Community Arts Guild

05/22/2026

Our Plots and Patches Gallery is open at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre over the Toronto Doors Open Weekend.

On Saturday, May 23, between 12:30 and 3:30pm, there will be our textile arts exhibition, art and sewing activities, storytelling and readings from the Story Garden Project, with Jesse Wabegijig, Diana Tso and Julia Hune Brown, and musical accompaniment by Aine Schryer-O-Gorman, Daev Claysdale and Martin van de Ven.

On Sunday, May 24, from 1-4pm, the exhibition will be open with drop-in activities, artist talks and tours.

All free and fun in a lovely setting, indoors or outdoors to suit the weather!Come and join us!

05/18/2026

Yesterday was Guest Curator Miranda Bouchard's last day at our Cedar Ridge May gallery. She gave a thoughtful Artist Talk and Tour about the Social Fabric pieces she has contributed to the show from Thinking Rock Community Arts, sharing details and insights on the interconnected and distinctive elements of each, and we could stitch while we looked and listened!

We were sad to say goodbye to Miranda, but the exhibition continues until May 27th.

05/17/2026

There's lots going on at our Cedar Ridge evolving gallery, and still time to come and check it out, during gallery open hours (Mon.-Thurs., 10-4, Fri.-Sat. 10-4, but closed on Mon. May 18th), including the Doors Open Toronto exhibition and a Closing Celebration on Wednesday May 27th, 6-8pm.

Contact [email protected] for more info.

05/14/2026

Our May Gallery at Cedar Ridge opened this evening. You can visit for the next two weeks - contribute to the Story Garden community quilt with Jesse Wabegijig, add stitches to other fabric works-in-progress, and enjoy a selection of over 20 years of community-engaged textile arts from the Community Arts Guild, Jumblies Theatre, Thinking Rock Community Arts, Moonpools Art, Arts4All, Mabelle Arts, Aanmitaagzi and Betty Carpick (Thunder Bay).

05/12/2026

Today was the first day of installation for our annual Cedar Ridge evolving gallery, with Guest Curator Miranda Bouchard, from Thinking Rock Community Arts laying out and starting to hang her wonderful array of quilts from Thinking Rock's multi-year Social Fabric Project.

Join us at the Opening Reception is this Wednesday - May 13th - from 6-8pm. Cedar Ridge Creative Centre, 225 Confederation Drive.

05/05/2026

Our annual May evolving gallery is coming up:

PLOTS & PATCHES
May 13 to 27, 2026
Cedar Ridge Creative Centre225 Confederation Drive, Scarborough

Sharing recent work from the Community Arts Guild, interactive textile activities and an exhibition of community-engaged fabric arts from Jumblies Theatre, Offshoots (Community Arts Guild, Arts4All, Mabelle Arts), and Partners (Thinking Rock Community Arts, Aanmitaagzi, Moonpools Art, Betty Carpick).

Lead Artist: Jesse Wabegijig
Guest Curator: Miranda Bouchard
Artistic Producer: Ruth Howard
Other Artists-Facilitators: Áine Schryer-O'Gorman, Catherine Moeller, Tijana Spasic, Mika Videla Moeller, Sal Marques
including the hand work of many other artists & participants

Gallery Open Hrs: Mon-Thurs 10am-8pm, Fri-Sun, 10am-4pm,

Activities:
Wed. May 13th, 6-8pm - Opening
Sat. May 16, 1-4pm - Drop-in Workshop
Sun. May 17, 2-4pm - Artist Talk & Tour
Thurs. May 14, 2-5pm - Drop-in Workshop
Wed. May 20, 6-8pm - Public Drop-in Workshop
Thurs. May 21, 2-5pm - Public Drop-in Workshop
Sat. May 23, 12-4pm, Drop-in Activities & Presentations
Sun. May 24, 2-4pm - Exhibition, Artist Talk & Tour
Wed. May 27, 6-8pm - Closing Celebration

Contact: [email protected]

Thanks: Scarborough Arts, Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, Ontario Arts Council - Conseil des arts de l'Ontario, Toronto Arts Council, City of Toronto Culture, Metcalf Foundation, Canada Summer Jobs.

02/21/2026

A wonderful event yesterday evening at The Ground Floor, with work-in-progress readings from two multi-year community arts performance projects on the go: Story Garden from the Community Arts Guild and the Princess who Slept for 14 Years from Jumblies Theatre, including writers/readers/puppeteers/musician: Jesse Wabegijig, Sharada Eswar, Diana Tso, Geethangali Lena, Julia Hune Brown, Aine Áine Schryer-O'Gorman and Ary Rizvi, and a small participating audience.

Thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canadaand Ontario Arts Council - Conseil des arts de l'Ontario- for supporting these projects.

02/15/2026

02/13/2026

Coming up with the Community Arts Guild & Jumblies

Sleep & Gardens
Feb. 20th, 7-9pm
at The Ground Floor, 132 Fort York Blvd.
- a relaxed, participatory reading session for two evolving writing projects:
The Princess who Slept for 14 Years, from Jumblies Theatre: a play by Sharada Eswar and Jesse Wabegijig
StoryGarden, from the Community Arts Guild: responses by writers Diana Tso and Geethanjali Lena, to community words and images.
Light refreshments, Free of charge, All welcome!
Contact: [email protected]

Thanks to. the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada for funding our Story Garden multi-year project!

11/12/2025

Meet our NEW Executive and Co-Artistic Director, Vivien Illion!

Vivien will take over the Executive Leadership from Cecília Garcia (who we love and are forever grateful for !!!) and shift towards an Executive and Co-Artistic Director role working alongside our other Co-Artistic Director, Jesse Wabegijig!

Vivien Illion is an operatic soprano, producer, and wearer of many hats from Toronto, Canada. She is excited to begin a new adventure as the Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Community Arts Guild. Most recently, Vivien toured across the country as Assistant Director of Puccini’s Tosca through Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artist Program. In July, she worked on an interdisciplinary community play called Belongings as choral director and vocal soloist (Femmes du Feu Creations).

This spring, Vivien completed her Master of Music in Voice and Opera at McGill University, where she is incredibly grateful to have received a Canada Graduate Scholarships Masters Award (SSHRC) for her research on singing translations. This culminated in a solo recital exploring several strategies for audience accessibility and engagement: programming contemporary music alongside the inherited repertoire, accessible formatting, and singing in the audience vernacular. During her time at McGill, she and mezzo-soprano Maddalena Ohrbach formed Duo Camellia. This fruitful partnership led to a recital of vocal chamber music by women composers, and a production of Svadba, Ana Sokolović’s a ca****la chamber opera.

Vivien first discovered her interest in production as a cofounder of Pick-Up Opera, a Toronto-based, outreach focused collective. This led her to seek out experience in production, as Apprentice Stage Manager for P.J. Prudat’s Otîhêw (Crossroads Theatre), as Assistant Director of Handel’s Semele (Opera McGill), and as Assistant Stage Manager for Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Opera 5).

Vivien will take over the Executive Leadership from Cecília Garcia (who we love and are forever grateful for !!!) and shift towards an Executive and Co-Artistic Director alongside Jesse Wabegijig