Creative Users new website - Accessing the Arts!

After a two year long journey, Creative Users, an initiative of Akin Dupont member Lindsay Fisher, is thrilled to officially launch their new website and accessible events listing thanks to the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

This website features information about Creative User projects, as well it provides an events listing, "Accessing the Arts" which features accessible arts and disability arts happening in Toronto. Creative Users' goal for the next two years is to research and evaluate the usability of this site, to expand the scope of resources to include accessible and inclusive curatorial practices happening nationally with information, news articles and documentation on making the arts accessible along with updates on what's happening in the disability arts scene. 

Creative Users is a disability-led artist platform that explores the intersection of art and design practices, accessibility, and disability. Creative Users is a shapeshifter, cultural connector and sector builder of disability arts and accessible curatorial practice. The work stems from a desire to activate art and make visible an inclusive arts culture. creativeusers.net

New Toronto Tool Library discount for Akin Members!

Akin Members now can receive 10% off any level of membership to the Toronto Tool Library.

At the Toronto Tool Library, anyone with a membership can sign-out tools for both their home and community initiatives. Whether you are hanging a picture or renovating a community park, the Toronto Tool Library offers a range of equipment for your project as an extremely low-cost, resource sharing and space-saving alternative to purchasing and owning tools.

Learn more about the Toronto Tool Library at www.torontotoollibrary.com

Benefits of a Tool Library:

• Provides access to specialized tools where ownership of the tool is cost prohibitive
• Wide range of tools available including Power Generators, Construction & Renovation
• Gardening & Landscaping, Painting & Drywall, Electrical Tools and more!
• Operates on a non-profit basis and funds itself after the initial investment through membership fees / late fees / donations
• Helps reduce environmental waste and clutter in the home
• Provides home building workshops and training so users can improve their skills
  
  Akin studio members will receive the discount information with their welcome package once they join Akin! 

Emma Aurelia artist in residence at Harbourfront Centre

Our beloved member Emma Aurelia is currently one of the artists in residence at Harbourfront Centre. Aurelia is a multi-media installation artist. With textiles at the forefront, her practice extends in several other directions incorporating sound, video and motors. She explores the way that these elements interact, transforming space and experience. Emma graduated from OCADU with a BFA specializing in textiles.

Akin at Zine Dream 10!!

Akin is proud to be one of over 100 exhibitors featured at Zine Dream 10. Join us on August 20 to see the best of self published books, comics, music, zines, hand made crafts, prints & much more! One day only. The event is PWYC and will take place at the Polish Combatants' Hall, 206 Beverley Street.

Our table will feature zines, books and more by our amazing Akin artists including: 

Sophie Berg - www.sophiecberg.com

Erin Candela - www.erincandela.ca

Brittany Carmichael - www.brittanycarmichael.com

Emily DiCarlo - www.emilydicarlo.com

Emma Dolan (Desert Pets Press) - www.desertpetspress.com

Julianne Ess - http://cargocollective.com/julianneess

Billy Franklin - www.eaturpie.com

Enrique Gaudite - www.instagram.com/enrique_snaps

Natascha Malta - https://greetingsfromtoronto.wordpress.com

Jen Pilles - www.jenpilles.com

Kayla Polan - www.kaylapolan.com

Katie Sadie - www.katiesadie.com

and More! 

THERE WILL BE CAKE! 
COME CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF SMALL PRESS IN OUR CITY!

Obvious and Implied: Paintings by Nancy Bennett at Deer Park Public Library

A new solo exhibition of sky paintings by Nancy Bennett of Akin Sunrise are on display for the month of August at Deer Park Public Library, 40 St. Clair Avenue East. 

Nancy Bennett is a self-schooled artist. She has studied under several Toronto artists in formal and informal settings. Nancy is also co-founder of Four Corners Studio in Riverside/Leslieville. 
Her work is held in private and corporate collections in Canada and the U.S.A.

www.nancybennett.ca

Tomorrow! Grand Opening of Project Gallery's new space!

Join us for the grand opening of Project Gallery's new 2,500 sq ft space at 1210 Dundas St E on Thursday August 3rd from 6-10pm. 

On display will be works by represented artists including Sara Letovsky and Sara Pearson of Akin Dupont, as well as:

Kevin Colombus
Camille Jodoin-Eng
Ness Lee
Jean-Luc Lindsay
Tessar Lo
Greg McCarthy
Callen Schaub
SoTeeOh

Akin Vitrine Gallery featuring Enrique Gaudite

Enrique Velez Gaudite is a storyteller. Using imagery and text, found and original, he aims to compare and contrast the power of media in its digital and analog forms. He works in marketing communications by day and on his practice beyond the 40 hours outside of the fluorescent box. His work questions sincerity in social media and problematics that come with economics, love, and other conventions.

Enrique is a current member of Akin’s Dupont Studios and his installation, 404 will be on exhibit for the month of August 2017.  

He's also the founder of a small press called Particular Instances of the Possible which specializes in publishing books, zines, artists' prints, and objects.

404, 2017
Mixed Media
dimensions variable

The Akin Vitrine Gallery is located at the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner.

The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, or to arrange a viewing outside of those hours please contact the artist: evgaudite@gmail.com

instagram: @enrique_snaps

@AkinVitrine
#AkinVitrine

Akin Collective Artists among 2017 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibitions Award Winners

Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2017 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition Awards! Over $40,000 in cash and in-kind awards were presented last week to some very extraordinary artists of the 2017 Exhibition including many Akin Collective studio members and alumni!

Katrina Jurjans of Akin Lansdowne won Best of Painting as well as Best of Student which includes a one-week Residency at Artscape Gibraltar Point & One-week Exhibition at Artscape Youngplace.

Kendra Yee of Akin Lansdowne received the Emerging Artist by Emerging Curator Award, an award that creates an opportunity for an emerging curator and four emerging artists to participate in an exhibition at a professional gallery.

Loren Kaplan of Akin Dupont received Honourable Mention for Best of Ceramics.  

Kristy Blackwell of Akin Sunrise received Honourable Mention for Best of Painting. 

Julia Hepburn, a former Akin member also received Honourable mention for Best of 3D Works. 

We are so proud of all of you! 

Akin Announces BIG on Bloor BIG Xplorations Mural Project!

Akin is proud to announce the launch of three new outdoor murals by our talented studio artists Althea Balmes, Atanas Bozdarov & Sarvenaz Rayati of Akin Lansdowne, and Billy Franklin of Akin Dupont. 

The murals will be created as a part of BIG on Bloor Festival’s offsite pop-up series ‘BIG Xplorations’ on July 22 and 23 and remain in place for the duration of the summer for the public to enjoy. The works will be created on-site at 1319 Bloor St W in the Value Village parking lot, and along the West Toronto Railpath. These murals will represent the diversity of Akin Collective studio artists and our neighbourhood and community.

About the murals and the artists: 

‘What’s in Your Fridge?’ by Althea Balmes & Atanas Bozdarov

What’s in your fridge? Althea and Atanas will answer the question by transforming their BIG on Bloor mural structure into a fridge—exposing its inside and revealing the yummy contents through fun and colourful illustrations.

Althea and Atanas will collaborate with the community to illustrate the food and drink ideas that they provide. They will be collecting this information prior to the event, and during the live painting, taking suggestions on site. This work is intended to create a conversation about food and culture, and also engage the community allowing them to become active participants.

Althea Balmes is an artist-educator rooted in community work. She uses her strong connection to her culture and her place as a diasporic Canadian woman of colour to inspire her work and as a way to connect to others.  She teaches visual storytelling workshops throughout the city. She has won the 2012 Women in Film and Television-Toronto (WIFT-T) Award for her film, “Suman Ladies”. She received The Min Sook Lee Award for her on-going community based comic book project about the real lives of Filipino live-in Caregivers, “Kwentong Bayan: Labour of Love” in 2014. Althea is currently doing her Master of Information in User Experience Design at University of Toronto. www.altheabalmes.com

Atanas Bozdarov is an interdisciplinary artist and designer who focuses on deconstructing the ways in which we read and interpret systems and structures. From quoting fragments of architectural blueprints or game sequences, to generating musical motifs from non-musical sources, he constructs incomplete and surprising structures in order to question our understanding of the working systems around us.  www.atanasbozdarov.com

‘An Artist at Work’ by Sarvenaz Rayati

An artist at work. A woman who has done a painting in a nature setting seems restless and is still looking for something. Featuring a persian poem on love.

Sarvenaz is an Iranian visual artist now based in Toronto. She received her BA in Painting and Visual Communication from Art University in Tehran. She has exhibited her work internationally and has recently participated in group exhibitions at Urban Space and Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto. Since moving to the city, she has focused on her drawing and painting practice and has immersed herself in the community arts world. She visits schools, leads painting workshops, and participates in community arts and mural projects, including the Coxwell Laneway Mosaic Mural. This summer, Sarvenaz is leading People & Trees, a community art project that will culminate with an installation in East York's Dentonia Park as part of City of Toronto Cultural Hotspot’s SPARK Projects.

“Storytelling has always been my main motivation to create art. Heritage, the self, paths, nature, the act of seeking—these are all recurrent themes in my work. I’m inspired by Persian miniatures, comics, found photographs and life around me.”
www.sarvenaz-rayati.com
Instagram: @sarvenaz_ray

‘Bloordale Freestyle’ by Billy Franklin

After many years of keeping design and graffiti separate, artist Billy Franklin has combined the better parts of both worlds by staying true to the DIY ethos. Franklin works in mostly analog techniques, but also has formal training in graphic design. He quickly developed an awareness for a brush and can using self-taught techniques. With a great respect for both methods of practice, his work is carefully thought out with keen attention to detail. Focusing on hard lines, bold colours and clean typography, Billy’s work is easily recognizable. He is influenced by late 90’s skateboard graphics and cartoons from his childhood. Franklin’s work is humorous and witty, sure to draw in his audience with his clever perspective.

Working from his head, Billy will create a freestyle mural that will represent Bloordale and the Akin Community. Things that may be included in the final production: pineapples, cool shoes, coffee cups, bikes, fun patterns, bright colours, puppers, other cool fruits; maybe a classic Billy F portrait partying with a pupper while eating a pineapple and riding a bike in cool shoes thinking about coffee! No matter the final design, you can count on a super fun piece! 
www.eaturpie.com
Instagram: @eaturpie


About the festival:
The BIG on Bloor Festival is a car-free street festival along Bloor Street from Dufferin to Lansdowne. It attracts 100,000 visitors and this year is celebrating 10 years of community building, culturally significant events, activities, displays and exhibitions. This year, greater focus will be given to defining areas for exhibiting artists and spaces to showcase contemporary performances to the general public.

BIG Xplorations is a special pop-up series of live painting, sculpture installations, spot garden releases and events in various venues from West of Lansdowne to the Toronto Railpath. This portion of the street will not be car-free, instead locations will be promoted in a crawl style for visitors to explore. BIG Xplorations will feature over 20 local artists, showcasing works in sculpture, art exhibitions in shipping containers, live painting on mural structures, contemporary performances and other activities which can engage guests. These locations will be featured during the festival and will also survive after the festival dates allowing for guests to visit sites for months after.
www.bigonbloorfestival.com

About Akin:
Akin is a Toronto-based arts organization that provides affordable studio space as well as arts-based programming through it's sister non-profit organization, Akin Projects. Our studios provide a working environment that maintains a friendly and inspiring atmosphere where people can work on creative endeavors and entrepreneurial undertakings of all kinds. Akin builds community through monthly art critiques, workshops, open studio events, gallery tours, exhibitions, as well as various other art projects. www.akincollective.com
 

Interested in supporting Akin and our community programs? Learn more here or get in touch! Email michael@akincollective.com

Akin Vitrine Gallery featuring Verity Griscti

Introducing our July installation at the Akin Vitrine Gallery featuring new work by artist and Akin Dufferin studio member, Verity Griscti. Her piece, Rimless is on exhibition until the end of this month in the Akin Vitrine Gallery. 

A drunk staggers home, an animal forages for food, a gambler wins and loses a fortune on a dice roll, and the scientist plots their every move neatly on a graph. Eventually, a model is determined and an algorithm created and all the romance gets sucked out of nature.  We run around modeling everything: molecules, bird flight, real-estate prices. We measure everything we can't predict and take comfort in it's tamed presentation between neatly labelled x and y-axes.
 
Mathematicians, economists and biologists model randomness in the hopes of unlocking a better understanding of their subjects. I model randomness because it's messy, often plain and occasionally beautiful, even whimsical.  Chance will ultimately roll over neatly defined borders and overflow onto its surroundings. It may look plain, divine or foul but it's a force that's always there.
 
Verity Griscti is an artist and jill-of-all digital trades based in Toronto. Her studio practice explores generative systems and seriality in both analogue and digital mediums. She's built numerous websites including the award-winning Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada and has participated in various exhibitions including The Toronto Outdoor Art Show, and EyeScream II: The Visual Life of Words  and Eye Scream III: Revenge of the Glyph, the visual arts component of the Scream Literary Festival. Verity received a BFA in Printmaking from OCADu in 2004 and is currently enrolled in Ryerson University's Computer Programming Applications Certificate in a move to go 'all in' on this internet thing.

Rimless, 2017
Mixed Media
dimensions variable

The Akin Vitrine Gallery is located at the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street (entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner.

The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, or to arrange a viewing outside of those hours please contact the artist: verity.griscti@gmail.com

veritygriscti.com
www.instagram.com/veritygriscti

Akin at the 2017 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition / July 14-16

Akin is excited to be one of the Community Partners featured at the 2017 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition along with our friends at Toronto School of Art and CARFAC . We will be onsite in the South Mews to answer questions about artists' rights, representation, studio access, education and professional development services. 

The event features over 340 artists and makers, including many Akin studio artists! Make sure to visit Akin Sunrise artist Kristy Blackwell (Booth P-118), Akin Lansdowne artist Katrina Jurjans (Booth SM-21), and Akin Dupont artists Chris Harms (Booth P-088), Iskuhi Avagyan (Booth P-126), and Loren Kaplan (Booth P-141). 

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is open to the public and free of charge. Enjoy amazing art, family programming, new exhibition layout, new works, new artists, along with live performances, food, and refreshments.

Hours:
Fri July 14  10:00am - 7:00pm
Sat July 15 10:00am - 7:00pm
Sun July 16 10:00am - 5:00pm

#TOAE2017

Introducing Akin Collective Career Launcher Award Winner Kathy Zhou!

Congratulations to Kathy Hong Zhou, recent OCAD University Drawing & Painting graduate and winner of the 2017 Akin Collective Career Launcher award! We look forward to having Kathy join us at the studio! Kathy will receive a period of free studio space at one of Akin’s studios in 2017–2018, valued at $2000, as well as a $500 cash award.

The Career Launchers are unique, high-profile opportunities for graduating students of OCAD University, developed in partnership with industry organizations such as Akin in order to help new graduates start their professional practice after school. 

Kathy was born in Chengdu, China, in 1987. She currently lives in Toronto, Canada. She is an interdisciplinary artist with knowledge and practice in fine art, animation, illustration and graphic design. Zhou is focusing on experimenting materials such as wood and Leather. Find out about her work at http://kathyhzhou.format.com

Akin Sunrise Exhibition Reception and Open Studio - Saturday July 8, 6-9pm

Saturday July 8 / 6-9pm / Akin Sunrise - 100 sunrise Ave, studio 106A / Free to attend, everyone welcome, BYOB! 

Join us as we celebrate the launch of Akin Sunrise with a a group exhibition of work by our talented studio artists. Enjoy a drink and some light refreshments, have a tour of the artist’s studios, and mingle with Akin artists and community members in our programming space.

Featuring work by Akin Sunrise artists:

Beverly Allen - www.nomadarttoronto.com
Nancy Bennett - www.nancybennett.ca
Kristy Blackwell - www.kristyblackwell.com
Steve Byrnes - www.saatchiart.com/stevebyrnes
Renee Castonguay - www.tsa-art.com/faculty-staff/renee-castonguay
June Clark - www.juneclark.ca
Maxwell Galley - www.maxwellgalley.com
Madelaine Lyons Cooper - www.madelainelyonscooper.com
Katie Sadie - www.katiesadie.com
and Jeff Tallon - www.jefftallon.com

The exhibition will be on display in our programming space from July 8 - August 8. If you are unable to make it to the opening night reception and would like to view the exhibition, please email jeff@akincollective.com to make arrangements.

Accessibility:
There is step free access to the main entrance located at the side of the building parallel to the parking lot. The first door on the right hand side, once in the main entrance, is access to the studio. The studio entrance requires a key and there is no button to open the door, so someone may require assistance. There are narrow aisles and sharp turns to get into the gender-neutral washroom within the space. There are no grab bars in the bathroom and the toilet is not raised. There is a small lip on the floor upon entering the bathroom. Akin does have access to a wheelchair accessible gender-neutral washroom in the hall across from the Akin studio within the building.

Getting There:
By TTC: 
Take the Bloor-Danforth Subway Line to Coxwell Station. Proceed to city bus 70A or 70B. Exit bus at Sunrise Ave, it is a 400 meter walk to 100 Sunrise Avenue.

By car:
Akin Sunrise is easily accesible from the Don Valley Parkway. There is onsite parking.

Akin is now a member of COHIP! The Coworking Health Insurance Plan!

Akin is excited to announce that we are now a member of COHIP! The Coworking Health Insurance Plan is designed for freelancers, creatives, start-ups, small businesses and independent workers in any industry. COHIP provides members with affordable and accessible options for:

• Health
• Dental
• Disability
• Term Life/Life Insurance
• Travel Insurance
• Prescription Drug Coverage
• Extended Health Benefits

All COHIP plans can be customized to meet the unique needs of each member and can be customized to meet the unique needs of each member. Coverage is available for singles, couples, single parents and families.

'Long Road' by Laura Kay Keeling - New installation in the Akin Vitrine Gallery for the month of June

Akin is excited to present June’s Vitrine Gallery exhibition, ‘Long Road’ by Akin Dupont member, Laura Kay Keeling! 

“Long Road references a road trip taken in June 2016 which began in Vancouver with stops in Seattle, Portland, road side spots in Washington State and ended in Kelowna. These images were all taken on expired 35mm slide film along the highway in Washington State. Once developed, these images all had a really interesting and vibrant post-apocalyptic vibe to them which I found was an interesting backdrop to have against the natural environment that exists around us. During this trip, it was quite breathtaking to see how rapidly the environment around us would change. There were moments when the highway was the only thing separating a desert like scene on our left and lush rolling hills of farmland to our right.” 

Travels, daydreams, field guides, coffee and film. Laura Kay Keeling resides in Toronto, ON and pulls inspiration from beautiful everyday moments shared through her photography and collage work. She is currently working on a 'HOT ROCKS' series of collages which are composed of gemstone cut outs from old field guides. “I’ve always been drawn to extreme environments, things that come from nature. As a kid, I was obsessed with gemstones, they’re all so beautiful in their own unique way. I’m blown away that these exist around us. I like the idea of taking something that is inherently beautiful, pulling it apart and then putting it back together”

Long Road, 2017
Mixed Media
dimensions variable

The Akin Vitrine Gallery is located at the Clock Factory Building at 1485 Dupont Street(entrance on Campbell Avenue). Find Akin Studio 215 on the second floor and follow the sign into the hallway around the corner.

The building is open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, or to arrange a viewing outside of those hours please contact the artist: laurakay.keeling@gmail.com

www.itnvrstops.com
instagram.com/laurakaykeeling
instagram.com/lllllllllllllllllkk
#AkinVitrine

AKIN OSSINGTON: Akin Announces New Light Industrial Studios

Akin is thrilled to announce the launch of two new studio spaces at 888 Dupont Street on the north-east corner of Ossington and Dupont. This location will be Akin's first studios dedicated to providing workspace for light industrial art making, with new members moving in at the end of this month.

Photo credit: Brian Wilcox

Expanding on its twelve current studios located at 444 Dufferin Street, 87 Wade Avenue, 100 Sunrise Avenue and 1485 Dupont Street, Akin's new spaces will offer a range of affordable studios in various sizes and set ups for light industrial use.

Akin will develop programming specific to this unique new space in addition to our current range of workshops, studio critiques, gallery crawls, community programs and skill shares.

This exciting expansion will increase Akin’s size to approximately 22,000 square feet of studio space serving nearly 200 artists, enabling it to meet the ever-increasing demand for affordable workspace.

Since opening its first modest space almost 9 years ago, Akin has striven to make being an artist in the city a more fun and financially viable vocation. Now more than ever, we feel our role is an important one for Toronto's cultural community and our artists as we ensure that there is always space to create.

Akin's new 'Akin Ossington' location will be easily accessible by subway, streetcar, bus, bike, or car. By transit, visitors can access the studios by a short bus ride from Ossington subway station, or along the 26 Dupont bus route.

All rentals include 24/7 access to the studios, taxes, insurance, wifi, access to communal working areas as well as storage, kitchen, and bathroom.

For more information, pricing inquiries, to book a tour or to share ideas, please get in touch:

CONTACT:
info@akincollective.com


Please share widely!

Akin Projects Receives 2017 Project Support Award from Toronto Friends Of The Visual Arts

Akin Projects would like to extend their sincere thanks to Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts (TFVA) for their generous award totaling $9,600.

Support from TFVA will enable Akin Projects to offer extensive creative programming throughout the summer and autumn at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) for their Youth Concurrent Disorders Program in collaboration with Toronto artists from Akin's Lansdowne and Dupont studios. This gift will enable clients and their families to use artistic expression to create artwork while confronting challenges in a healthy manner while exploring photography, ceramics and weaving with Akin artists Jessica Thalmann, Rebecca Jane Houston and Colleen McCarten.

Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts is an independent non-profit organization founded in 1998. The organization gives financial support to the visual arts in the greater Toronto area and provides an educational program for its members. TFVA presents annual awards, which were recently announced at May Tribute Night. They have now awarded over $555,000 since 1998.

For more information on this years other award recipients, please see the full press release here.

Interested in supporting Akin and our community programs? Learn more here or get in touch! michael@akincollective.com

Michael Vickers of Akin Lansdowne profiled in the Toronto Guardian

Congratulations to Michael Vickers of Akin Lansdowne on being featured Artist Profile in the Toronto Guardian.

“Michael Vickers is a Toronto-based artist with a practice that works in the space between sculpture, painting and installation. His recent work investigates the limits of different materials and presentation methods – painted, curled and bent forms made of various painted aluminums and steels, etched and engraved stone and marble works, and installations that activate the exhibition space in different ways. ”

— Joel Levy for the Toronto Guardian

Click Here to read the rest of "A Day in the Life" with Local Toronto Artist Michael Vickers

Wunderkammer: Cabinet of Curiosities - Gala Opening May 13

The Toronto Etsy Street Team (TEST) invites you to join them for the gala opening of Wunderkammer: Cabinet of Curiosities, a science art show inspired by the eccentric, encyclopedic, natural history collections gathered since the Renaissance. Featuring work by a variety of local artists including Erin Candela of Akin Dufferin.

Cabinets of Curiosities featured treasured zoological, botanical, anatomical, fossil and gem specimen. Art and craft work depicting these specimen, cabinets of curiosity and the wonder of natural history are sought. Artists are encouraged to consider how their art might be displayed in ways which allude to the wunderkammer.

Show runs May 11-28 at TEST Gallery, 906 Queen Street West. Opening Reception May 13.

Art Intersections Meetup with Adrienne Crossman and Thirza Cuthand - May 16

You are invited to join Adrienne Crossman and Thirza Cuthand for a presentation and Q&A at Akimbo's Art Intersections Meetup on Tuesday, May 16 from 6:30pm to 9pm at Gamma Space Collaborative Studio (862 Richmond Street West). Free! Wheelchair accessible. Please RSVP.

Schedule:
6:30pm - Doors Open
7pm - Guest presenters Adrienne Crossman and Thirza Cuthand, plus Q&A
8pm - Networking, Food & Beverages

Adrienne Crossman is an artist, educator and curator. Her practice involves the manipulation and deconstruction of digital media and popular culture in order to create new artifacts through formal re-interpretations. In the pursuit of creating a queer aesthetic, Crossman's work is concerned with the exploration of non-normative and non-binary spaces, while attempting to locate queer sensibilities in the everyday.

Thirza Jean Cuthand has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, youth, love, and race, which have screened in festivals internationally. In the summer of 2016 she began working on a 2D video game called A Bipolar Journey based on her experience learning and dealing with her bipolar disorder. It showed at ImagineNATIVE and she is planning to further develop it. She has also written three feature screenplays and sometimes does performance art.

Art Intersections Meetup is a meeting place for artists, moving image-makers, gamers and technologists who are experimenting with art-related digital content and how the moving image is presented in a connected world. Digital culture, social media and networks encourage new ways of storytelling, image making, idea sharing and collaboration. This Meetup celebrates artists and innovators who are embracing change leading the next wave of creativity.

Gamma Space Collaborative Studio is a not-for-profit arts organization, and community of 200+ members making, playing, and talking about videogames. They strive to be a welcoming and accessible space for everyone interested in games as art.