TO Culture Leaders Get Own All-Star Cards, T-Shirts

Over the past week, a couple of initiatives have called out their must-know Toronto culture workers, producing all-star cards and T-shirts along the way.

Big on the cards front is Praxis Theatre, which has helpfully assembled pseudo-tradeable info on the Creative Capital Initiative advisory team—the group that will be advising Mayor Rob Ford on upcoming culture plans. Museums consultant Gail Lord, Toronto Arts Council head Claire Hopkinson and TIFF's Cameron Bailey all make an appearance. Fun stuff, with some definitely useful info on how each person is positioned as a culture-policy influencer in TO.

And on the T-shirts front is the City of Toronto itself. After announcing 12 local cultural champions at its Celebrate 27 launch last Thursday, it's worked with Joy Apparel to put the faces of these good folks on T-shirts. Included are poet Lillian Allen, late artist Doris McCarthy and performer Natalyn Tremblay, among others. A lot of them are lesser known names to me, and I enjoyed learning about them. You can check out the champions' line art and accomplishments/bios over on Celebrate 27's site.

More swag for Toronto art? Was that in the 2003 culture plan? Dunno, but I appreciate the deets from Praxis' cards and the recognition of hardworking folks on those city-made Ts.

(General image of trading cards--no art one's tho, dammit! from Dtobias on Wikimedia)