Since 2016, MABELLEarts has been engaged in a community residency in Etobicoke’s Broadacres Park. We’ve focused on creating workshops and events for both neighbourhood residents and newcomers to Canada – especially refugees and asylum seekers in the early stages of their Canadian immigration process. Our time in the park in collaboration with dozens of artists and hundreds of community participants has shown us that Broadacres Park can be a place of welcoming – a safe haven and meeting place as well as a vibrant cultural venue in a part of Toronto with little in the way of arts and cultural spaces. Key to the success of our work at Broadacres has been our partnership with newcomer-serving agencies – especially the Arab Community Centre of Toronto (ACCT).

This summer, we’d like to deepen our collaboration with ACCT, ensuring that the momentum we’ve helped spark, lives on with a locally and culturally-based organization. “Take My Hand” will continue to uncover the creative and collaborative potential of Broadacres Park as a cultural space for the neighbourhood and place of welcoming for newcomers, refugees and asylum-seekers. Through weekly performance workshops, song circles, and environmental art projects, MABELLEartists and MABELLEyouth will work hand in hand with community members of all ages to co-create an intercultural, performative ‘art market’ that transforms Broadacres Park into a safe harbour for and with newcomers, refugees and asylum-seekers.