Dear Scarborough-Guildwood Residents
On Saturday October 19th, Scarborough’s largest community-painted mural was unveiled in celebration of community caregivers.
Amir Akbari, lead artist behind the Susan Street mural, Mayor John Tory, joined by representatives from Toronto Community Housing and the East Scarborough Boys and Girls club and myself were present to officially unveil the largest community-painted mural in Scarborough.
The huge wall mural is located at the 14 storey TCHC residential building at 3847 Lawrence Ave E, dubbed Susan Street. This mural honours and represents all the women and caregivers in the community who work hard to support and maintain a healthy community where children have opportunities to grow and thrive.
This mural is a meaningful community centrepiece for residents and neighbours to enjoy. The final design represents the diversity, vibrancy and optimizing of those who live in the Lawrence-Susan buildings and the surrounding communities.
The Susan Street Mural is a powerful statement to the children of this Scarborough community that the world is in their hands, while paying homage to the mothers and caregivers that allow them to grow.
Amir Akbari is a Greater Toronto Area (GTA) based Visual Artist, Educator, Community Advocate and Entrepreneur driven to create meaningful creative opportunities for young people through introspection, expression & reflection. Akbari enlisted supporting street artists, Leyland Adams and Sentooran Kannathasan.
The Susan Street mural is a part of the StART Partnership Program, a suite of innovative programs designed specifically for streets and public places. StART was initiated in 2012 as part of the City’s Graffiti Management Plan. StART has been successful in reducing graffiti vandalism and replacing it with vibrant, colourful, community engaged street art.
Check out the StART Toronto map to find other samples of murals created as part of the StART Toronto programs from 2016 to 2018 here.
The Susan Street mural is also the third project by the East Scarborough Boys and Girls Club that has been supported by the program. Some other murals in our ward can be found at 4301 Kingston Road, and 4010 Lawrence Ave E.
More information about StART is available here.
All my Best,
Paul W. Ainslie