build…build better
Curated by Gifts + Occupations Collective
Historic Zion Schoolhouse, 1091 Finch Ave E, Toronto
September 12 - October 13, 2015
A Gifts + Occupation Collective exhibition project at the Historic Zion Schoolhouse as part of the Toronto Arts Council’s Animating Historic Sites and Museums programme.
Gifts + Occupations Collective: Yael Brotman, Matthew Brower, Libby Hague, Penelope Stewart
with guest artist Panya Clark Espinal
build…build better is a site sensitive exhibition that re-animates the Historic Zion Schoolhouse with a series of artistic projects inspired by the inventor of kindergarten Friedrich Froebel. Froebel (1782-1852) was a pioneering Swiss educator who created the first educational toys which he called Gifts + Occupations. Inspired by his work, and focusing on its influence on early childhood education, creativity, and the development of modernism, the Gifts + Occupations Collective invites visitors to revisit the connections between creativity, experimentation, and the necessity of failure to invention and learning. Drawing on Froebel’s toys the artists have created a series of sculptural interventions into the space that evoke wonder and create a sense of open-ended possibility. Their works bring out the positive, transformative potential of the schoolhouse as a space of development and growth allowing audiences to see the space in a new light.
Penelope Stewart, Nucleus (2015). Photo by Peter Legris.
Yael Brotman, Campanile (2015). Photo by Peter Legris.
Libby Hague, Permanent Prototype (2015). Photo by Peter Legris.
Panya Clark Espinal, Excerpts from Froebel-related works 2005-2014. Photo by Peter Legris.
Exhibition Catalogue
available from Arts + Letters Press
REVIEW
Fran Schecter, “Zion’s Class Act: Building Better in a Schoolhouse,” Now Magazine, September 23, 2015.