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News / Toronto
A gallery that comes to you: Little
art displays popping up on Toronto
streets
No galleries: Project seeks to bring artwork to the people.
LIZ BEDDALL
Little boxes containing pieces of art are popping up right in front of people's yards in Parkdale
and Bloor West.
By: Gilbert Ngabo Metro Published on Thu Sep 24 2015
You love art, but you don’t always have enough time to check out the galleries. What
if the arts came to you?
Two ambitious local artists are trying to do exactly that. With a resident’s permission,
a box containing a miniature piece of art will be planted on their lawn beside for
anyone to see.
“Basically it’s a way to bring contemporary artwork right to the streets of Toronto,”
said Erika James, a multimedia artist working in text, sculpure and installations.
“It’s photography, print work, painting or text work, anything that we feel will foster a
positive reaction from the public.”
James teamed up with fellow artist Scott McDermid to create Open Field Collective, a
project whose main goal is help community members interact more with artwork. With
collaboration from local artists, the volunteer­based project has so far installed eight
boxes in the Bloor West and Parkdale neighbourhoods.
Some of the art in the boxes wwas made by James and McDermid themselves, but
many more are from well­known local artists like Robert Hengeveld and Rochelle
Rubinstein.
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2. 6/5/2016 A gallery that comes to you: Little art displays popping up on Toronto streets | Metro News
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The idea is to place a piece of art inside the box – nearly two­feet high, an average
height to the eye­level for even kids to be able to peer into the box. The art
installation is rotated after six weeks.
So far, one of the biggest suprises for the artists has been the reception the project
received from residents. There hasn’t been any resistance to placing artwork on
people’s front yards.
“Actually every time we’re installing a box, other neighbours come by and are like:
‘Can I have one of these at my place too?’” said James. “It’s been amazing.”
Part of the expansion plan is to partner with King Edward Public School. Kids and
their teachers would be making artwork themselves, and have it on display in boxes
at the school’s property.
But there will definitely be more of these boxes popping up in many more
neighbourhoods soon, said James.
“We are just trying to make Toronto a more fun place to live,” she said.
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