Over the past few months, ERA has had the pleasure of working with the Riverdale Hub on a community revitalization strategy for the Gerrard Bazaar/Little India neighbourhood. The Riverdale Hub is an innovative model for community revitalization that integrates environmental sustainability and social enterprise in order to provide training for new Canadian women and create opportunities for local economic growth and investment.
ERA has been consulting the Riverdale Hub on how to achieve community revitalization objectives through strategic analysis, administration, communication, and design. The project requires the collaboration of a wide range of community stakeholders, local artists, municipal staff, and volunteers. It is a collaborative process where diversity, flexibility and inclusiveness are vital to its success and one of many projects where ERA is actively exploring alternative models in urban revitalization and cultural landscape theory.
The first step in our revitalization strategy has involved the GerrardART Project, a community art project spanning the whole city block containing the Hub. Local artists JAH and Adrian Hayles have created a series of large murals for the block and ceramic mosaic artist Anna Camilleri of Red Dress Productions is providing one of her creations on the Riverdale Hub’s storefront. Stop by the Riverdale Hub at 1326 Gerrard Street East to watch the murals and mosaic unfold and transform the western gateway to this culturally significant neighbourhood.
Thanks to the team at the City’s StreetARToronto (StART) program, which has made this project possible.
Stay tuned for updates on the current and future initiatives at the Riverdale Hub including an installation by OCAD students Noah Scheinman and Herman Borrego, a strategic plan for the BIA, and a new café at the Riverdale Hub storefront!
