing them in the community. ‘Women Paint Riverside’ will help to further build upon that positive connection.
‘Women Paint Riverside’ will provide a platform and opportunity for artistic expression for women, transfeminine, transmasculine, Two Spirit and, non-binary muralists in a cis male-dominated field.
SELECTION PROCESS
There will be 10 artists chosen for ‘Women Paint Riverside’. They will be selected via a two-stage call, with a five-person peer assessment committee representing the field and local Riverside BIA-community, facilitated by our curatorial consultants and East End Arts (EEA).
Stage One will be an open call requiring a written description and submission of six (6) pieces of support material that they feel represents their work.
Stage Two will invite 20 artists to submit a more fulsome application, including a mock up of their design. Recognizing the work that goes into producing a mock up and EEA’s commitment to paying artists a fair living wage, each of the Stage Two artists will receive a $500 honorarium,
INFO SESSION
EEA will host an online information session with Bareket Kezwer and Ariel Smith, in order to help applicants with their applications, or answer any questions about this call for artists. Join us on Thursday June 24th at 6:00pm on Zoom for this Info Session. Register at this link to join.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
Selected artists will be paid $500 – $4500, based on the square footage of their assigned space. Walls will range from 6×8 feet to 36x16feet
All 10 mural sites are of varying sizes, textures and materials. Shortlisted artists will be asked to create their design without knowing their final mural site and will be expected to adjust their design to fit their assigned space.
To create consistency between the murals, artists will be asked to work with a pre-selected colour scheme, which will be made available to short listed artists for the creation of their mock ups.
For those artists requiring lift equipment, it will be organized by East End Arts.
Acrylic paint in the colours specified in the colour scheme will be available to the selected artists. Those wishing to work with aerosol paint will be responsible for providing their own. Artists will be responsible for providing all other supplies.
Storage within close walking distance will be provided for selected muralists.
EVALUATION
Submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Artist/collective shows a standard of work that is in keeping with EEAs goals for artistic excellence.
- The support materials provided demonstrate Artist’s capacity to deliver a high-quality project of similar size and scope.
- The bio/and or support materials demonstrate Artist’s ability to plan, manage and meet project timelines and budget while achieving success at executing art projects of a similar scale.
- Is the submission complete and clear?
IMPORTANT DATES
- Info Session on Zoom: June 24, 2021 at 6PM
- Deadline for applications: July 14, 2021 by 11:59PM EST
- Notifications to Short Listed applicants: July 28, 2021
- Short List deadline to submit mockups for Round 2: August 10, 2021
- Notification to Finalists: August 20, 2021
- Painting: September 10-24, 2021
TO APPLY
Thank you for your interest in Women Paint Riverside! To apply, please fill out the Google form below.
