SummerWorks Announces Three Large-Scale Public Works Projects For 2022 As Part Of ArtworxTO

Beginning their programming schedule a little earlier this year, SummerWorks will kick-off 2022 programming with the announcement of a significantly expanded Public Works program including three large-scale works considering possibilities for the public realm, emphasizing making the artistic process public, and engaging the public in creation.

To be accompanied by an unprecedented number of of additional public space performances and art interventions that will be announced later this year, these multidisciplinary, community-centred projects will offer free and accessible activities across myriad neighbourhoods, activating city-wide engagement and creating connections on the streets of Toronto, all as part of ArtworxTO: Toronto's Year of Public Art 2021-2022.

An extension of the Public Works stream, which SummerWorks formalized in 2019 after years of animating public spaces through various mediums, the anchor Public Works projects presented as part of ArtworxTO involve installation and performance elements preceded by community engagement. Public facing elements of these projects will begin in May and June and culminate with live and interactive components in August, when the Festival will return to an in-person, 11-day format, August 4-14, 2022.

The three projects comprising SummerWorks' core contribution to ArtworxTO are: Future Perfect (New By-laws for Civic Spaces) from Action Hero (UK) and Mia & Eric, a dismantling and rearranging of city bylaws into rules for living in the new world, shared on billboards around Toronto beginning late spring and co-presented in partnership with The Bentway; Health & Safety Notes by Mark Reinhart (Chatham) which first appeared in Toronto for SummerWorks 2020, animating additional buildings and alleyways in the city with messages from the community to the community beginning in June; and Switching Queen(s) by Switch Collective (Toronto), a two-part project interrogating challenges facing Parkdale and its residents and considering art-making as an accomplice to radical social reorganization, which begins in May with the audio journey presented in association with bcurrent, and culminates with an in-person performance experience in August. All three presentations are part of unique multi-year engagements between the artists and SummerWorks Festival, through which the projects have had extended periods of creative development and community engagement.

Mark Reinhardt's Health & Safety Notes

"We are thrilled to be kicking off 2022 in partnership with the City of Toronto's ArtworxTO program for the Year of Public Art," says SummerWorks Artistic and Managing Director Laura Nanni. "Now, more than ever it is crucial for us to reconnect people and reanimate the city through art."

"SummerWorks has a long history of experimenting with performance and art in public spaces and expanding what is possible in this realm. As society continues in a careful and cautious process of returning to shared public space, we are motivated to further explore what performance and artistic engagement can be in these spaces, and to consider how we can reconnect with community. The three projects announced today, offer a sneak peek into our larger Public Works programming for the year and signify the direction SummerWorks has been going and will continue to go. We will continue to open up and involve the public more in the artistic process, while also deepening our commitments to care and community, and prioritizing making art accessible to diverse audiences. The support and partnership with the City is allowing us to put these commitments into practice at an unprecedented scale and to offer artists a larger platform for their work this year."

Alongside the core Public Works ArtworxTO projects, SummerWorks will also be presenting a complementary series of Public Works Special Projects to animate public byways around the city in the warmer months. These projects are supported by the Toronto Arts Council's Animating Streets Initiative, enacted for the Year of Public Art as well. The additional public space project line-up and artists will be announced later this year alongside the full programming line-up for SummerWorks Festival 2022.

The SummerWorks 2022 Artistic Advisory includes Asad Raza, Cara Eastcott, Darren Leu, Eroca Nicols, Sandra Amarie, Ralph Escamillan, and Yvette Nolan, who are advising SummerWorks Artistic and Managing Director Laura Nanni as the 2022 SummerWorks Festival Presentations, Lab, Public Works and Exchange programming continues to take shape.

SummerWorks 2022 activities are generously supported by Canadian Heritage,Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, City of Toronto, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Lindy Green Family Charitable Foundation, Aubrey Marla Dan Foundation and TD Ready Commitment.

More information about SummerWorks and the 2022 activities can be found at summerworks.ca

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