Lilie Zendel on Toronto Street Art
By Lucas on Nov 07, 2013
Parkside Drive Underpass piece by Aaron Li-Hill
By Penny Munoz
Probing different perspectives on street art, we were able to contact Lilie Zendel, manager at Toronto-based StreetARToronto (StART). Since the public/private partnership program was implemented on January 2012, StART has helped talented local artists gain public exposure and recognition by facilitating costly projects across the city.
The initiative behind the multifaceted program seeks to increase public awareness on the matter, thereby deconstructing the stigma commonly surrounding graffiti. In doing this, they hope to defend artistic voices, demonstrating that artists are also influential figures in our community. Through public/private grants, StART aims to facilitate project development, giving artists the platform and financial means to express themselves through City commissioned projects.
With much enthusiasm, Zendel highlighted the dual benefits of the program’s incentives that always aim to appease project contributors and the city as a whole noting the positive feedback StART has received so far, especially from local artists.
“I think there is legitimacy to street art, people really like it. It’s a great tool for communities, allowing them to get together,” said Zendel about the unique capacity street art has to enhance cooperative efforts and complement communities aesthetically. “It ends up being a catalyst for areas that need improvement, people start taking ownership of lighting and public benches.”
One of their most recent programs, “Outside the Box” targets commonly vandalized traffic control cabinets. On October 25th, 11 artists were commissioned by the City to transform 20 cabinets across the city into works of art. Zendel told us that commissioned art projects such as this help eliminate unwanted vandalism because artists are less likely to degrade the work of other artists.
Photo via RBNonline.ca
With $400,000 of public funds available, the grant program has sponsored 22 projects across the city, including the mural in St. James Town (on the side of a residential building at 200 Wellesley Street East) that has captured international attention, being deemed the tallest mural in the world.
Relatively new on the scene, compared to the globally acclaimed graffiti of NYC or London, Zendel said she hopes to see more art on the streets in the near future. Potential areas for improvement that she mentioned included several dark underpasses in and around Toronto. Undoubtedly equipped with the necessary artistic talent available to transform these illegitimately tagged, grungy spaces into beautiful, monumental pieces of artwork, development in this area can help contribute to the walkability and safety of these locations.
Receiving criticism for a recent project on Bathurst Street, where $23,000 was put toward commissioning well-known Brooklyn graffiti artists “Faile,” Zendel said that each year StART helps fund an international project. According to Zendel, this provides Toronto with the opportunity to engage in a global, street art dialogue. “It’s an art form with no borders,” said Zendel talking about bringing artists from around the globe to our own streets. “Street art is a dialogue and we want our artists to be a part of a global movement.” Explaining Faile’s strong touristic following, Zendel said it is a great opportunity for Toronto to attract more tourists and also expect large graffiti cities to become familiar with our own artists, opening discourse between cities.
Praising our municipal representatives for the innovative steps they have taken to support StART, Zendel said that she hopes to see more action from the arts council in the near future; matching grants on provincial and federal levels to further mobilize projects. Zendel also mentioned that she would like to see project developers become more integrated as well, as their support would also contribute to the program’s initiatives. An example where a contribution from a developer helped a program incentive is the artwork in the underpass located on Mount Pleasant Road and Bloor Street. StART provided local artists with a $10,000 grant to complete one side of the underpass and Toronto-based developer Lanterra Developments provided funds to have the other side completed.
What is your favourite mural in the city? What parts of the city would you like to see the program take interest in?
