In a shell, the art show is a collaboration of two artist groups exploring women’s issues.

Exposed: The Female Perspective highlights female artists of this generation, putting their most intimate selves on display and exploring inner thoughts, feelings and desires while creating a statement on societal expectations.

Similarly, Voices explores the complicated journey towards women finding their voice in modern times, speaking to the journey of women.

The opening night party took place on March 7th and the art exhibit is on display during regular brewery hours until March 30th.

Want to learn more about the exhibits? Read below.

Voices

Tamara Shelly, development assistant at Literature for Life chatted with me about the organization, the inspiration for the exhibit and the story behind the name Voices. 

What is Literature For Life?

 Literature for Life is a registered, Toronto charity unleashing intellectual potential in young, often teenage, mothers by promoting the benefits of literacy and stimulating a love for reading through one-of-a-kind Women with Words Reading Circles.  Most programming is facilitated in areas where poverty is a reality for many of the community members.

Since its inception in 2000, Literature for Life has impacted over 2000 participants and distributed over 22,000 new books to marginalized young mothers and their children.

Can you tell us more about “Women with Words”?

Women with Words is the name of the Literature for Life reading circles.  Several years ago, Literature for Life created an interactive blog entitled Womenz Wordz where young women of all races, places, ages and backgrounds can post and share their writings, rhymes, poems, stories, scripts, and words.

In 2011, after an interview with Omni Television, Literature for Life was approached by film director Anna Piszczkiewicz to create a documentary about the missions, visions, and values of the organization. After months of filiming Literature for Life’s Reading Circles, Anna felt the title of the documentary Women with Wordz was a perfect fit.

What inspired in putting together this art exhibit?

International Women’s Day is a celebration that means a lot to Literature for Life. Despite many, girl-power movements and initiatives, young mothers, are a very overlooked demographic because of stigma and stereotypes. With our core belief, A mother is her child’s first teacher, we recognize how important it is that these young mothers are empowered, in order to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty that they and their children face. And in order to feel empowered, they have to be included in discussions that involve their futures and embraced by women of all ages, status and experience. International Women’s Day supports all women and it was a great inspiration for the Literature for Life exhibition “Voices”

Can you explain the name “Voices”?

Literature for Life’s exhibit entitled, “Voices” explores the complicated journey towards women finding their voice in modern times. In this exhibit, women have found a means of expressing their voices, their unique identities, and the many challenging and exciting moments that surround them.

The mixed media presentation is a fusion of art, photography and poetry, speaking to the journey of women, as they move from uncertain and questioning tones of voice, to a war cry in the fight for justice; and all of the voices in between.

The poetry is from an anthology entitled “Holla!’ created by the young mothers who participate in Literature for Life’s Women’s Words Reading Circle groups.

See more of “Voices” art work on our brewery walls:

Exposed: The Female Perspective

Tegan Tough, a photographer exhibiting in Exposed: The Female Perspective, feels that the exhibit embraces “not only the fact that we are a group of emerging female artists, but highlights the importance of us as individuals existing within the artistic realm and gives us the chance to communicate our inner most desires, feelings and thoughts on a heightened platform.”

Does this mean that she can be given the title of a “feminist artist”?

“I by no means consider myself a feminist artist but am pleased that the group of us are representing a humble portion of the female voice in our own, unique ways,” she says.

Take a look at some of Tegan’s work from the “Cookie Cutters” collection:
 

Come for a visit during March to see the art for yourself. 

A launch part for an initiative that suppports diverse Canadian composers and their exposure to young adults where you can play on the instruments yourself.

 
Photo Cred: Justin ING

See… so much fun!

Last week the Soundstreams Encore launch took place.  If you’re not familiar, Soundstreams Encore is a new group committed to engaging culturally provocative musical programming aimed at young professionals under 40.

This means discovering new artists, supporting Canadian composers, and mingling with likeminded individuals. Sounds like a fun time, right?

The night appropriately took place at Atelier Rosemarie Umetsu and consisted of thank you notes from Soundstream folks themselves:

A performance by percussionist Ryan Scott

And flowing Steam Whistle…

Check out this neat video of Ryan Scott and Kazue Sawai in a neat percussion rehearsal:

If you’re looking for something truly different and unique and want to support Canadian artists, head over to Sound Streams. 

Cheers!