Artscape has transformed the historic Wychwood TTC streetcar repair barns located in Torontos St. Clair and Christie neighbourhood into the Artscape Wychwood Barns a 60,000 sq. ft. multifaceted community centre where arts and culture, environmental leadership, heritage preservation, urban agriculture and affordable housing are brought together to foster a strong sense of community. The Artscape Wychwood Barns is surrounded by a 127,000 sq. ft. new City park.

After seven years of passionate commitment, vision and planning by thousands of individuals and organizations, construction began in March 2007 and was completed in October 2008. The Official Public Opening took place on November 20, 2008.

Video features (in order of appearance):
Tim Jones, President & CEO, Artscape
Councillor Joe Mihevc, Ward 21 St. Pauls, City of Toronto
Jackie Richardson and the Regent Park School of Music Choir
Mayor David Miller, City of Toronto
Kathleen Sharpe, President, Artscape Board of Directors
Ruth Baumann, Chair, Wychwood Barns Community Association
Glen Murray, President & CEO, Canadian Urban Institute
Billie Bridgman, Senior Associate, Artscape
Nick Saul, Executive Director, The Stop Community Food Centre
Lynda Hill, Artistic Director, Theatre Direct
Joe Lobko, Lead Architect, du Toit Architects Ltd.
Elizabeth Cinello, Steering Committee, Friends of a New Park
Peter MacKendrick, President, Taddlewood Heritage Association

Produced for Artscape by Stephen Knifton of popstream.ca

Duration : 0:8:13

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This video features a plea for tips for five unsolved murders that were committed with guns in Toronto, ON Canada in 2007. It also features a youth engagement project facilitated by the Argos Foundation Stop the Violence– a BMX Bike Park — that was featured at the 2007 Grey Cup in Toronto in Novemer/2007.

The solution to violence in Toronto does not rest with any one group or organization. It is a shared responsibility. Everyone can do their part. The focus of “GTA’s Most Wanted” show on highlighting the positive youth engagement being done “Ready For Enjoyment…Ready For Employment”, and not just the negative stories of gun violence is visionary.. and much needed in Toronto. The number of groups and organizations at all levels that we can have working together to achieve the common goal of peace and harmony in our great city can only increase from the amazing example of community collaboration with our youth that is showcased in this video.

The BMX Bike park was the vision of Al Crawford of the city of Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation Department, in collaboration with BMX Bike Park owner, and builder, retired teacher Michael Heaton and the Toronto Crime Stoppers School Officer/Legal Graffiti Art Coordinator Constable Scott Mills. The park was open to youth to ride and enjoy at the Wallace Emerson Community Centre, 1260 Dufferin St, Toronto for the spring, summer and fall of 2007. Two youth who are aspiring Olympic BMX caliber riders from Toronto — Jamie Burke and Chris Silva — were hired by the City of Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation Department to teach BMX Bike Skills to over 450 youth using this park. The ramps were painted with positive graffiti art under the direction of Scott Mills throughout the year. The ‘Journey of the BMX Bike Park to Grey Cup’ is captured with over 160 videos at www.YouTube.com/TorontoBMX .

The bike park is currently in storage on the stage of the Molson Amphitheatre awaiting an opportunity for a year round indoor location in the downtown Toronto area. The next scheduled event for the BMX Bike Park is the Toronto Bicycle Show at the Direct Energy Centre, CNE Grounds, Toronto, ON Canada on March 7, 8, and 9th, 2007. See www.torontobmx.ca for more details.

For information on the 2007 CASH FOR GUNS campaign, visit the group called ‘Cash For Guns’ at www.facebook.com .

Anyone with information that could assist to solve the gun violence murders in this video can contact the Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad at 416-808-7400. The homicide victims and officers in charge of the case are noted below.

#01-2007 Jean SPRINGER (solved)

#04-2007 Patrick BARRERA — Detectives Terry WARK and Ian BRIGGS

#09-2007 Lincoln THOMAS — Detectives Gary GRINTON and Dan SHEPPARD

#19-2007 Kirk EDWARDS — Detectives Gary GRINTON and Dan SHEPPARD

#40-2007 Ricardo FRANCIS — Detectives Wayne BANKS and Doug SANSOM

#42-2007 Kimel FOSTER — Detectives Terry BROWNE and Peter MOREIRA

Anonymous information can be called in to Toronto Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477), nationally toll free at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online through the encrypted ‘TipSoft’ form by clicking on ‘Submit a Tip’ at the website www.222tips.com. Your anonymity when calling Crime Stoppers is guaranteed by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Duration : 0:9:51

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Tribal Bridges Crew

“TRUST+TEXT”
Anonymous tips to prevent and solve crime
Talk: 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)
Type: http://222tips.com
Text: TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637)

Duration : 0:3:0

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Contact: Art Teacher Richard Baxter 416-997-6310

Video recorded and posted by Toronto Police Service Social Media Relations Officer / Legal Graffiti Art Coordinator Cst Scott Mills

“Trust and Text”
3 ways to anonymously report information to Crime Stoppers to help the police prevent and/or solve crime:
Talk: 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)
Type: http://222tips.com
Text: TOR plus your message to CRIMES (274637)
see how anonymous text tips works worldwide here:

http://SMSCrimeTips.com

Goal is to prevent murders of young people like are referred to in this video:

Information on Aeon Grant Murder?
Contact Toronto Police Homicide Officer D/Sgt Gary Giroux
Tel# 416-808-7400
E-Mail: gary.giroux@torontopolice.on.ca

Information on Tyrell Duffus muder ?
Contact Det Mike Carbone
Tel# 416-808-7400
E-Mail: mike.carbone@torontopolice.on.ca

Duration : 0:3:28

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Watch us create Toronto’s first community-driven Stylebook, which will focus on the unique styles of the Dufferin Eglinton / Oakwood Vaughan communities.

The Style Council is a program of Art Starts (http://www.artstarts.net/), an arts-based community development organization that has been operating in Toronto since 1992.

Duration : 0:5:42

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Media advisory,
Friday, April 23, 2010, 2 p.m.,
First laneway north of Dundas Street West, east of Spadina Avenue,
Deputy Peter Sloly and Mayor David Miller unveil graffiti mural
as part of 20 Minute Makeover
Broadcast time: 10:02
Friday, April 23, 2010
Public Information
416−808−7100

The public and the media are invited to attend a graffiti−mural unveiling ceremony as part of the Mayor’s 20 Minute Makeover event on Friday, April 23, 2010, at 2 p.m., in the first laneway that runs north from Dundas Street West, east of Spadina Avenue.

Mayor David Miller, along with Deputy Chief Peter Sloly, will join accomplished graffiti artists Horus, Roadsworth and EGR, as well as youth working on restorative−justice, court−ordered, extra−judicial sanctions for graffiti vandalism at the event.

Community partners will also be present, from the Chinatown BIA, City of Toronto Beautiful Streets, Trinity Spadina City Councillor Adam Vaughan’s office, Lisa Martin and Steve Ferrara, from Well and Good (www.wellandgood.ca), curators at 52 McCaul Arts Hub, and the
Toronto Police Service Legal Graffiti Art Coordinator.

The process of community−building and collaboration is being celebrated in social media on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter by Toronto Police Service officers and community partners for the purpose of community education and engagement on graffiti issues, and building trust between the community and police. Follow the project on the following social media accounts:

Tweet Deputy Sloly http://Twitter.com/DeputySloly
Tweet GraffitiBMXCop http://Twitter.com/GraffitiBMXCop
Tweet Well and Good http://Twitter.com/WellAndGood
Tweet Toronto Police http://Twitter.com/TorontoPolice
Tweet Mayor Miller http://Twitter.com/MayorMiller

For policy on Graffiti Community Building click on this link from the Toronto Police Service website to the Ontario School Resource Officers Training Manual “Youth in Neighbourhoods-A Positive Approach to Graffiti Management” http://bit.ly/9LTL2B

Duration : 0:3:32

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Video recorded by an attending police officer who states:

“I am a police officer in Toronto working as the Community Youth Officer for the Crime Stoppers Program. I do a lot of work with youth surrounding legal graffiti art projects. Many of the youth I am working with are now getting paid jobs from their community building experiences.

In this capacity, I was invited by TheStoreFront Community to attend a community dialogue session on graffiti on Saturday evening September 20, 2008.

As I walked in to the office, it was refreshing to see about 20 community members sitting around the table discussing community building strategies for legal graffiti art that involved youth. One individual sitting at the table was an alternative school curriculum leader – Craig Morrison – who I recognized from being invited on several occasions to connect with the youth in his classes at Oasis through the theme of legal graffiti art. It was great to see that his passion was not restricted just to the classroom, and learn that he actually lived around the corner from this office, and was carrying his passion for community building through legal graffiti art into his own community.

I arrived in time to personally meet and hear the story of Robert Markovits, the property owner of the location of TheStoreFront Community office, and adjoining buildings. I learned that he was an architect by trade, and that he was a real supporter of legal graffiti art. He was well spoken, and concerned about his community. In fact, Mr Markovits had given legal permission for some youth graffiti writers to do a mural on the side of his building, and the mural had been recently removed by the city of Toronto. He was clearly frustrated by this action, and saw the fact the city of Toronto removed the work of the youth done with legal permission as contradictory to any sense of community building.

Perhaps the most moving part of the night for me was taking a walk around the office that had turned into a gallery for an evening show of the legal graffiti art work of youth working out of the Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre (CONC) in the A.R.T.E.R.Y. program. I recognized the art work and name one of the artists who was now mentoring other youth artists on responsible legal graffiti art – Viviana Astudillo. I first met Viviana when she was in grade 9 through the Empowered Students Partnership http://esponline.ca program, and now she is entering university and has goals of entering medical school.

It was about a year ago that Viviana called me up and asked me to accompany her to Rideau Hall in Ottawa to the home of Governor General Michaelle Jean, as she was receiving a youth award in commeration of the persons case for all of her community work surrounding her legal art, some of which is legal graffiti street art. I remembered meeting other recipients of this award from across Canada, and them wondering why a police officer in full uniform was being invited to attend the Governor General’s home by a 16 year old award recipient. Upon hearing the reasons why… I was introduced to several people from Montreal in attendance who were very keen to have a police officer working with youth in the theme of legal graffiti art there.

I was able to speak to the assembled group, and let them know that graffiti as a community building strategy has been included in the first ever 2007 Ontario School Resource Officer Training Manual as a module written by Ottawa community member Mike Young of http://ravensview.ca and http://CommunityCAVE.com, This training manual is the text book or a sustainable training course for school resource police officers that will be taught as demand requires at the Ontario Police College.

Ironically, on the date of this meeting, I had been invited to speak to 300 parents and 100 youth from the Spanish community in Toronto through the Spanish Speaking Education Network http://ssencanada.org, and I had arranged for Ron ‘Cook’ Barrett, the gang prevention program coordinator for the city of Albany, New York http://nysgangprevention.com to attend and speak to this group. At the session, Ron showed me a slide show of all his legal graffiti art pieces. In his talks to mainly the law enforcement community in the past he always advocated for the three R’s about gang graffiti – Report, Record and Remove.

Ron and I strongly believe that any gang related or vandalism graffiti should be treated in this regard. I was able to take videos of what Ron said to this audience about the three R’s, and another video where he clearly draws a line between vandalism and gang related graffiti and legal graffiti art.

Both Ron and I know personally kids who tell us that getting invovled in legal graffiti art programs and projects has kept them out of a life gangs, guns and drugs.

Duration : 0:3:0

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http://IBTR.org sponsor the Toronto Crime Stoppers program through the donation of a Toyota FJ decaled Toronto Crime Stoppers vehicle that is used for the School Crime Stoppers program, Seniors Crime Stoppers program and community events.

Crime Stoppers worldwide are registered charities that have as their mission to provide an anonymous service to the public to report information to help the police PREVENT or solve crime. There are close to 1300 programs worldwide under the umbrella of Crime Stoppers International http://CSIWorld.org

In Toronto there are three ways to submit an anonymous tip

Talk: 1-800-222-TIPS (8477)
Type: http://222tips.com
Text: TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637)

See how anonymous text message tips works worldwide here: http://SMSCrimeTips.com

Special thank you to IBTR for your continued support for community safety through Crime Stoppers.

Duration : 0:6:39

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Join Olivia Chow, M.P. in Kensington Market on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 to help create this art installation that will be presented in Ottawa this fall.

More info or to get involved:
http://www.oliviachow.ca/

Duration : 0:1:39

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Ryan Klein: local resident, game designer, design ninja

Darcy Higgins: local resident, environmental and sustainability activist

Himy Syed: Islamic Bank of Canada, Torontopedia.ca

Gabe Sawhney: Murmur, Wireless Toronto, community technologist

Jessica Kwick: Working Women

Christian Whittal: local resident, Anarchist Free University

Frank D’Young: Leader of Green Party of Ontario

Maggie Flynn: Anarchist Free Univresity, youth arts programs

Diana Giramaldes: Working Women Community

Eli Malinsky: Centre for Social Innovation

Michelle Dyck: Local resident, entrepreneur

Roberto Verdeccia: Humanist Movement, World March for Peace and Non-Violence

Rosalie Bellfontaine: local resident, documentary filmmaker, Delaware street festival

Catharine Sicot: local resident, Oakville Galleries, cultural worker

Jim Allen: Photographer, multi-media artist

Craig Morrison: local resident, Oasis Alternative School, teacher in art and social change program

Robert Markovits: architect, alternative dispute resolution, landlord of 957 Bloor Street W

Will Novosedlik: teacher, writer, designer, wireless executive, branding

Ann Homan: DIGIN, local resident, annhomanART

Sara Escott: local resident, IF Theatre: auddence interactive theatre

France Ewig: performance artist, accountant, all-around artist

Zahra Ebrahim: founder of architectural think tank archiTEXT, Innovator in Residence at Design Exchange

Nick Radia: Humanist Movement, World WIde March for Peace and Non-Violence, teacher

Shelley Walters: local business owner Angel Hair, Bloorcourt BIA

Steve LeFrenie: school touring actor and arts educator, candidate for Green Party of Canada, Third World Awareness, Canadian Department of Peace, Make Poverty History in Trinity-Spadina

Faye Nuber: Green Party Trinity-Spadina, interested in youth and eco-adventure

Phil Roberto: OCAD student, part of original ThinkTank classroom

Hajile Kalaike: poet, Black Lotus Media, co-host Saturday Night Love with Jason Kinte Toronto Poets

Gurbeen Bhashin: local resident, community activist, founder Night at the Indies, Meow Films, Aangen Commnity Centre

Leah Gold: local resident, artist, hosted Alchemy Art Jam at TheStoreFront

Bruce Gavin Ward: Architecture for Humanity, DIGIN, BIG, involved in cycling groups

Jennifer Corriero: TakingITGlobal

http://thestorefrontcommunity.com

http://artisandesigncircle.com

Duration : 0:4:58

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