The 519 Church Street Community Centre

The 519's Mosaic Project

January 25, 2010

The 519 Mosaic is an interactive, hands-on community based art project. Community members will participate in the creation of a large-scale mosaic beginning in January 2010. The project is aimed at participants of all ages, and abilities drawn from the diverse communities that call The 519 Community Centre home.

The 519 Mosaic will be led by a leadership team of artists Anna Camilleri and Tristan R. Whiston of Red Dress Productions (RDP), along with three youth apprentices. The leadership team will work with community members at all stages of development from concept to design to implementation: co-facilitating community meetings, working with participants to develop ideas toward the creation of one overall design. The leadership team will also provide mentorship and support to project participants in the form of hands-training on mosaic technique.

The design concepts of 519 Mosaic will emerge from a series of 8 consultations with community members and program participants. During the consultation process community members will share experiences and experiment in visual media including paint, pastel, and collage to tell their story of The 519. Consultations will be held in each of the programs beginning January 25th. In addition, three public consultations will be held on:

Final Consultation:
Thursday, March 4th, 2010

This project locates itself within a tradition of public art that is truly community engaged—not just viewed by community, but also created by community members with the intent of exhibiting the artwork in the public domain. There are many examples of public art in Toronto; however the great majority of those public artworks are privately commissioned. 519 Mosaic will be a public artwork created by community members in a democratic and collaborative community art process where participants are directly engaged at all stages of creation. All participants, community partners, and sponsors will be named in a plaque permanently installed at the site of 519 Mosaic.

Invite your friends! Click here to view the event on Facebook.