Yue Moon
In celebration of the Lunar New Year, Yue Moon is a collaborative public art installation that engaged an intergenerational community of participants and resulted in a public artwork viewed by thousands in Toronto’s Chinatown.
Project at a glance
Location: Dragon City Mall, 282 Spadina Ave, Toronto, Ontario
Artists: PUFF Paddy (Lead Artist) with Meegan Lim and Christie Carriere (Assistant Facilitators)
Photographers: May Shi
Year: 2020
Services: Artist Capacity Building
100+
community members engaged
2
paid mentorship opportunities
100+
one-of-a-kind lanterns
About Yue Moon
Toronto Chinatown BIA approached STEPS to develop a public art program that would not only build community, but also increase awareness of local businesses within Toronto’s Chinatown neighbourhood. The vision was to launch a cultural experience during the 2020 Lunar New Year celebrations.
With our strong commitment to artist capacity building, STEPS felt it was important to collaborate with neighbouring OCAD University to cultivate unique learning opportunities for emerging local artists and designers.
Working closely with OCADU’s Centre for Emerging Artists and Designers, STEPS identified OCADU alumni PUFF Paddy as the lead facilitating artist. Several paid artistic opportunities were available for members of the OCADU community to develop their portfolio, gain valuable community facilitation experience, and contribute to the unique Yue Moon public project.
“My goal for this program was to bring people together to have fun and make something special with the community. This is the first time that I’ve been able to combine all my strengths and passion for the arts within a project of this scale. I’ve gained more confidence and leadership skills to take on bigger projects in the future.”
Yue Moon (meaning full circle, completion, full moon) brought the Chinatown community together in the spirit of the Chinese Lantern Festival to explore a contemporary approach to the ancient art of lantern-making and create a luminous experience in the public realm.
Over three weeks (and through a classic Toronto forecast in January of torrential rainstorms and snowstorms), we engaged over 100 workshop participants ranging in age from 2 to 80+. The energy and excitement to be a part of the project was palpable. Each lantern created during the workshops collectively formed the final Yue Moon Public Art Installation, unveiled as part of the Chinatown BIA Lunar New Year celebrations at Dragon City Mall.
This project created space for people to connect and see themselves reflected through a collaborative public art and community-engaged experience. Yue Moon 2021 will once again bring people together to escape from the darkness and cold of the mid-winter season.
“It was wonderful to see the whole project come to life and the reactions on the faces of the community as they walked into Dragon City Mall. It was a true example of how creative collaboration can bring joy and positively contribute to a community.”
Partners
