Art, installation, music and fun, the Queen West Art Crawl cultivates a quintessentially west-end ethos.
Since its creation five years ago by ArtScape, the art crawl has grow and expanded to an arts-friendly festival that fulfils its mandate of strengthening the cultural diversity and character of Toronto.
This year, the Parkdale Liberty Economic Development Corporation (PLEDC) acquired Queen West Art Crawl from ArtScape and organizers said it is taking the festival to the next level.
The office of PLEDC is a flurry of activity, sorting out every last detail of art crawl and its newly expanded schedule of events and activities.
Six new staff joined the corporation recently and the nine staff in total is almost exclusively working on art crawl.
"We have had some challenges, mainly a delay in funding issues that prevented staff from starting until August," said Bill Squires, executive director of PLEDC.
The amount of sponsorship has turned out to be less than what ArtScape would have received last year. Squires said that is just a case of sponsors wanting to see how successful the corporation will be in running the event before committing funding.
The timing of the change from ArtScape to PLEDC had an effect as well.
"For a lot of those big corporate sponsors, you need to go after them in October, but we didn't get official conformation that we were taking it over until January," Squires said.
But with the art crawl just around the corner, Squires said everything has fallen into place for event, which runs from Sept. 12 to 14.
"There is a lot more happening in Parkdale this year as compared to years past," Squires said.
Mainly, amalgamating the former Parkdale Arts and Crafts Festival with the art walk has meant the addition of an entertainment stage.
The Crawl
Queen West Art Crawl began in 2003 as a one-day festival where about 40 galleries and businesses held shows and hosted guest artists. That tradition continues this year as a number of artist studios open to the public. Visitors can explore more than 50 galleries, art groups, community organizations and businesses along Queen Street West, including the Canadian Association of Mental Health and the Gladstone Hotel, which will feature additional art exhibits, theatre, dance, spoken word, performance art, film and video.
The Outdoor Art Show and Sale
The hub of art crawl activity is Trinity Bellwoods Park, 1053 Dundas St. W. Staff at PLEDC have measured out the grounds for the park and designed the configuration for the 240 vendors that will be located there. Everything from ceramics, fiber art, glass, jewelry, painting, photography, print making, sculpture, wood art and mix media. The Outdoor Art Show and Sale takes place on Sept. 13 and 14 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Opening night ceremonies at the Gladstone
The whole thing kicks off on Sept. 12 when Brazilian drummers will march from Bathurst Street to the Gladstone Hotel at 7 p.m. to officially mark the opening of art crawl. The official hand-over ceremony from ArtScape to PLEDC will open the evening, followed by the introduction of and comments from key sponsors. Parkdale singer/songwriter Matt York is set to perform.
The Entertainment Stage
When the art crawl put a call out for bands interested in playing the Entertainment Stage, Squires said PLEDC were caught completely off guard when 180 bands from Toronto and beyond applied to play.
Staff whittled that number down to 14 diverse acts that will perform in the Green P parking lot at 1325 Queen St. W. between Cowan and Dunn avenues. The music begins at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday with The Ethers, a local folk/alternative country band. The evening wraps up with Low Level Flight, former Canadian Idol's Ryan Malcolm's band, which takes the stage at 7:45 p.m. Sunday's performances begin at 1 p.m. with a full roster of music through to the evening. There is electronic, rap, hip hop, folk and rock.
"Pretty well all of them are Toronto based with the exception of Joel Lightman, who is a visiting artist from England," Squires said.
KidZones
Keeping children in mind, PLEDC staff member Jennifer Chann is dedicated to organizing two KidZones, one in Trinity Bellwoods Park and the second on Cowan Avenue. Each will offer different stations where kids can paint, make jewelry, learn origami and more.
"We actually have an artist (who) just recently moved to Parkdale who will be doing a workshop using gum," Chann said. "She explained it as gum and black paper and seeds... I guess you can sort of imagine what it will be."
Passport
Staff are working on developing a passport and establishing stops all over Queen West where people can search, using clues, and find stamps for their passport.
"The initial idea was that kids would be dragging their parents from place to place so that way they would see a lot," Chann said. "But I think even adults may want to do the passport."
There is no actual prize associated with the game, but Squires suggested people can set up passport challenges among friends.
Play/Grounds
Play/Grounds is the performance and art instillation section of the art crawl and includes about a dozen different events in Parkdale between Dufferin Street and Roncesvalles Avenue, curated by Swapna Tamhane.
"It's a combination of performance art, instillation art, there is a sculpture artist and people are using found spaces like empty shops on the street," Tamhane said. "I guess the whole idea for this year, it is going to be called Play/Grounds Scaling The Premises. The idea is to look at the entire area of Parkdale."
Some are looking at history while others are using the space.
Bohemian Grotto will light up the stairs of the former maintenance stairwell bunkered within the south wall of the Dufferin Street Bridge.
Crate Bar by Toronto artist Dean Baldwin is going to re-create an old-fashioned speakeasy in an old train storage crate near the entertainment stage.
An installation called Sunnyside Mourning is planned for Masaryk Cowan Park, 20 Cowan Ave.
The Sunnyside Amusement Park was a popular tourist destination that was demolished in 1956 as the Gardiner Expressway rumbled its way through and severed Parkdale's relationship with the lakefront and eliminated a thriving beachside village. This collective of artists, some clad in beachwear from the period basking and enjoying the beach, while others dressed as construction workers will begin to bury the beachgoers under a pile of gravel.