Pan Am Path Art Relay Takes Over Toronto With 2 Major Downtown Events

TORONTO, June 15, 2015 /CNW/ - On Saturday June 20, visit Underpass Park, Corktown for the Live Art Festival and watch as 23 drab, concrete highway pillars are transformed live into monumental works of art. Then, head over to Fort York to discover the city's rich and varied indigenous history with tours by First Story Toronto and the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto.

Live Art Festival

The festival is a collaboration between Mural Routes, StART and CRBA. It's the latest leg of the Pan Am Path Art Relay that seeks to celebrate the city's greatest assets: arts, nature and diversity -- while also creating a meaningful legacy of the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games for residents.

The festival will include live art painting, sports activities and performances. The highlight of the day will be the creation of five permanent, iconic murals on pillars facing Lower River Street. An additional 18 pillars will be created as semi-permanent public works. The goal of Mural Arts is that the Live Art Festival becomes an annual event in the city. Should that come to fruition, the 18 pillars will be painted over at next year's event.

The five main pillars will be painted by street artists Labrona and Troy Lovegates. According to Mural Routes, the two artists' playful design was chosen because of their visually engaging and thought-provoking aesthetic that will serve the unique landscape of Underpass Park.

From 10 a.m.–2 p.m., tours by First Story Toronto will also connect the site to the Indigenous Arts Festival at Fort York and explore the history of the local Indigenous population. First Story Tours, also part of the Pan Am Path Art Relay, will turn the Toronto Lakeshore into a living museum brimming with Aboriginal stories, curated by First Nations leaders.

From 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Toronto Pearson and the Toronto Sports Council present Playing for Keeps Neighbourhood games. From 11:00am to 3:00pm Olympian Adam Lancia, member of Canada's National Gold Medal team at the 2012 London Paralympic Games will help you test your skills at the sport of Wheelchair Basketball. From 1:00pm to 5:00pm you can learn some fundamental skills and safety tips for skateboarding from the Toronto Skateboarding Committee.

WHEN / WHERE:	Saturday, June 20, 2015, 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
	Underpass Park, South of 33 St. Lawrence St., Toronto ON, M4A 2W1

First Story Tours
Discover Toronto's indigenous heritage through the First Story tours and app. From June 20-26, First Story Toronto leads a series of walking, biking and bus tours along the lakeshore. On June 20 from 10 a.m.–2 p.m., tours connect the Indigenous Arts Festival at Fort York to the Live Art Festival at Underpass Park. Register for tours and download the app at www.panampath.org.

Toronto, or "Tkaronto", is an Iroquois word, yet few residents or visitors know anything about the city's early indigenous population let alone the mark they made on the land around them.

With that in mind, First Story Toronto and the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto created a series of bus, walking and bike tours that will turn the Toronto Lakeshore into a living museum brimming with Aboriginal stories, all curated by First Nations community members. From June 20 to June 26, the daily tours will explore the history of the local Indigenous population, transportation and trade routes, Indigenous and contemporary names and the relationship to Water and Land. Select bike tours will also focus on sports, arts and lifeways, food, medicines and the environment.

The First Story tours are part of the Pan Am Path Art Relay that seeks to celebrate the best of the Toronto region: art, nature and diversity -- while also creating a meaningful legacy of the 2015 Games for residents.

WHEN:	Daily tours June 20 - June 26, 2015 Times vary - visit panampath.org for details and to register for tours.
HIGHLIGHTS:	June 20, 10a.m.– 2p.m., tours connect the Indigenous Arts Festival at Fort York to the Live Art Festival at Underpass Park. Meeting place for bike tour (10am) and bus tour (11am) at Fort York

BACKGROUND: About The Pan Am Path & Art Relay
The vision of the Pan Am Path is to combine the power of art and sport to create a living path across Toronto. From May 16 to August 15, 2015, the Pan Am Path will come alive with a city-wide Art Relay of installations and events. Each week, the festival travels across Toronto celebrating some of the city's greatest assets: diversity, nature, arts and active outdoor living. The Pan Am Path was started by a group of Toronto artists and city-builders in collaboration with the City of Toronto. On July 18, 2013, Toronto City Council endorsed the Pan Am Path as a Host City Showcase Program of the Games.  The Pan Am Path is an 84-kilometre continuous trail for walking, running, cycling and wheeling that connects the city from east to west. Legacy construction to improve and create new connections along the Pan Am Path will continue through 2017.

The Pan Am Path App is a wayfinding mobile app that matches your geographic location on the Path to music that is rooted within that community via 4 local music-streaming stations. Other Features include: a full map of the path, directions to nearby local businesses and a calendar of Pan Am Path Art Relay programming.

Friends of the Pan Am Path is the main organizer of the Pan Am Path Art Relay, motivated by the chance to celebrate the best of the region: art, nature and diversity -- while also creating a meaningful legacy of the 2015 Games for residents.

The Pan Am Path Art Relay is proudly supported by the City of Toronto, Toronto Foundation, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Toronto Star, Toronto Arts Council, Trans Canada Trail, Canadian Heritage, Toronto Pearson, United Way Toronto, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Laidlaw Foundation, Lotus Leaf, & Westbury National.

For the full Pan Am Art Relay event calendar map, app and participating organizations, please visit: http://www.panampath.org.

NEXT-UP IN THE RELAY: June 27 - Sportsmanship Under Surveillance - Sur Gallery's Inaugural Exhibition
Join LACAP in celebrating the opening of Toronto's first art gallery dedicated to Latin American art and see the inaugural exhibition: Art in the age of government surveillance. The artists and exhibition curator, Tamara Toledo, will be present for the opening reception on June 27. Latin American Canadian Art Projects is a Toronto-based, not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to the implementation of art projects that promote Latin American art in Canada with an emphasis on artistic excellence, critically engaged artistic practices and hemispheric networks of exchange.

SOURCE Friends of the Pan Am Path

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrea Chrysanthou, [phone], [email protected]; Julia Che, [phone], [email protected]