Art Farm

Futurefarmers, Soil Procession: A Movement of Soil from the Country to the City, 2015. Photo: Monika Lovdahl.

Art Farm

September 17 – December 7, 2024
Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough

Works by Futurefarmers, Shannon Gerard, and Outdoor School
Activated with Ate Kay’s Farm, Alexandra Gelis, and It’s Giving Farm

Curated by Amish Morrell

Art Farm explores the creative, aesthetic, and critical work of farmers, asking us to consider both where and how culture is made. During the exhibition, the gallery operates as a living site for building relationships between urban farmers, campus communities, and our wider Scarborough audience. Art Farm is activated through a series of workshops, events, and talks framed by three core artist projects: Plant Parenthood, an active classroom and print studio by artist, educator, and farmer, Shannon Gerard; Art Farm Stand, a mobile sculpture by the Toronto-based collective Outdoor School; and Soil Procession: A Movement of Soil from the Country to the City, documentation of a 2015 performance by the international artist collective Futurefarmers.

Art Farm is a site for collaboration and exchange—where artists and farmers resist mainstream agricultural and economic systems, and the environmental and social injustices that can be perpetuated by them. They model new—and old—ways of land stewardship, and of coming together to share food, knowledge, stories, and ceremony. Students and members of the public are invited to participate in events at the Art Farm Stand and in the workings of Gerard’s print studio to generate material that will grow and accumulate throughout the exhibition. This exhibition acknowledges the vital intellectual, critical, and creative work that farmers and artists do, forms of alternative world-making that includes activism, education, and nourishment. Their lives and work constitute a rich creative counterculture that resists mainstream industrial agricultural practices, and often art galleries themselves, but deepen our relations to the other-than-human, to the land, and to one another.

Outdoor School, Art Farm Stand, 2024. Photo: Amish Morrell

Public Programs

All programming is free, all are welcome. For in-person programs, please see the DMG website for visitor information. Please contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca with any accommodation needs.

Art Farm Stand Activation: Getting to Know Seeds with Ate Kay’s Farm
Wednesday, September 25, 12 – 1pm
Registration required, spaces limited

Kaitlin Rizarri of Ate Kay’s Farm will offer a talk and workshop where she discusses her urban farming practice and ethos, honouring seeds as intergenerational teachers. Participants will be guided through an interactive activity, sampling tea blends Kaitlin grows at her farm.

Open Print Studio with Shannon Gerard
Saturday, September 28, 12 – 3pm

Shannon Gerard invites visitors to drop in and engage with her working print studio in the gallery. Learning about binding, typesetting, and more, visitors will have the opportunity to make their own DIY notebook. Part of the public programming for U of T Scarborough Homecoming.

Scarborough Mycological Foray
Saturday, October 5, 10am – 1pm
Registration required, spaces limited

Led by artist Diane Borsato of Outdoor School, and mycologists Eli Pullan and Dina Rashid, this informal, family-friendly foray in the Highland Creek Valley will provide opportunity for participants to gather, identify, and learn more about wild mushrooms.

Botanical Art Bus Tour
Saturday, October 19, 12 – 5:30pm
Registration required, spaces limited

Hop on the bus to experience three GTA exhibitions that explore agriculture and botany through different artist projects. After a guided tour of Botannica Tirannica at the Koffler Gallery, the bus departs for guided tours of CORN = LIFE at Steelcase Art Projects @ Industrial Arts and Art Farm at the DMG.

Art Farm Stand Activation: Seed Winnowing Workshop with It’s Giving Farm
Thursday, November 7, 1 – 2pm
Registration required, spaces limited

Fianna Dirks and Ekow Stone of It’s Giving Farm lead a hands-on workshop that offers the opportunity to thresh and clean seeds with breath, wind, hands, and machines, while learning about the farm’s okra plant breeding project. Participants are also invited to bring their own seeds and stories to share.

Online Artist Talk by Futurefarmers
Tuesday, November 12, 1 – 2pm
Registration required

Amy Franceschini of Futurefarmers will speak about the collective’s interdisciplinary practice, which considers the social, political, and environmental organization of space. Part of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, co-presented by the Studio program, Department of Arts, Culture & Media, U of T Scarborough.

Closing Reception and Art Farm Stand Activation: Performance by Alexandra Gelis
Saturday, December 7, 2 – 4pm

Join us in celebrating the closing of Art Farm with the many artists, farmers, and collaborators who have participated in the exhibition throughout its run. Curator Amish Morrell will lead remarks at 3 pm, followed by a performance by artist Alexandra Gelis.

Doris McCarthy Gallery
University of Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4
416.287.7007
dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca
dorismccarthygallery.utoronto.ca

Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 11 am to 4 pm; Wednesday, 11 am to 7 pm; Saturday, 11 to 5 pm. Admission is free. Open to the public. The gallery is wheelchair accessible.

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Image descriptions:
1) Photograph of dozens of people walking on an urban street, carrying flags and pushing wheelbarrows of soil. Behind them is a cityscape with modern condos and a line of young trees.
2) Photograph of a mobile farm standing sitting in front of an oceanic view. A red flag hangs from a flagpole affixed to the structure.