There are 3 staircases in the Artscape Youngplace building which I showed you yesterday. Each has been given over to an individual artist for the installation of work. This central stairway has 5 access points and was given to Melissa Fisher who decorated from top to bottom with a wonderful array of shapes and forms each cut out of vinyl. I particularly liked this piece, made up from different elements, which was on the top landing but as you can see she also ran shapes along all the railings and above the baseboards. The whole staircase was like a magical place as you ascended!
Artscape is "a not-for-profit organization that makes space for creativity and transforms communities" by transforming underutilized spaces and buildings into areas for artists and last week they had an open house and artist market at one of their newest projects. Artscape Youngplace is located in the old Shaw Street School which had been empty since 2000 after serving the West Queen Street West community from 1914 until then. Artscape spent millions of dollars converting the 75,000 sq ft building into a community cultural hub containing galleries, studios, and art organizations - some own their own spaces while others rent at below market rates. This enables artists to stay in this rapidly gentrifying expensive area downtown.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click here for more signs.
This sign is located at the Artscape Wychwood Barns in the open-air Barn 5 which I had mentioned a few weeks ago. Part of the barns are occupied by the Stop Community Food Centre's green house and also this area of ethnically diverse garden plots. There were 7 Global Roots plots this year including Chinese, Somalian, and Polish and each plot was tended by senior citizens and youths who would work together on the gardens and then cook together. As well as the social aspects of the garden they also demonstrated how much food could be grown in a small plot and actually provided food for the meals program run by The Stop. More info on the gardens and Stop here.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click here for more signs.
Barn 5 at the Artscape Wychwood Barns had its roof removed and all that remains is the steel structure which now forms a long open arcade which is the site of part of the farmers market, some small community gardens, space for open-air events, and just space for sitting on some of the benches. The large open space beside the barns (to the left in this pic) has a dog park, open space that is turned into a skating rink in winter, playgrounds, and just open green space. The whole complex is a good example of how redundant industrial space can be put to good use for a community!
I thought that I should show you some context of the Artscape Barns at Wychwood. There are 5 of these long barns all attached along their length. Barn 1 is the longest and it as visible as the brick wall in this shot and contains live/work studios and studios. I have shown you Barn 2, the "covered street" and Barn 3 is a community barn for non-profit organization use. Barn 4 houses the Stop Food Centre and its Green Barn which includes a green house & community gardens. The structures in the forefront are part of the water feature for the kids and are really popular during the summer but not now! I'll show you barn 5 tomorrow.
This past weekend Barn 2 at the Artscape Wychwood Barns was taken over by "The Pottery & Glass Show", an annual show put on by Fusion: The Ontario Clay And Glass Association which features the work of some of the member craftspeople. This is the same space I showed you yesterday and you can see how adaptable the space is especially with the wonderful light from the skylight which by the way is an original feature of the space although thermal glass has been installed in it. All of those doors along the right side wall are entrances into individual artist studios that are permanently at the Barns.
This is a shot of barn 2 at Artscape Wychwood Barns when it is not being used for an event and it shows the wonderful industrial structure that has been restored and converted into a community centre. There are old photos along the walls showing this barn when it was used for the streetcars and at that time there would have been 2 rows of streetcars running along the 60 metre length of the building with workers bustling around them. It was a really sunny day when I took this pic and the skylight brightness kept hitting the camera so I apologize for the darkness.
Tomorrow I will show you the barn in use!
There are 5 barns in the Wychwood Barns complex with barn 1 having been turned into private artist studios and living spaces this is the entrance into barn 2 (you can see the large 2 behind the glass) which has become the 'covered street' of the complex and will be where yesterday's farmers market will be held all winter. This space is also rented out for banquets and fundraising events throughout the year. I'll show you a couple of interior shots over the next 2 days.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click here for more signs.
The Wychwood Barns are not barns in the usual sense but rather they were streetcar barns where maintenance was done on our fleet of Red Rockets (aka streetcars). Located in the centre of the city the barns became redundant and the whole property was leased to Artscape which has redeveloped the site to include parkland with even a dog park and the barns have been changed into multi-use spaces such as artist studios, non-profit green houses, and community use areas. The Saturday Wychwood Barns Farmers Market will be moving inside for the winter in Nov but this past weekend all the wonderful goodies were still outside!
This building on West Queen West was the first legal artist live/work space in Toronto after being converted from a former warehouse by Artscape in 1995. Artscape is a "not-for-profit organization that makes space for creativity and transforms communities" by transforming underutilized buildings across Toronto into multi-tenant space for artists. These spaces include live/work spaces, as well as spaces for galleries, theatres and other not-for-profit groups. I will show you some of the other sites in the future and also this one again in the summer when the garden is in bloom.
Tomorrow I will have a close-up of the structure in the upper right of the pic.
