see project website here: https://firgroveflicc.wixsite.com/communitycentre/copy-of-flicc-york-u-1
Supported through a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant, this project was held in collaboration
with the Firgrove Learning and Innovation Community Centre (FLICC), a not-for-profit
community center serving the educational needs of the Firgrove Crescent Community in Jane-
Finch, Toronto. The community-engaged project aimed to collect oral narratives in mixed media
from residents to catalog areas of interest and crucial memories of spaces of value in the
neighbourhood, catalyzed by the rapid changes in landscape with the advent of the new subway
line through Finch West, a new Light Rail line, as well as revitalization plans by Toronto
Housing, which has meant the demolishing of community housing across Firgrove and the
relocation of hundreds of residents over the last few years. Workshops in virtual environment
creation, avatar building and 360 photography led to digital archives of images and sounds that
the youth at FLICC had taken of spaces of value to them – spaces that did not exist anymore.
See documentation of the exhibition and links to the immersive, online 3D environment here:
https://firgroveflicc.wixsite.com/communitycentre/copy-of-flicc-york-u-1
RESEARCH OUTPUTS
FUNDING
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) Partnership Engage Grant. 2020-22. “Firgrove Mixed Media Oral Narratives project“.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) Congress Exhibition/ Mural Commission. Principal Investigator.
AIF (Internal) Community Engagement Makerspace
PUBLICATIONS
“In Silence: Resonant potentials in Community Arts and Advocacy”. Ammerman Centre for Art and Technology 17th Biennial Symposium. November 2022
Joel Ong, David Han 2024. “Figrove Forever: Supporting Legacy Narratives of a Community in Dramatic Transition through the Youth Participatory Action Research in Digital Arts”. Urban Futures Cultural Pasts, AMPS Proceedings Series 40:2. ISSN 2398-9467
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
- Firgrove Forever (co-presented with the Firgrove Learning and Innovation Centre, David Han, Elizabeth Tsui and Jacob Turola). Gales Gallery, York University. Curator/Artist. As part of Congress 2023,
- June 2023.Firgrove Forever. Urban Futures Cultural Pasts Conference. Barcelona, Spain. With David Han. July 2024
- Figrove Forever. 6th Interactive Film & Media International Virtual Conference. With David Han. Toronto June 2024
- Firgrove Forever. Children Youth and Performance Conference. With David Han. Toronto June 2024
- Firgrove Forever: Lessons from a Community-Engaged Arts Practice. York TD- Community Engagement Centre Community of Practice
- Art and Community Engagement at the End of the World. Scholar’s Hub, York University Alumni Network. Nov 2022
- Movement and Stasis at the End of the World. Invited Artist Talk. X-Camera: an Experimental Learning Circle. InterArts Matrix, Kitchener, Ontario. July 2021
Visit the project’s website : https://firgroveflicc.wixsite.com/communitycentre/copy-of-flicc-york-u-1