Hoarding art
“A lot of people don’t go to galleries, but it’s important to expose them to art.”
—Kristyn Wong-Tam

The WORKSIGHT project aims to improve the looks of hoarding, the plywood boards placed around work sites, and to give work to local artists by "encouraging" the developers to buy art work to install around their construction sites.

At an event to announce the WORKSIGHT project at City Hall, Ward 27 Toronto Centre-Rosedale Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam noted similar projects have already taken place in the downtown core. At Allan Gardens, hoarding around an ongoing waterworks project was turned into a First Nations-themed mural.

Wong-Tam wants developers and construction companies to hire local artists to paint murals on their hoardings. The ideas is that along with beautifying the sites, the artwork can help local artists.


Hoarding that was on Avenue Road north Bloor Street

Along with the councillor, the social enterprise group PATCH Project and an agency Wysp Social Marketing are also involved.

PATCH
Public Art Through Construction Hoarding (PATCH), is a group of urban planners, architects and professional artists who have teamed up to support urban development and manage public art projects in the city.


A sample of hoarding art.

Another area where WORKSIGHT has put its plan into action is in the Alexandra Park area of Toronto. There, residents worked together on an art plan for the future hoarding to surround a massive redevelopment plan in the area. They came up with designs specific to the community.

PATCH project director Mojan Jianfar stated similar projects exist in cities like London and New York. While some construction companies might consider the hoarding a space on which they can advertise their projects, she said most sites have plenty of room for both corporate branding and art.



“You could have a percentage that goes to ads and a percentage that goes to art,” she said during the Feb. 26 event. “It’s a blank canvas, so each developer could decide what those portions are and what percentage goes to public art.”

A group of young Alexandra Park residents spent months working on art that will go up on construction hoarding as that community undergoes a massive redevelopment. They came up with two designs that capture the diversity and aspirations of the neighbourhood.

WORKSIGHT needs to rely on developers’ participation to be a success, though Wong-Tam hopes councillors push to ensure that construction hoarding contains a public art element.

Hunt for artists
Patch advertised for artists to provide the art.




Conventional developer advertising on hoarding


My favourite

So who pays?
Do the councillors think that all of this is free? Who pays the agencies and the painters? The taxpayer doesn't pay, the neighbourhood busy bodies who have lots of time to say what they want painted on the plywood don't pay. So the developers are pressured into paying and so they do—up front that is.

However, the future condo owners are the ones who will being paying.

The developers watch their money very carefully and during construction every nickel is counted. So if some artist is going to get a few thousand bucks to paint the plywood and that will go in with the Section 37 money that will be paying for whatever goodies the local councillor wants: a few affordable condo units, a local park, a playground, Bixi donations, whatever. The prices of the condo units go up or a few more corners will get cut.

The time the councillors are spending time worrying about the paint on the hoarding may be better spent working to improve the building codes, perhaps something that our city officials should be more concerned about.

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