The Mobile Arts Curriculum (MAC) is a collection of learning resources or tools developed by artists, which centre decolonial practices through the arts. Commissioned artists share lived experiences of historically marginalized voices and respond to local and Indigenous contexts of Tkaronto/Toronto and its surrounding areas.
We invite facilitators, principals and teachers to contact us at learning@torontobiennial.org to learn more about bringing MAC tools to your schools and community gatherings in the form of workshops or printed materials.
2024: Precarious Joys
The 2024 Biennial aimed to showcase the ways artists from different localities responded to the impact and the aftermath of colonialism in everyday life. Taking our cues from artists, the curators Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López were guided by their practices including the development of a preliminary list of key directives drawn from the artists’ creative labour such as: “Joy,” “Precarious,” “Home,” “Polyphony,” “Solace,” and “Coded”. The 2024 Mobile Arts Curriculum responded to these contexts through listening, movement, dance, attunement and celebratory moments of gathering, creating a collective dialogue for intergenerational learners led by BIPOC artists around urgent issues of our time.
Our free 2024 MAC tools are curriculum-supportive resources and are accessible online year-round. Curious arts educators, community members, families, and individuals are invited to engage with the tools – by learning and unlearning together – in and outside the classroom.
2024 Resource Guides were designed by Tetyana Herych.
In Booklet 4, “Carrying Patterns: Acts to recall the old designs from this territory” by Ange Loft explore pottery patterns from Wendat Nation archeological sites of Tkarónto/Toronto through hands-on activities honouring the original producers of these patterns, while reimagining their use in contemporary settings.
In this audio piece voiced by the Charles Campbell, listeners connect with a loss, whether it be a loved one, a treasured object, a home, or something internal, and find healing through visualisation and breathwork techniques.
Featuring contributions from Pamila Matharu’s mentors, this zine explores counter-archiving as activism in the context of the 1992 Yonge Street Uprising and Fresh Arts—a mentorship program formed to amplify anti-racism and social reform for Black and Indigenous youth.
Zine 2: Paving It Forward now available!
This limited edition print poster featuring stamped leftovers from Sameer Farooq’s installation of the same title, explores the migration stories of 11 flatbreads—plus a conversation between Farooq and Rima Zughaiyer of Toronto’s Palestine Bake Shop.
In this tool, learners are invited to contribute to Sonia Boyce’s ongoing project, the Devotional Collection by reflecting on Canadian BIPOC women artists and submitting their names and songs to be added to the growing archive.
Taking the form of a field guide, this resource by Tanya Lukin Linklater responds to Indigenous stewardship practices of the special flora and atmosphere of High Park’s Black Oak Savannah through prompts for attunement and embodied inquiry.
2022: What Water Knows, the Land Remembers
To read more about the 2022 curatorial vision for the exhibition What Water Knows, the Land Remembers, please see here.
View the Printing Guide & Tips for information on how to print and bind specific tools and toolkits. Designed by Tetyana Hetrych, Archive Books, and artists.
Introduction
“What is the Toronto Biennial of Art?”, “Where are we?”, “Why “tools”?” Exploration of these questions helps provide a context for the artist-led Mobile Arts Curriculum within What Water Knows, The Land Remembers exhibition and the many approaches that have informed the second iteration of the Biennial.
Download: Web | Printer-friendly | Simplified
Written by Camille Turner and Yaniya Lee as the Context Brief for the 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art, the Black History Navigational Toolkit presents as a deck of cards, guiding readers through Toronto’s Black histories and personal narratives. Each card explores a neighbourhood, theme, or history —and simply ways in which Black people have existed in the city and beyond.
Engineered by Timothy Yanick Hunter in collaboration with Chiedza Pasipandya, DARE joins Hunter’s ongoing project “True & Functional”, which explores “shimmerings” and how we may look and listen for them. Hunter uses archival sound from Black diasporic and African artists, novelists, and collectives to tell a story of Black culture, resilience, and art.
In collaboration with the Talking Treaties Collective and their introductory text “Treaty Guide for Torontonians”, Your Tkaronto Companion Guide is a series of three booklets exploring place- and arts- based explorations of the complex and contested ways the city of Toronto was established.
In collaboration with Moccasin Identifier, Whose Land? asks visitors the question “How will you know who was here before us?” through a two part activity: stencilling a moccasin and a cue card activity that takes the time to explore the actions of land kinship through the original caretakers of this land. “Does the land have spirit? Is the land alive?”
Derya Akay invites guests to their installation, a celebration of ancestral, queer, and matriarchal forms. In this booklet—a colouring book, a treasure hunt, and a recipe from the artist’s own grandmother.
How do you “walk”? At a pace? With wheels? With purpose? Are you a runner? Take a walk with the Toronto Landscape Observatory, as they invite you to re-examine your perspectives and your relationship with the land. All you need is a paper frame and a tennis ball!
Art Chats asks you to consider women & mentorship and embracing the inbetween with Inuit Nunavut artists Jessie Oonark (1906–1985) and her daughters, Janet Kigusiuq (1926–2005) and Victoria Mamnguqsualuk (1930–2016)—through four works which highlight a highly distinctive art form called nivingajuliaat.
2019: Tools for Learning
Developed from works featured in the Biennial exhibition, The Shoreline Dilemma, the 2019 Tools for Learning present a toolbox of resources, references and activities that celebrate and complicate the many learnings from Biennial contributors and their projects.