Art Farm Stand Activation: Seed Winnowing Workshop with It's Giving Farm

Join Fianna Dirks and Ekow Stone of It's Giving Farm at Outdoor School's mobile sculpture Art Farm Stand for a hands-on workshop that offers the opportunity to thresh and clean seeds with breath, wind, hands and machines. Fianna and Ekow will discuss their ten-year plant breeding project that aspires to create 28 types of green okra. During this event, participants can help them winnow okra, efo shoko, callaloo, scotch bonnets, and eggplant seeds. Participants are also invited to bring their own seeds to share and the stories that come with them.

Spaces limited; registration required. Please note any accommodation needs when registering or by contacting , and gallery staff will follow up with you as necessary.

The gallery is wheelchair accessible, and there will be seating available throughout the program.

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ABOUT THE FACILITATORS

is a farm owned and operated by Fianna Dirks and Ekow Stone. The two farmers met as co-workers in the summer of 2020 at an urban farm project in Etobicoke. In the years spent working together co-managing a 3-acre urban farm site, they became a rock solid duo, growing beautiful produce with an amazing team for the surrounding community. While thoroughly enjoying their role as urban farmers, educators, and community workers, Fianna and Ekow longed for a farm to call their own. In the spring of 2022, they responded to a Request For Proposals to live and farm in Toronto’s Rouge National Urban Park, seizing on the opportunity, and applying with the support from their community. After many months of anticipation, they were offered a long-term lease for a beautiful home and 7-acres in the northern tip of the park in Altona. Having received the keys to the house in February of 2023, their journey at It's Giving Farm has only just begun.

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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

This program is presented in conjunction with the DMG exhibition (September 17 - December 7, 2024), curated by Amish Morrell. Art Farm explores the creative, aesthetic, and critical work of farmers, asking us to consider both where and how culture is made. During the exhibition, the gallery operates as a living site for building relationships between urban farmers, campus communities, and our wider Scarborough audience. Art Farm is activated through a series of workshops, events, and talks framed by three core artist projects by Shannon Gerard, Outdoor School, and Futurefarmers. The exhibition is generously supported by the Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.

Art Farm is is part of the Doris McCarthy Gallery's 20th anniversary programming, a celebration of the gallery's two decades of exhibitions, programs, and community-building in Scarborough.

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Image courtesy of It's Giving Farm.

Host or Publisher Doris McCarthy Gallery