WHO WE ARE
Founded in 2002, Red Pepper Spectacle Arts is a creative home for a growing community of emerging and established artists. We provide a forum for resource sharing and collaborative creation in diverse media. We have facilitated small and large-scale engagements in a wide variety of media including drawing & painting, story creation, mask making, puppetry, mosaic, sculpture, ceramics, print making, magazine creation and publishing, digital media design and technology, photography, music creation & recording, video production, textile, theatre design, and community-wide multidisciplinary festivals.
With a team of artistic associates and social service partners, our activities feature technical and material resource sharing, arts programming, communal design practices, production management and realization of emergent artistic vision and expression. We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with vast numbers of participants, across the GTA and in Northern Ontario in our practice that seeks individual expression, collaborative endeavors and community celebrations, establishing a creative home for a growing number of emerging/ established artists and organizational partners and colleagues.
MISSION
Red Pepper Spectacle Arts co-creates and facilitates multidisciplinary collaborative art engagement cross-culturally and primarily within the Native community. We work inter-generationally with social services agencies, community organizations, municipalities, band councils, neighborhoods, and other arts organizations towards greater social justice, accessibility, and equality in cultural production. We pursue the highest standard in artistic practice and work to create an environment where all skill levels have access and opportunity to achieve significant results and create success with a wide variety of media.
MANDATE
VISION and VALUES
Red Pepper believes its artistic vision is evolutionary and is informed by the community’s vision, through collective generosity of spirit in creative collaboration. Each project is unique and is shared in reciprocity, from initial conception and formation of each endeavor. Our relationships have been formed over many years of wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary communal activity, relationship building, networking, and resource sharing. We provide high quality arts programming, committed the community’s vision while always being aware of and responsive to the individual. We provide methods, materials and supportive skill-sharing enhancing individual expression within a communal context.
HISTORY
Red Pepper Spectacle Arts are the producers of the Annual Kensington Market Winter Solstice, now in it’s 31st year. Prior to Red Pepper’s founding, the late and great, Ida Carnivali, Artistic Director of Kensington Carnival and Producer of the Festival of Lights (original title) in
Kensington Market, passed the torch to Gabriella Caruso after years of apprenticeship with her. Red Pepper’s inception in 2002, is attributed to the opportunity to provide leadership and growth for this popular, grass-roots celebration for the past 31 years. The event is comprised of an outdoor parade and processional performance, street and rooftop theatrical animation and fire finale stage to observe and celebrate the return to light on the longest night of the year.
Red Pepper has project-based and/or ongoing programming relationships with Na Me Res (Native Men's Residence), the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Gaa Dibaatjimat Ngashi, the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and with the community at large by facilitating arts activities at pow wows, schools and community centres.
We have partnered and collaborated several local arts organizations including Native Women in the Arts, ArtStarts, Jumblies Theatre, Shadowland Theatre, Theatre Direct, Project Random, Regent Park Focus, Harbourfront Centre, and Arts Etobicoke. Partner organizations included St. Stephen`s Community House, Toronto Community Housing, and Unison Community Services.
Founded in 2002, Red Pepper Spectacle Arts is a creative home for a growing community of emerging and established artists. We provide a forum for resource sharing and collaborative creation in diverse media. We have facilitated small and large-scale engagements in a wide variety of media including drawing & painting, story creation, mask making, puppetry, mosaic, sculpture, ceramics, print making, magazine creation and publishing, digital media design and technology, photography, music creation & recording, video production, textile, theatre design, and community-wide multidisciplinary festivals.
With a team of artistic associates and social service partners, our activities feature technical and material resource sharing, arts programming, communal design practices, production management and realization of emergent artistic vision and expression. We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with vast numbers of participants, across the GTA and in Northern Ontario in our practice that seeks individual expression, collaborative endeavors and community celebrations, establishing a creative home for a growing number of emerging/ established artists and organizational partners and colleagues.
MISSION
Red Pepper Spectacle Arts co-creates and facilitates multidisciplinary collaborative art engagement cross-culturally and primarily within the Native community. We work inter-generationally with social services agencies, community organizations, municipalities, band councils, neighborhoods, and other arts organizations towards greater social justice, accessibility, and equality in cultural production. We pursue the highest standard in artistic practice and work to create an environment where all skill levels have access and opportunity to achieve significant results and create success with a wide variety of media.
MANDATE
- Demonstrate the power of art to unite, empower and educate our community
- Provide a safe, accessible environment where all people can create together
- Give voice to misunderstood and misrepresented members of our community
- Sustain skill sharing, training, employment and exchange opportunities
- Empower through collaborative, participatory arts engagement
- Preserve and promote Indigenous art and culture through self-representation
- Contribute significantly to the communities, agencies, and organizations with whom we partner
- Respect and encourage our traditions, languages, and cultural practices in the process
VISION and VALUES
Red Pepper believes its artistic vision is evolutionary and is informed by the community’s vision, through collective generosity of spirit in creative collaboration. Each project is unique and is shared in reciprocity, from initial conception and formation of each endeavor. Our relationships have been formed over many years of wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary communal activity, relationship building, networking, and resource sharing. We provide high quality arts programming, committed the community’s vision while always being aware of and responsive to the individual. We provide methods, materials and supportive skill-sharing enhancing individual expression within a communal context.
HISTORY
Red Pepper Spectacle Arts are the producers of the Annual Kensington Market Winter Solstice, now in it’s 31st year. Prior to Red Pepper’s founding, the late and great, Ida Carnivali, Artistic Director of Kensington Carnival and Producer of the Festival of Lights (original title) in
Kensington Market, passed the torch to Gabriella Caruso after years of apprenticeship with her. Red Pepper’s inception in 2002, is attributed to the opportunity to provide leadership and growth for this popular, grass-roots celebration for the past 31 years. The event is comprised of an outdoor parade and processional performance, street and rooftop theatrical animation and fire finale stage to observe and celebrate the return to light on the longest night of the year.
Red Pepper has project-based and/or ongoing programming relationships with Na Me Res (Native Men's Residence), the Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Gaa Dibaatjimat Ngashi, the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and with the community at large by facilitating arts activities at pow wows, schools and community centres.
We have partnered and collaborated several local arts organizations including Native Women in the Arts, ArtStarts, Jumblies Theatre, Shadowland Theatre, Theatre Direct, Project Random, Regent Park Focus, Harbourfront Centre, and Arts Etobicoke. Partner organizations included St. Stephen`s Community House, Toronto Community Housing, and Unison Community Services.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BOARD MEMBERS
Sage Paul Cardinal
Brian Norton
Maria Abbruzzese
BOARD MEMBERS
Sage Paul Cardinal
Brian Norton
Maria Abbruzzese