Neighbourhood Trust

Revisionist Toronto: Neighbourhood Trust

A part of Myseum: Intersection Festival 2019

March 5 – April 18, 2019

Neighbourhood Trust is a collaborative, evolving project that examines the state of affordable housing in Toronto through the lens of those directly affected. Through a series of workshops and conversations, culminating in a public exhibition, artist Hiba Abdallah and a group of South Etobicoke community members will explore the effects of housing insecurity and collaboratively examine possible solutions that are grounded in lived experiences. Neighbourhood Trust seeks to expand the public conversation surrounding affordable housing by focusing on the perspectives of those who are materially impacted by these issues in South Etobicoke. The project aims to create a collective agency that investigates new ways of understanding, articulating, and imagining the neighbourhood we seek to foster. The project will encourage collaborators to challenge, interrogate, and respectfully reconsider who we deem an expert and why.

Neighbourhood Trust is an official exhibition for Myseum Intersections 2019 (Re)Visionist Toronto and is presented in partnership with Myseum Toronto and the Daily Bread Food Bank.


In the Press

Toronto Star: Can an art project create an affordable housing movement? One will try.

Toronto.com: Immediate action is needed to solve Toronto’s housing woes, advocates say


Past Project Events:

Closing Talk: What’s Next?
April 11, 2019
LSA Community Project Space

As the physical space for the Neighbourhood Trust comes to a close, how do we continue to come together and discuss the neighbourhood’s pressing issues?  Artist Hiba Abdallah will lead a panel discussion alongside local community members who participated in the project to talk about what worked, what didn’t and what can still be useful for the community moving forward.

Artist Residency
March 19 – 23, 2019
LSA Community Project Space

Artist Hiba Abdallah will be on site at the Community Project Space activating Neighbourhood Trust and facilitating audience participation. Hiba will be transforming the Community Project Space into a collective agency addressing the housing crisis, Neighbourhood Trust establishes a hub for the exchange of knowledge and resources, inviting visitors to take an active role in using creative tools to shape the neighbourhood they live in. Throughout her residency, Abdallah will offer an entry point for people in the community to get involved in the agency and facilitate participation that extends beyond the project’s physical site and into public spaces and discourses.

Community Dinner
March 6,2019, 7 PM – 9 PM
LSA Community Project Space

Join Lakeshore Arts, Daily Bread Food Bank and artist Hiba Abdallah for a community dinner celebrating the opening of Neighbourhood Trust. This free dinner will offer a chance for community members to break bread together and contribute to the launch of our newest community-led project. The event is all ages and open to everyone.


Partners

Presenting Partner: Myseum of Toronto

Myseum of Toronto is a non-profit organization established in 2014. Through engaging programs and experiences, we convene, curate, and share the stories of Toronto. Instead of asking people to come to one location to explore art, culture, and history, Myseum delivers programming to all corners of the city. Our focus on co-creation and collaboration allows all Torontonians to partake in curating the city’s social and historical narratives.

Myseum Intersections is an annual festival that explores intersectional perspectives of Toronto through collaborative exhibits, events, workshops and tours. This year’s festival Revisionist Toronto asks; what are the lost or hidden stories that have been paved over and forgotten? How do we reclaim those histories? Revisionist Toronto revisits and re-imagines the dominant narratives that shape our understanding of the city.

Community Partner: Daily Bread Food Bank 

Daily Bread Food Bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that is fighting to end poverty and hunger in our communities. Daily Bread supports member agencies to provide food and assistance to people struggling with hunger and works to reduce poverty through research, education and the promotion of social change.

About the Artist

Hiba Abdallah is an artist and organizer who often works with others. Her practices borrow from design and social tradition as forms for exploring locality and civic agency in different communities. Abdallah received her BFA from the University of Windsor in 2012 and MFA from the University of Guelph in 2017. Solo and group exhibitions include Doris McCarthy Gallery (Scarborough, ON), Nuit Blanche Scarborough (Scarborough, ON), Museum of Contemporary Art (Toronto, ON), Art Gallery of Windsor (Windsor, ON), Modern Fuel (Kingston, ON), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC), Stride Gallery (Calgary, AB), Eastern Edge (St. John’s, NL), Centre[3] (Hamilton, ON), Eyelevel Gallery (Halifax, NS), Art Gallery of Guelph (Guelph, ON).

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