Brett Hendrie is Managing Director at Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival. Early last year, Hot Docs acquired and began a systematic renovation of the Bloor Cinema, one of Toronto’s oldest, independent theatres. Spacing sat down with Brett to discuss both the significance of local cinema and Spacing’s participation in this year’s Hot Docs.

Sketching is a way of discovering communities, showing lively streetscapes, soaring architecture and intriguing faces. Gabriel Campanario's book The Art of Urban Sketching presents a visually arresting, storytelling take on urban life driven by artists drawing their cities and sharing their visual dispatches. Starting tomorrow, Spacing will showcase three excerpts from this book.  Spacing: What is the link between urban sketching and the public realm? How does urban sketching contribute to city building? Gabi: Urban sketching connects space with the people who use it. It increases awareness of place. You need to spend time looking at something to be able to draw it.  An urban sketcher always has his eyes peeled when out and about in the city. I see with those sketchers eyes, often tracing the skyline or the outline of buildings. One of the benefits of urban sketching is that it brings appreciation to the spaces one inhabits and the subtle beauty which can be found even in the texture of a wall or brick. Spacing: Do you consider the visual arts as an important tool for engaging citizens and bolstering public participation? Gabi: Art is very individual. Sketching creates an interpretation of a space that is then shared with others. It's a very unique transaction. People like this book even if they don't draw, because they can see cities through the artists' eyes. I see art more as a communication tool, rather than meant to be put in a frame on the wall. My background is in journalism, and sketching is a way of communicating my experiences. If I can show you my experiences then I don't need to tell you, you see how I'm interpreting my own city. Art is important in experiencing your own city because anybody can understand it, it's in a universal language. it crosses borders, languages, and backgrounds.

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, and sustainable city. Last week, Spacing interviewed Sharon Switzer of Onestop media. As a follow up to Sharon’s interview, we decided to sit down with Katerina Cizek to discuss her documentary – One Millionth Tower.  A documentary about high-rise living, One Millionth Tower is the first installment of the High Rise series to be showcased on Onestop’s network of subway station screens. In this interview, Katerina discusses the interactive nature of her film as well as its very important subject matter – Tower Renewal. Spacing: Like previous installments in the High Rise series, One Millionth Tower documents life in high-rise apartment buildings. Can you explain your fascination with high-rises? Cizek: For many years they were just buildings I drove by and ignored. I didn’t think about them too much until I started learning about Toronto as a “vertical city.” I discovered that we have more high-rises than any other city in North America except New York City. I began to look at these buildings in a whole new light after that realization and after finding out about David Hulchanski’s research on income segregation in Toronto. One of the reasons we don’t think of ourselves as a vertical city is because most of these buildings are pushed out into the inner suburbs. Spacing: How does this latest installment expand on themes explored in your previous documentaries Out my Window & One Thousandth Tower? Cizek: Out my Window is a documentary about the towers of the world. It’s an amalgam of all these different towers that together provide a picture of a “global high rise.” One Millionth Tower builds on work we had been doing in a Rexdale high-rise for One Thousandth Tower. It takes a very local story about people living in a high-rise on Kipling Avenue and expands on it by tapping into the energy and spirit of the people living there. The residents team up with architects to re-imagine the space around their building. So, from Out my Window to One Millionth Tower, it’s a progression from a very global project back to our roots here in Toronto.

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, and sustainable city. Sharon Switzer is director at Art for Commuters. She is also programming curator at Pattison Onestop, which owns and operates TTC subway station monitors. For more than five years, digital screens in subway stations have been displaying artistic and cultural projects. Onestop and Art for Commuters’ latest exhibition is the NFB documentary — One Millionth Tower. Spacing sat down with Sharon to discuss the role art and culture plays in Toronto’s subway network. Spacing: Where did this idea of using subway platform screens to display artistic work originate? Switzer: I was introduced to Michael Girgis, the CEO of Onestop, back in 2006. They had just started managing TTC screens and they were looking for content that wasn't just advertisements. I had recently completed a program at the Canadian Film Centre and decided to market a project to them. We had some conversations and quickly realized that one little project was just a drop in the bucket. In my view, what they needed was someone who could work with them on an ongoing basis to do artistic projects. It took some time but I convinced Michael that displaying art was a good idea. We then began with just a general call for submissions. Spacing: What is the relationship between Pattison Onestop and Art for Commuters?

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, and sustainable city. In this latest installment of our series on local “food-fighters”, Spacing interviews Nick Saul, the executive director of the Stop Community Food Centre. Serving the West Davenport area, the Stop has developed its own unique program of alleviating hunger in low income communities. In this interview, Saul discusses some of the Stop’s broader community objectives. Spacing: What does a “Community Food Centre” do differently from a traditional food bank? Saul: Moving beyond straightforward food banking has been a foundational piece our work at the Stop. Over the last decade, we devised a new, programmatic response to help low income communities, which speaks to people’s agency and dignity. It’s a response we hope also connects both urban and rural and the lower and middle classes. There’s our community kitchen for example. People told us they didn’t want to be treated as just passive recipients of food charity. Kitchens are a very obvious way people can participate, learn and feel less isolated. It’s through these kitchens that the Stop also provides healthy meals. I don’t want to over-romanticize this, but it’s food that’s cooked with a lot of love. Community members can feel that love and sense that someone put effort into providing them with really good food. That often translates into a feeling of “I matter.” Afterward, people are motivated to get involved by either volunteering or becoming a cook. Beyond that, they may consider working on a civic engagement campaign. The Stop also runs a community garden. In 1998, a fellow from the parks department let us know about an unused bocce court in Earlscourt Park and asked if we were interested in doing a garden. Community members in west Davenport responded by creating a garden that is now 8000 sq. feet in size. Like the kitchens, its a place for people to participate, and feel valued in a way that’s not just, “here’s your food!”

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, and sustainable city. Continuing our series of interviews with local “Foodfighters,” Spacing sat down with Laura Reinsborough of Not Far From the Tree (NFFTT). A volunteer-based organization, NFFTT has harvested more than 30,000 lbs. of fresh fruit from Torontonians’ backyards in a little over four years. Reinsborough discusses what inspired her and explains other aspects of NFFTT’s program, including environmental education, community building, as well as neighbourhood action and activism. **Also, remember to check the latest issue of Spacing entitled “The Hungry City.” Now available through subscription and at select stores. Spacing: Where did the inspiration for NFFTT come from? Reinsborough: I was working at the AGO when I started NFFTT. I was interested in art-making as a way to engage individuals in environmental issues. Instead, I found that simply teaching about the environment actually made it harder to engage and connect with the larger issues. I began planning for NFFTT after realizing that seeing the environment required effort and that people needed to be brought to the environment to understand it. I thought that fruit trees could offer an urban environmental education as well as create a meaningful and memorable experience. The activity of fruit picking, or “gleaning,” as we call it, takes place in your own neighbourhood and it offers people an opportunity to connect with food in a profoundly different way. It’s an incredible connector for people to bite into something that they themselves harvested. For me, the deepest inspiration for the project was about having people connect more meaningfully with the environment that's directly around them. Spacing: What kind of fruit does NFFTT usually collect? Reinsborough: We’ve picked sweet cherries, sour cherries, serviceberries, mulberries, apricots, plums, apples, crabapples, pears, elderberries, black walnut, and gingko. Last year’s yield amounted to approximately 20,000 lbs. of fruit in seven city wards. This year we expanded to 14 wards but the yield was much lower due to factors beyond our control. Spacing: Where does NFFTT harvest fruit?

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, and sustainable city. To coincide with the release of our latest issue on food in the city, Spacing has conducted a series of interviews with local “Foodfighters” — individuals who are changing the way city-dwellers think about how food is produced and consumed. First in our series is Debbie Field, the executive director of Canada’s largest community food-security organization — Foodshare. Founded 26 years ago to address a series of problems in our local food system, including hunger and a lack of agricultural sustainability, Foodshare now reaches over 100,000 people in Toronto through its network of healthy food distribution, student nutrition, community gardening, and classroom curriculum support programs. Spacing: What is the rationale behind Foodshare? Field: Foodshare was founded to address the fact that dominant, capitalist food system in Canada is literally killing us. For low-income people it’s a matter of access to healthy food but the actual problems are almost identical for everyone because we put food last rather than first in social planning and also in our daily lives. Foodshare is working towards getting people to change their relationship to food by asking questions like “how do we each choose to buy food, where do we buy it, how do we choose to eat it, etc… Each of us needs to be more engaged around some basic principles of food. For instance, we should all be thinking about where our food comes from in terms of local, seasonal, organic and fair trade. At a community level, this may mean shopping at a farmers market, buying a good food box or getting involved in a community-shared agriculture project. On a more basic level, it means asking questions like, “Am I eating 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day?” and “Am I choosing to eat more home cooked meals with my family and friends?”  At the highest level, this means advocating for the creation of a Ministry of Food Security and a National Child Nutrition program. Foodshare is also encouraging subsidization of basic food, which is done everywhere in the world, especially in the Global South.

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, and sustainable city. Eric Kamphof is general manager of Curbside Cycle and Fourth Floor Distribution.  For 20 years, Eric and his partners have been busy promoting "barrier-free cycling" both in Toronto and in other North American cities. Spacing sat down with Eric to discuss his views on the evolution of Toronto’s cycling culture and to find out exactly what he and his partners mean by “barrier-free.” Spacing: Eric, what is “barrier-free” cycling? Kamphof: It’s cycling that is inclusive and appeals to a broad range of people. What I hated about cycling when I first got involved in the industry was the overwhelming and exclusive “dude” culture. For too long, cycling was male-dominated and oriented around performance or adrenaline cycling. Beginning with the bike itself, we try to make cycling appeal ordinary people and to all genders. The bikes we sell have chain cases, they're in an upright riding position, they're low maintenance, and thus could be stored outside in a northeast winter. It’s funny because these bikes are often heralded as a revolutionary object but they’re the kind that was once dominant throughout the world. We want to remind people that this is what a bicycle looked like before the before the ascendancy of suburbs and the performance bike. Spacing: How did the popularity of the upright bike decline?

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, and sustainable city. Waterfront Toronto, an agency jointly owned by the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments, is responsible for all aspects related to the planning and development of Toronto’s historically neglected waterfront. Spacing spoke with John Campbell, CEO of Waterfront Toronto, to discuss his organization’s mandate and its track record of success. Spacing: What does Waterfront Toronto do to facilitate waterfront development? Campbell: When Waterfront Toronto was created, each government committed $500 million in seed capital to help kick-start the revitalization process. The vast majority of the waterfront land is owned by the governments so they also gave the organization control over this land. To facilitate waterfront revitalization, Waterfront Toronto works with public and private partners who buy the land for development. Land is tendered competitively and development partners are chosen based on their ability to meet and deliver on a comprehensive list of criteria. Waterfront Toronto’s funding model leverages the public investment by working with private development partners who buy the land for development, and the money earned is used to further fund public infrastructure.

This regular online series will feature interviews with fascinating and influential urban thinkers, with a focus on discussing how Toronto can become a more engaged, accessible, sustainable city. Artscape is a not for profit developer that creates live and work spaces exclusively for artists. Its Toronto-based projects include the Artscape Triangle Lofts, Wychwood Barns, and Artscape Distillery Studios. Two additional projects are presently in development: The Shaw Street School and Regent Park Arts and Culture Centre. Spacing sat down with Tim Jones, President and CEO of Artscape, to discuss these projects and the role that artists play in city life. Spacing: Is artist live-work space still threatened in Toronto? Jones: Artscape was born in the mid-1980s during both a housing boom and crack down on illegal artist live-work spaces. We’re experiencing a similar boom today, in that warehouse buildings, which would have previously provided fantastic live-work spaces for artists, are being converted to lofts or offices instead. Artscape works with artists to give them greater control over their situation. We’re all familiar with the so-called “Soho Effect:” Artists move into a neighbourhood, make it trendy and are then priced out. The story is also told with the same sad lament of artists as victims of urban development. We’re trying to overturn the artists-as-victims motif. For the better part of a decade, artists in Toronto have been declaring, “we are agents of change and we’re generating value.” We’ve been working with public and private entities in order to assert artist’s interests and find a place for them within communities. The best example is the redevelopment of Wychwood Barns where the living and work needs of artists have been accommodated: Artists are placed at the centre of community where they can thrive. The Barns has also proven that artists can generate value and make a tremendous community contribution.