BEING SCENE is an annual juried exhibition produced by Workman Arts in partnership with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The mandate of BEING SCENE is to introduce the general public to the work of artists who have lived experience with mental illness and addiction presenting a cross-cultural portrait of the healing power of art in order to build a more respectful and realistic understanding of those recovering from mental illness and addiction. Each year the exhibition features new works by approximately fifty emerging and established artists and has included original pieces by well known Canadian artists. Works in the exhibit are for sale with one hundred percent of proceeds going directly to participating artists.

The 2010 BEING SCENE exhibition will be traveling to four venues over the course of six months starting with a seven week installation June 30 -July 25, hosted by the University of Toronto’s historic Hart House. Centrally located and architecturally sublime, Hart House is an exceptionally busy cultural hub within U of T’s downtown campus. Open to the general public seven days a week, Hart House hosts numerous social, academic, creative, and corporate events as well as regular tours resulting in hundreds of visitors daily. Their exhibition space is very public and offers tremendous opportunity for Being Scene to “be seen” by thousands of Hart House visitors over the course of the exhibition dates. Following that, Being Scene will move on to a second seven week exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel, Aug 5 – Sept 19. The Gladstone is well known for hosting numerous exhibitions throughout the year drawing art savvy visitors from Toronto and beyond. We are lucky that our exhibition dates will extend through the weekend of the Queen West Art Crawl which will see thousands of visitors through our exhibition during the final weekend alone. Being Scene will next be re-mounted in our theatre space during Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival providing a third opportunity for massive public exposure. Finally, we plan to close with a The Last Call Show and Sale at CAMH in early December.

Exhibition Schedule:

• June 3 - July 25, 9am – 9pm Daily, Hart House, University of Toronto, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto ON
• August 5 - September 19, 12pm – 5pm Daily, Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto ON
• November 6 - 13*, Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin Street, Toronto ON, *During Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival

Public Receptions

• August 5, 6pm-9pm, Gladstone Hotel
• Queen West Art Crawl Reception
• September 17, 6pm-9pm, Gladstone Hotel

Last Call! Show and Sale

• December 2, CAMH, 1001 Queen Street West, Toronto ON

To find out about Being Scene please contact Chris Mitchell at 416.583.4339.