Dundas West alive with colour
Youth living in TCH take part in mural design
But on Nov. 3 this particular fence was transformed into a fanciful art instillation inspired by the young people who live in the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) building there.
The creation of this mural began in August when Jose Ortega, chair of the Dundas West Business Improvement Area as well as an artist and the co-owner of Lula Lounge, met with the young residents of 1525 Dundas St. W.
“We just set up the table with paper and basically let them go crazy,” Ortega said. “We talked about what is important to them, so they came up with ice cream and trees, and one kid drew the CN Tower, the streetcars.”
Ortega took the images the youth created and made large-scale silhouettes that have been cut out of wood and painted a vibrant shade of orange.
“We wanted to get their input so they felt like some of their priorities were included,” said Ortega as he oversaw a team of contractors installing the large flat cutouts early yesterday morning. “So they wouldn’t feel like it was imposed on them, but that they had a say in it.”
In all the murals along Dundas West there is a consistency of colour and esthetic. Each was designed by Ortega, who said his aim is to bring colour into the neighbourhood.
Helder Ramos, the coordinator of the Dundas West BIA, explained this mural project, like many of the projects in the “DuWest” BIA area, which stretches from the CNR tracks west of Lansdowne Avenue to the east corner of Rusholme Road and Dundas St. W. within Ward 18, has more to do with community building than it does with business.
“If our focus was just on business, we wouldn’t care what the kids at TCHC think, we wouldn’t care about public spaces,” he said. “We would care about lowering business taxes for the businesses and our beautification efforts would be minimal, but the board does insist on community building as a directive.”
Involving the youth in a BIA project is the same strategy that was employed with the BIA’s community planting last spring.
“Instead of just hiring someone, what we decided to do was we created a community planting where we called people out…and brought people together to plant.”
It also gave the community a sense of ownership over the planters. That is the hope with this mural project, which was funded by a City of Toronto mural grant. Ortega hopes the mural will be less vandalized because it was created by youth.
Original Article Available HERE
