Give and Get: Making good ideas happen

Sheila Goldgrab & Joel Kumove in partnership with the School for Social Entrepreneurs Ontario invite you to Give and Get: making good ideas happen, a free monthly house event for people with projects.

Give and Get is a place to meet new people, eat a meal together,  and seek and offer ideas and support and make new connections in a fun and friendly environment. The event is suitable for anyone with an idea or project that would benefit from multiple perspectives or resources.

It could be a business project, a personal project, an art project, a charitable cause or a community project. Free and open to anyone who registers. The evening will be facilitated by a leadership career coach and mentors who want to help make your great ideas happen!

Here's what Give and Get believes in:
- An unexpected mix of great people can propel your project forward.
- Everyone has something to offer.

You will have an opportunity to tell the event coordinators about your project and your 'ask' of the group when you register. There are two upcoming summer dates for the event, July 18 and August 23. Click the links below to find out more or register:

July 18: http://bit.ly/2pY8EE2
August 23: http://bit.ly/2pYbh8T

Akin & The Toronto Art Book Fair

Akin is thrilled to participate in the second annual Toronto Art Book Fair (TOABF) from June 15th - 18th 2017 at Artscape Youngplace and present an incredible selection of art books, zines, prints, flair, multiples and more created by a diverse range of our talented studio artists.

The Toronto Art Book Fair will feature over 80 Canadian and international exhibitors, three curated exhibitions, and community programming that includes readings, panel discussions, book launches, performances, and workshops.

Akin will be participating along with hundreds of local and international artists, publications, small presses, independent publishers, archives, contemporary art galleries, critics, designers, writers, and performers. TOABF is free to the public and suitable for all ages. For more information visit www.torontoartbookfair.com

Programming Partnership!
Akin is pleased to be hosting two events as a part of Toronto Art Book Week- a series of city-wide events that parallel the Toronto Art Book Fair. Art book week will feature book launches, performances, talks, pop-up exhibitions, and screenings throughout Toronto. The goal of art book week is to bring attention to new and exciting artist’s book projects as well as increase the visibility of Toronto’s art publishing community.

Akin Creative: Zine Jam // www.universe.com/zinejam
Wed June 14 / 6:30-9pm / $10 / Akin Lansdowne, studio 101 - 87 Wade Ave
Hands-on zine workshop with materials provided, beer sales and tunes. Bring an in-progress zine or an idea for a new zine! Beginners welcome! Limited seating, please register online.

Akin Gallery Crawl: Toronto Art Book Week // www.facebook.com/events/128383227716708/
Sat June 17 / 12:30-4:00pm / FREE / Meet at The Public - 58 Lansdowne Ave
Join us as we visit galleries and spaces that are showcasing and celebrating artists' books and print featuring highlights from Toronto Art Book Week. Free for all, everyone welcome!

We can't wait to see you at the fair, zine jam and crawl!

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition - Call for Volunteers!

WHAT IS IT?

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (TOAE) is Canada's largest, longest running juried contemporary outdoor art fair. Founded in 1961, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition was established to nurture artistic excellence and artists’ entrepreneurial spirit, and to showcase contemporary art to the general public. This free public event showcases works by over 320 contemporary visual artists and makers, ranging in medium from painting, photography, and mixed media to jewellery and ceramics, and attracts 100,000 visitors each year to Nathan Phillips Square.This year TOAE runs from July 14-16th!
 

WHY WE NEED YOU!

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is only made possible by our amazing volunteers. We are tremendously grateful for your time and dedication to the exhibition! Each year over 100 volunteers lend their hands, time and expertise to make this event happen. We sincerely hope that you consider joining the volunteer team this summer! As a volunteer, you’ll be responsible for helping set up the exhibition on Nathan Philips Square, supporting artists, providing customer service and assisting with event logistics.
 

WHY VOLUNTEER WITH TOAE?

By volunteering for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition you will not only be supporting the arts, and meeting amazing people but you will also be creating access and helping shape the Toronto arts community. You will provide you with comprehensive training, a TOAE t-shirt and volunteer appreciation events. Without you this event would not be possible.

Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at volunteer@torontooutdoorart.org

Akin Gallery Crawl: Toronto Art Book Week - Saturday June 17 - FREE!

Saturday June 17 /  Meet at The Public at 12:30pm - 58 Lansdowne Ave. / FREE & family friendly

Akin Projects and The Toronto Art Book Fair invite you to attend a special edition of the Akin Gallery Crawl. Join us as we visit galleries and spaces that are showcasing and celebrating artists' books and printed matter featuring highlights from Toronto Art Book Week. Everyone welcome!

1. Meet at The Public at 12:30pm. (58 Lansdowne Ave)

2. Visit Xpace Cultural Centre (303 Lansdowne Ave, Unit 2)

3. Visit Souvenir Studios (1232 College Street)

4. Visit Akin Lansdowne for a studio tour followed by a visit to Towards Gallery (87 Wade Ave)

5. Visit Akin Dupont(1485 Dupont St) and view the Akin Vitrine Gallery with artist talk by Laura Kay Keeling

6. Anyone with energy left is encouraged to visit Zalucky Contemporary (3044 Dundas St West) for the book launch for "Some Theories" by Kathryn Mockler and David Poolman. Please note this is not an official stop on the Akin Gallery Crawl but is about a 20 minute walk from our final stop at Akin Dupont.

(Those without the energy for Zalucky Contemporary can join the rest of us on a nearby patio for a drink!)

Map of our route: http://tinyurl.com/mrj9o6k
Map of our route with optional final stop: http://tinyurl.com/k8uujg4

About Toronto Art Book Week
Art book week is a series of city wide events that parallel the Toronto Art Book Fair. Art book week features project launches, performances, talks, pop-up exhibitions, and screenings throughout toronto. The goal of art book week is to bring attention to new and exciting artist’s book projects as well as increase the visibility of toronto’s art publishing community. For more information visit: www.torontoartbookfair.com/art-book-week

RSVP on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/128383227716708

Stuff to Apply and Sign Up for

Call for Applicants:

Teen Fringe:  Deadline: June 6, 2017

Teens aged 13-17 can have the chance to train with leading professionals in acting, singing and dancing during the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. Applicants are required to audition and perform a monologue of their choosing and a song from the Musical Theatre Repertoire list. Participants can expect 5 full days of training with industry professionals, the chance to perform at Edge of the Sky’s closing night show at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival and a Rush Pass to all 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival productions.

Call for Submissions:

Art Encounters Program, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Deadline: May 1, 2017

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is accepting applications from visual artists and makers with disabilities, newcomer and indigenous artists to participate in the new Art Encounters Program during the 56th Exhibition on July 14 – 16, 2017 at Nathan Philips Square. Through this program Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition will provide exhibition assistance and free booth space to offset the costs and relieve the economic pressure of exhibiting in the fair to a select group of five artists with disabilities, newcomer and aboriginal artists.

Arts and Minds: A Community Arts Series

Neighbourhood Arts Network's has partnered with Workman Arts on Arts and Minds: A Community Arts Series, exploring the theme of mental wellness and public space. Arts and Minds will convene members of the Victoria Village community together to have conversation around the importance of mental health management in all our lives. This will be a helpful series of collaborative workshops using community arts as a tool to talk about how mental health can possibly be managed, and some of the challenges it can present. The City of Toronto’s 2011 Neighbourhood Demographic Estimates revealed that 67% of community members in Victoria Village are accessing mental health services, so these workshops will be responsive by convening a space for community members to gather and discuss their own mental health issues, while encouraging the reduction of the stigma associated with seeking support. Victoria Park Village community members will be consulted in sparking the project objectives and support community outreach. The project in 2018 will celebrate this growth of stories told through a public art piece reflecting dialogues from the workshops. Workman Arts Members are asked to submit Request for Proposals to apply to partake in community consultations, as well as design and deliver hand-on workshops

Regent Park Film Festival: Deadline: May 12, 2017

Regent Park Film Festival's call for submissions is now open and free. Regent Park Film Festival welcome films of all lengths and genres that reflect the multitude of experiences that make up our cities and communities. Regent Park Film Festival is especially dedicated to showcasing works by Indigenous filmmakers and filmmakers of colour, as well as works by trans, queer and female identified filmmakers.

Events:

Sick Muse Art Projects: Multicultural Night Event:  May 19, 2017

Serving as a fundraiser for their new project relating to Latin America (specifically Peru and Ecuador), Sick Muse Art Projects is hosting a Multicultural Night Event that features a variety of music and food. This will also be a great opportunity to network with cultural workers and cultural leaders from different organizations, artists from different disciplines and backgrounds, and arts/culture dreamers and doers. The Multicultural Night Event will be at 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education and will run from 7-10 PM.

Yellow House Celebrates 3 Years! Art Show and Birthday Bash: Tomorrow! 7-10pm

"High Mesa", John N.Inglis, watercolour on paper, 17"x22"

Help Yellow House Gallery celebrate their anniversary tomorrow night! The show brings together a diverse group of Canadian contemporary artists in celebration of Yellow House's Third Birthday!

Enjoy some music, art, divine treats, and great conversation as Yellow House thanks Toronto's East End community for its ongoing support.

Show Dates:
May 12th- June 10th 2017
 
Reception:
Friday May 12th- 7-10pm

Can't make it to the opening reception? Then join Akin Projects on Saturday May 13 at our Akin East-End Gallery Crawl! We will be visiting Yellow House Gallery along the way! Click here for details.

TCAF 2017 - The Toronto Comics Arts Festival - May 13 & 14

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) is taking place in On May 13 & 14 with corresponding events happening throughout May. The main event is a two-day exhibition and vendor fair featuring hundreds of comics creators from around the world and will be held at the Toronto Reference Library with readings, signings, panels, workshops, gallery shows, installations and more taking place in the surrounding Bloor/Yonge neighbourhood.

The first Toronto Comic Arts Festival was held in 2003. The Toronto Comic Arts Festival exists to promote the breadth and diversity of comics, and what is considered comics, as legitimate medium of literary and artistic worth. They seek to promote the creators of these works in their broad and diverse voices, for the betterment of the medium of comics and to reach as wide an audience as possible for them.

Main Exhibition: Saturday May 13 and Sunday May 14 at Toronto Reference Library

Some of the Other Events and Exhibitions (Full listing on the TCAF website):
Professional Development for Librarians and Educators: Friday May 12
TCAF Kick-Off: Celebrate 25 Years of Image Comics: Friday, May 12, Doors at 6pm
TCAF KIDS DAY: May 13, 10am-5pm @ St. Paul’s On Bloor
French Comics Framed Exhibition: May 2 -31 @ Toronto Reference Library
My Brother’s Husband – Artwork by Gengoroh Tagame: May 9-30 @ Toronto Reference Library
Guy Delisle: An Exhibition: May 2-31 @ Toronto Reference Library

All TCAF events are FREE and suitable for all ages.

Wunderkammer: Cabinet of Curiosities - Gala Opening May 13

The Toronto Etsy Street Team (TEST) invites you to join them for the gala opening of Wunderkammer: Cabinet of Curiosities, a science art show inspired by the eccentric, encyclopedic, natural history collections gathered since the Renaissance. Featuring work by a variety of local artists including Erin Candela of Akin Dufferin.

Cabinets of Curiosities featured treasured zoological, botanical, anatomical, fossil and gem specimen. Art and craft work depicting these specimen, cabinets of curiosity and the wonder of natural history are sought. Artists are encouraged to consider how their art might be displayed in ways which allude to the wunderkammer.

Show runs May 11-28 at TEST Gallery, 906 Queen Street West. Opening Reception May 13.

Akin Show & Tell #56 - Akin Lansdowne

On the last Wednesday of every month Akin host’s a relaxed and fun ‘Show and Tell for Artists’ at one of the Akin Collective studios. This is a time for Akin members and other Toronto artists to show completed works or works in progress and get friendly feedback and answers from their peers in a casual studio setting.

Feel free to bring art to share, bring a friend or two, bring snacks or drinks or just bring yourself! Come for the conversation or just to meet people and hang out.

This month we are meeting at Akin Lansdowne - 87 Wade Ave - Studio 101. Everyone is welcome! Open to the public! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch! See you there!

InterAccess Summer Workshop Series Announced

The InterAccess Studio is happy to announce a series of new media art workshops running from May to July in a wide variety of disciplines. Led by established and emerging new media artists, these workshops will introduce artists to a wide variety of practices. Click here for a full listing or to register.

Here is a selection of our favorites:

Solution Culture (Co-presented with Subtle Technologies)
Learn the basics of hydroponics and creating customized soil-less gardening systems for artistic and expressive applications.
Saturday, May 13, 1-4pm / Instructor: Paul Chartrand / More info

Sonic Geography
Explore sound and place by learning techniques for field recording. Then, bring field recordings back to the studio and learn how to manipulate them using interactive interfaces.
Saturday June 10, 12-4pm / Instructor: Dan Tapper / More info

Intro to 3D Printing
Learn how to use 3D printers safely and creatively in this introductory workshop.
Tuesday June 20, 7-10pm / Instructor: Amir Far / More info

Atari Punk Console
Make your own legendary DIY sound synthesizer! Learn about the 555 chip, practice your soldering and circuit building skills, and make some old school sounds with the Atari Punk Console!
Tuesday July 25, 7-8:30pm / Instructor: Gerald Grison / More info

Art Intersections Meetup with Adrienne Crossman and Thirza Cuthand - May 16

You are invited to join Adrienne Crossman and Thirza Cuthand for a presentation and Q&A at Akimbo's Art Intersections Meetup on Tuesday, May 16 from 6:30pm to 9pm at Gamma Space Collaborative Studio (862 Richmond Street West). Free! Wheelchair accessible. Please RSVP.

Schedule:
6:30pm - Doors Open
7pm - Guest presenters Adrienne Crossman and Thirza Cuthand, plus Q&A
8pm - Networking, Food & Beverages

Adrienne Crossman is an artist, educator and curator. Her practice involves the manipulation and deconstruction of digital media and popular culture in order to create new artifacts through formal re-interpretations. In the pursuit of creating a queer aesthetic, Crossman's work is concerned with the exploration of non-normative and non-binary spaces, while attempting to locate queer sensibilities in the everyday.

Thirza Jean Cuthand has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, youth, love, and race, which have screened in festivals internationally. In the summer of 2016 she began working on a 2D video game called A Bipolar Journey based on her experience learning and dealing with her bipolar disorder. It showed at ImagineNATIVE and she is planning to further develop it. She has also written three feature screenplays and sometimes does performance art.

Art Intersections Meetup is a meeting place for artists, moving image-makers, gamers and technologists who are experimenting with art-related digital content and how the moving image is presented in a connected world. Digital culture, social media and networks encourage new ways of storytelling, image making, idea sharing and collaboration. This Meetup celebrates artists and innovators who are embracing change leading the next wave of creativity.

Gamma Space Collaborative Studio is a not-for-profit arts organization, and community of 200+ members making, playing, and talking about videogames. They strive to be a welcoming and accessible space for everyone interested in games as art.

Main Squared Festival - Call for Submissions

Produced by East End Arts and curated by Labspace Studio, Main Squared is a multidisciplinary 10-day public art festival that will activate and explore the under-used public square at the corner of Main Street and Danforth Avenue in Toronto (August 26 – September 3, 2017).

Drawing inspiration and insight from historical “public squares” while tapping into community aspirations, the festival will invite residents, community members, and the general public to reimagine the square as a space for social engagement, discourse, and civic activism.

Blending contemporary art and community art projects, the festival will feature art installations, interactive activities, workshops, performances, and more.

Toronto and GTA artists and collectives are invited to submit proposals for the creation of new public art projects in addition to existing projects that are thematically aligned.

Deadline May 18, 2017

'High-Rise' by Jessica Thalmann in the Akin Vitrine Gallery

The Akin Vitrine Gallery launched on October 1, 2016 at our Dupont studios. This miniature gallery features the diverse talent of our members with a new installation each month.

Our current exhibition running for the month of May, features new work by Akin Lansdowne member, Jessica Thalmann.

“These people were content with their environment, and felt no particular objection to an impersonal steel and concrete landscape, no qualms about the invasion of their privacy by government agencies and organizations, and if anything welcoming these intrusions, using them for their own purposes. These people were the first to master a new kind of 20th century life. They thrived on the rapid turnover of acquaintances, the lack of involvement with others, and the total self-sufficiency of lives which, needing nothing, were never disappointed.”
– JG Ballard

High-Rise is a site-specific installation of hand-folded archival pigment prints investigating the exploding steel and glass landscape of downtown Toronto as a veritable condoland converges onto the apex of the city. The strange lives of condo-dwellers seem at once compact, luxurious and quietly desperate as reflected sunlight bounces between glass curtain walls, almost folding one unit onto one another, never knowing where one begins or ends.

Photographs of glass condos are folded using a special Miura pattern named for its inventor Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura. A Miura fold can be packed into a compact shape, and unfurled in a single motion. This pattern has even been used in solar panel arrays for space satellites in the Japanese space program have been Miura folded before launch and then spread out in space.

Jessica Thalmann is an artist, curator and writer currently based in Toronto and New York City. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University. She has worked at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto International Film Festival, C Magazine, the Art Gallery of York University and Yossi Milo Gallery. She has shown at various venues in Toronto, Vancouver and New York City including the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Flash Forward 2010, Whippersnapper Gallery, Nuit Blanche, the Artist Project, VIVO Media Arts Center, Aperture Foundation, the International Centre of Photography, Photoville, the Camera Club of New York and Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair.

High-Rise, 2017
Folded Archival Pigment Prints
dimensions variable

The gallery is located at the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner. The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, or to arrange a viewing outside of those hours please contact the artist: jessica.thalmann@gmail.com

www.jessicathalmann.com
Instagram: @jessthalmann1
#AkinVitrine

Akin Creative: Card Party! / Tomorrow evening at Akin Lansdowne

Join us tomorrow at Akin Lansdowne in studio 203 from 6:30-8:30pm for our second Card Party of 2017! It will be a fun, crafty time for you to let loose and make a card or two for someone you love! (Make a card for your partner, best friend, enemy or a stranger! Maybe you want to make a card for yourself :) Or of course Mother's day is coming up!)

Bring a friend, a snack, and your creativity! $10 per person - all materials included!  There is limited seating for this event. You must RSVP or register to attend. Email jen@akincollective.com to RSVP or get your ticket at www.universe.com/cardparty2017

Participants will be provided with one piece of heavy-duty hemp card stock, cut and scored to make a 4”x6” card as well as a brightly-colored 4”x6” envelope. You can purchase more card stock andj envelopes at the event for $0.50 each ($1 per set). We will also have beer for sale!

Supplies will be provided including:
- cardstock and envelopes
- a variety of coloured paper
- pencil crayons and pens
- watercolour paints and brushes
- spirograph and stamps
- stickers and stencils
- scissors and glue
- magazines to cut and paste
- glitter, beads, ribbon and more!

Feel free to bring additional supplies! See you tomorrow!

Surrealist Collage Workshop - Tickets still available!

Tickets are still available for our Surrealist Collage Workshop with renowned collage artist Danielle Cole.

What will we cover?

• We will begin with collage based on the Surrealist activity Corpse Bizarre
• Techniques for seamlessly cutting material to be used in collage
• Going beyond the glue stick – techniques for gluing fine and large pieces of collage without causing the material to bubble or tear
• How to source and combine collage materials in order to create a unique piece of art

What’s it all about?

Michelangelo said of his art ‘every block of stone has a statue inside and it is the task of the sculpture to discover it.’ This quote holds true for the construction of the collages. Sorting through hundreds of images, from magazines and books both new and old, until the magical moment when all the pieces come together to create a perfect piece of art. Collage is the perfect medium for creative thinkers, artists and crafty people. This is a hands-on workshop where you will be shown strategies for creating collages that are seamlessly built and helped towards creating a unique piece of art to take home at the end of the evening. All materials will be provided.

Free Contemporary Art Bus Tour on April 30

Free Contemporary Art Bus Tour! The tour begins at 12 noon at the Koffler Gallery (Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street) and continues to the Doris McCarthy Gallery and the Art Gallery of York University, returning to the Koffler Gallery by 4:15 pm. Guided tours will be offered at each venue.

The bus tour is FREE, seats are limited. To reserve, contact the Koffler Gallery at 647.925.0643 x 221 or ssaad@kofflerarts.org

Please note that light snacks and refreshments will be provided throughout the tour; guests are welcome to pack their own lunches.

For more information about the specific exhibitions you will see during the tour click here.

Other Jesus: a new play by Public Recordings of Akin Lansdowne opens on May 6

What’s the difference between a person and a story about a person?

Other Jesus, a new play by Toronto’s award-winning Public Recordings of Akin Lansdowne premiers on May 6 at St. Matthew's United Church (729 St Clair Avenue West, Toronto). The show runs from May 6-14 with performances from Tuesday-Sunday at 8pm.

Box Office Information:
$25 General // $20 Arts Worker/Student/Senior/Under Employed
Advance Sales: 416-531-1827 // publicrecordings.org/projects/other-jesus
Tickets also available at the door

About Other Jesus
In the occupied territories of ancient Judea, a group of spiritual workers consider what’s real while trying to break even–until one of them turns out to have the magic touch. Other Jesus is a performance on the risk and reward of believing and belonging.

Click here to read an interview with Other Jesus writer Evan Webber about the creation of the show.

About Public Recordings Performance Projects
Public Recordings develops and presents projects that test hypotheses about group work through performance, education, publishing and other collective gestures. With the goal of providing a readable index of problems and solutions in and through experiential practice, we use the structural and administrative framework of a dance company to question the meanings and possibilities of shared space. Click here to donate to Public Recordings.

PiGEON: a Psycho-Geographic-ExcursiON

The Gardiner Museum and Friends of Ogden Park invite your to join them on an urban birding walk entitled PiGEON Psycho-Geographic-ExcursiON this Saturday Apr 29 from 9AM-12PM.

Created in collaboration with data from FLAP Canada, the walk will examine how bird collision detection offers a 'canary in the coal mine' to signal troubling changes in our own everyday patterns of movement through the city. Harnessing the practice of psycho-geography, the walk will explore the Bloor St Cultural Corridor in order to examine what it means to move through the neighborhood from the perspective of the bird.  The excursion will be a fantastic flight into the way human stories intersect with the stories of other species, forming a multi-species worldview.

The walk costs $25 and includes a limited edition map/poster, free brown-bagged lunch and free entry into the current exhibition at The Gardiner Museum: Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary.
(Arts workers are welcome to use special promo code "ogdenpark" for a 20% discount on tickets)

About Friends of Ogden Park:
Friends of Ogden Park is a Toronto-based artist collective spearheaded by artists Ella Dawn McGeough and Dustin Wilson in 2014, whose purpose is to organize games and activities that function as forms of research. Transdisciplinary in scope, Ogden Park exists without the context of a fixed place. It is a disembodied mind that temporarily occupies various hosts. Whether park, gallery, or online platform, Ogden Park’s host-body functions as an experimental computational device, transforming these sites into a virtual field for game-based research.

About FLAP Canada:
FLAP Canada’s mission is to safeguard migratory birds in the urban environment through education, policy development, research, rescue and rehabilitation. Since 1993, volunteers with FLAP have combed the Financial District of Toronto searching for birds stunned, injured or killed by collisions with lit towers during their nocturnal migration. A few years later, the non-profit organization discovered that daytime collisions with glass is of even greater concern, responsible for the deaths of billions of migrants worldwide. As a result, its rescue zones have increased covering Scarborough, North York, Markham and Mississauga. FLAP now works with many other cities across North America in efforts to create safe passage for migratory birds.

Urban Workers Skill Share

The Akin community has been working with the Urban Workers Project and Centennial College to put on a Skill Share this Saturday April 29th at Story Arts Centre 951 Carlaw Ave, Toronto Ontario. Join us and other independent and self-employed workers to share best practices and to learn from one another. You will connect with experts to get your most burning questions answered, share your hard earned lessons and build community. Together we’ll skill up while we envision how to make work and life more secure in this new economy. We’ve teamed up other incredible partner organizations in the freelance, labour, and arts & culture communities. We'll have lawyers, accountants and other experts on hand to lead sessions and consult one-on-one on topics like taxes, setting rates, writing contracts, branding, invoicing, getting paid on time, and what to do when that doesn’t happen. Oliver and Rachel will be doing a skill share on artist run not-for-profits. Wavelength Music and Xpace Cultural Centre will also be representing DIY organizing and artist run not-for-profits. We'll also talk about the big picture issues we're facing - like access to benefits,  income security and child care and what we can do to make change. Participants will leave with a resources tool kit that includes contract templates, resources useful to freelancers and swag from our partners.

We are proud to be able to offer on site child care for the duration of the daytime event. Please email info(at)urbanworker.ca if you require child care and indicate so in the registration form.  The earlier we have this information the better so we can make arrangements with our care providers.

The true cost of this event is $100 per person but accessibility is our top priority so we are offering a sliding scale: $20, $50 or Pay What You Can.  If you love what we're up to and can afford investing in the movement for secure livelihoods in the new economy, we appreciate you making a donation through the PWYC ticket.

Names and Places - Book Release, Exhibition, & Print Expo featuring artwork and prints by Akin artists!

Names and Places  is a group exhibition that opens on April 20 at Northern Contemporary and will include new work by Akin Lansdowne artist Liang Wang. It is also a book launch for Names and Places Volume 3

Names and Places Volume 3 explores the unique relationship between graffiti and urban delivery trucks. From box trucks to cargo vans, these moving canvases present a wide range of opportunities for graffiti writers and photographers alike.

The art exhibition showcases paintings, photographs, and sculpture-based work inspired by trucks from artists across a wide range of disciplines.

The exhibition runs from April 20-30 and culminates in the Names and Places Print Expo on April 29 (11am-6pm) which is a one day market event featuring some of Toronto's coolest zinemakers, printmakers, small press and illustrators including Billy Franklin of Akin Dupont and Jackie Lee of Akin Sunrise.