The Queen Street West Crawl – Trinity Bellwoods
September 15 & 16, 2012.
The weather was perfect for this years Queen West Crawl and crowds flocked to this event, the tenth now, with over 250 artists plus food vendors and live music thanks to the Sinfonia Toronto.
Sinfonia Toronto
The event offers an opportunity for the public to view some great art and talk with the artist. Art collectors have the opportunity of purchasing directly from the artist.
David Oxley, Crawl artist
Shannon Dickie, Crawl artist
Paul Brandejs, Crawl artist
Thelia Sanders Shelton, Crawl artist
Simon Scheiderman, Crawl Artist
The Crawl started in 2003 as a one day event run by Artscape. In 2008 the Queen West Art Crawl (QWAC) was turned over to PCDG (Parkdale Community Development Group). This organization now has charitable status and is going to focus on the QWAC. So you can probably expect the Crawl to grow.
Magdolene Dykstra, Crawl Artist
Neil Young, Crawl artist
Karen Kawarsky, Crawl Artist
I sat on the jury this year along with Murray Whyte, arts writer for the Toronto Star and Manny Neubaucher of Neubacher Shor Contemporary Art Gallery. The jury process was online which made it a little easier but it still took considerable time to access the many entries.
Talking to some of the artists they all seem happy with the turn out for the event. I didn’t hear about art sales but then I didn’t ask.
Adam Kuczma, Crawl artist
Sandy Middleton, Crawl artist
Tony Taylor, Crawl Artist
The evening before PCDG held a QWAC gala with a live auction at the Drake Hotels’ Underground Room. Cindy Goldrick, PCDG Executive Director since 2011 was on hand along with her Board of Directors many artists and supporters. CP 24 personality, Jamie Gutfreund worked the crow as auctioneer.
Craig Hudson & Antoine Tedesco – Board members
Looks like another successful year for the Queen West Art Crawl with many more to come.
Text and Photo: Phil Anderson