Crocheting Connections / Tejiendo Conexiones explores the ways in which yarn-based practices, such as crocheting and knitting, can help facilitate connections between people, the city, and the cultural landscape. The first stage of the project consists of a crocheted Mexican serape blanket by artist Ivana Tovilla-Batiz. A crochet workshop held in Parkdale will then ask participants to add their own mark onto the serape, as a means of performative community-building and combatting urban isolation.

The workshop is completely beginner-friendly. Participants will be taught a few basic crochet stitches, and will get to bring home a small, completed project. 

Artist

Ivana Inés Tovilla-Batiz is a Mexican-Canadian artist, currently in her third-year at OCAD University. Ivana has spent the summer of 2019 in New York City, taking part in the Parsons Summer Intensive Program for Illustration at The New School. She was then granted immediate entrance into the OCADU Drawing and Painting program, where she received the Mercedes-Benz Financial Services scholarship. Ivana has exhibited her work in Toronto, Ontario, as well as The Holy Art Gallery in London, England.

Curator

Victoria Tywonek-Sobota is an emerging curator and artist based in Tkaronto/Toronto. With an interest in digital sculpture, painting, and performance, their work explores the relationship between humanity and the natural environment, in hopes of fostering mutual inter-species collaborations. Tywonek-Sobota is currently pursuing a BFA in Critique and Curatorial Practice at OCADU, with a minor in Integrated Media.