1. Greetings from The Public!

Happy August! With the studio fans on and windows open, we’ve been breezing through many exciting projects on the go and getting ready for our annual summer studio closure. We’re looking forward to returning with fresh energy in the fall, but in the meantime, read on to find out what we’ve been up to!

2. The Public News: In the Studio

Welcome Diane!

It’s been a delight to have Diane Mikhael intern with us from July to mid-August, as she creates a zine on curatorial practices specific to The Public’s window gallery. We’re grateful for what her experience as an educator, designer, and curator will bring to the zine and gallery. Diane has been a design educator for more than 21 years, teaching as a fulltime faculty in the Graphic Design department at Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar (2008-2015) and at Notre Dame University in Lebanon (1996-2008), and is the co-founder of the Middle East Design Educators Association (MEDEA). Her research engages with design, culture, and social change, and her new book, Bilingualism in Visual Communication: the visible forms and meanings in Arabic and Latin Typography launches this fall.

3. The Public News: In the Gallery

Shameless Youth Advisory Board

Over the next two months, The Public Gallery is featuring work put together by the Youth Advisory Board of Shameless, an independent, volunteer-run, grassroots magazine for teen girls and trans* youth that believes that media for young people should be guided by young people. We’re so excited to host the work of four youth artists who will explore and complicate the themes of shame and resilience. Check it out in our window gallery anytime from the corner of Seaforth Avenue and Lansdowne Avenue, starting mid-August!

4. The People News: In the Community

Re/Conciliation – Decolonizing Performance Practice
Tuesday August 8, 2:00pm-5:00pm at Artscape Youngplace

Cole Alvis and Jill Carter are leading a workshop on Decolonizing Performance Practice for artists on how we can more actively engage in (re)conciliation. Hosted by SummerWorks Performance Festival, the workshop will take up questions of how artists can begin decolonizing their practice, by going beyond the basics of learning names, geography, and historical facts, towards a re-imagining of our relationship with this land upon which we create. Find more info on the workshop here!

Jane’s Walk: Art and Gentrification in Parkdale
Saturday September 23, 11:00am-2:00pm at 1624 Queen Street West

The Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust and the Parkdale Walking Group are co-presenting a neighbourhood walking tour on art and gentrification. On the occasion of the Queen West Art Crawl, the walk will explore the complex role of artists in gentrification and how art can be part of a strategy to guide community growth inclusively and give voice to the underrepresented. Find out more about the walk here, and more about Jane’s Walks here!

Letters to the Universe
Thursday September 14 to Sunday September 17 at The Theatre Centre

Letters to the Universe is a play in development about a brown, femme super-queero's magical life story. In this play, she time travels through portals, alternate dimensions, the heart of the underworld, and into the heights and hopes of the galaxies. Along the way she meets her five astrological spirit guides, who are both the heroes and villains of their individual dimension, and who ultimately teach her about the secrets of magic. Stay up to date on the play’s creative process, show times, and how to get tickets here!

5. The Public News: On the streets

LJ has been obsessing over Fanny’s hot sauce ever since we got some from the Newcomer Women’s Services pop-up shop at the studio. What’s her “secret ingredient”? We’ll never know, but LJ probably thinks about it 1.5 times a day. Aside from pondering the mysteries of Fanny’s hot sauce, LJ is preparing for the Field of Dreamers baseball league’s upcoming play-offs and living that freelance doodlin’ sweet life, with plans on putting their body in Lake Ontario as often as possible.

Jenny has enjoyed the summer heartily, lapping up the sun and the warm weather of Cancer season. It’s been a glorious season of jam making, city foraging, and bike riding. They’ve also been working with the new Toronto Queer Zine Fair collective, doodling up a jungle for the upcoming fair poster. This upcoming month she’ll be at Moonshadow Cabin working on a personal project, Bright and Clear, a lunar calendar that explores themes of natural phenomenon, diaspora, and longing.

Nat is enjoying the summer and getting back into the kickboxing groove. She’s currently working on an exciting internal project with the Radical Design School, and might be heading West at the end of the month.

Anabel is in rehearsals as a cast member of the dance/musical/theatre play Letters to the Universe, and training in contemporary ballet and CrossFit. She recently wrote the article "Self-care as political warfare: Tips for those of us whom the academy wasn’t built for" for the activist day planner School Schmool, based in Montreal produced by the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG). She’s keeping up with her psychotherapy studies with online courses and reading, while also further developing her visual arts practice throughout the summer.

Sheila recently gave two artist talks at OCAD and co-facilitated the Sisters in the Struggle course at the Canadian Labour Congress Union School. She’s working on the next issue of Shameless Magazine on transformation and getting ready for the upcoming Shamie Awards. In September, she’ll be back teaching new courses at OCAD in nano publishing, research methods, and fourth year thesis, and partnering with Oasis Skateboard Factor to teach their art and social justice unit. Meanwhile, her home renovations are finally wrapping up, just in time for her vacation!

6. What we're working on

• Fall 2017 Issue of Sex Etc. magazine and lesson plan 
• A national youth engagement initiative for EQUITAS 
• A Women’s Equality project for the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario 
• Branding workshop facilitation for the Ontario Association of Consultants, Counsellors, Psychometrists and Psychotherapists
• Report and infographic design about Immigrant women and the wage gap for the Ontario Women’s Health Network
• Anti-oppression workshops for Parkdale Public School
• Website re-design for PASAN
• Prison Letter Writing Pamphlet for PASAN
• Site edits for Teen Health Source
• Planned Parenthood LGBTQ Service Guide
• Postcards and KT design for Trans Priorities project for REACH 2.0
• Website re-design for the Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton Area (SACHA)
• Re-brand and site re-design for The Housing Help Centre
• A marketing and communications strategy for Tangled Art + Disability
• Uniforum Magazine design and layout for Unifor

7. What we've done

• Facilitation of a women's retreat for the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario
• Newcomer Welcome PowerPoint design for the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario
• Anti-oppression workshop for the advancement team at OCAD University
• LGBTQ Youth Campaigns for Planned Parenthood Toronto
• Logo design for Start at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

8. Housekeeping

The studio will be closed for our annual self-care break Friday August 18th through Monday September 4th, inclusive. We are excited to return, refreshed, energized, and full of new and exciting ideas on Tuesday September 5th.