Each year, during the holiday season, Riverside shops and retailers host the “Window Wonderland” contest, displaying festive imagery and getting in the holiday spirit! This year is an extravaganza with 15+ participating storefronts with many designs by local artists! It’s a fun way to get into the spirit whilst supporting local business and artists.
SPECIAL THIS YEAR…
This year’s Riverside Window Wonderland is supported by the Ontario Reconnects programme. It’s all part of the Riverside Reconnects series to help welcome everyone to enjoy what our local business district and neighbourhood has to offer. Thanks for supporting local!
Artists Danielle Hyde (@cocreation_art), Asli Alin (@aslialin), Erin McCluskey (@mcclusk), and Ailsa Craigen (@pentopapier), have each created four window displays with hand-drawn illustrations and decorative lights in participating storefront windows as part of this festive project!
Meet the Artists…
This year’s Riverside Window Wonderland features amazing local artists. Here’s a brief introduction:⠀
Danielle Hyde
Danielle Hyde at The Opera House Grill, Riverside Window Wonderland 2021 (Photo Credit: Riverside BIA)
Danielle Hyde is a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist and persons with a disability (OCD). She is a member of Red Urban Nation Artist Collective (RUN) creating Indigenous murals and place-making. Their work blends traditional and non-traditional mediums. Centering this work is an artistic practice and process that sees all Art as an act of co-creation. Danielle collaborates with all beings; seen and unseen, human and non-human, in a creative chorus to tell stories. Through these deep conversations on ethical relationality with the world around us, generosity anchors our shared spaces while creating windows of understanding to build community together with Art.
Check out their Instagram
View their Riverside Window Wonderland creations and VOTE for your faves!
⠀Asli Alin
Asli Alin at Korman & Co, Riverside Window Wonderland 2021 (Photo Credit: Riverside BIA)
Asli Alin is a multidisciplinary artist traversing disciplines of drawing, painting, installation and photography who holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture. She has been commissioned to create public art in Canada and Europe and her work has been featured in a number of galleries throughout Toronto and abroad. Asli lives and works in Toronto.
Check out Asli’s Instagram and Website
View Asli’s Riverside Window Wonderland creations and VOTE for your faves!
Erin McCluskey
Erin McCluskey at Dirty Pawz Dog Wash, Riverside Window Wonderland 2021 (Photo Credit: Riverside BIA)
Erin McCluskey is an emerging artist from Ottawa currently practicing in Toronto. She recently earned a BDES in Illustration from OCAD University. With a background in Illustration and Theatre, she creates images that exist on paper, walls, objects, spaces, and stages. In her mural practice, Erin enjoys creating large, colourful, busy scenes with flat shapes. Erin has worked on previous mural projects such as Women paint, Main Street Art Challenge, Outside the box, Bell Box murals & more.
Check out Erin’s Instagram and Website
View Erin’s Riverside Window Wonderland creations and VOTE for your faves!
Ailsa Craigen
Ailsa Craigen at Untitled By Flaunt salon, Riverside Window Wonderland 2021 (Photo Credit: Ailsa Craigen)
Ailsa Craigen is an interdisciplinary illustrator and designer residing and working in Toronto. Ottawa-born, she attended Ryerson University for her Bachelor of Architectural Science and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands for her Master of Science in Architecture. Specializing in line and architectural drawings, Ailsa’s work has been featured in spaces across Toronto and has been commissioned by a number of private clients and companies including CBRE and Collecdev.
Check out Ailsa’s Instagram and Website and
View her Riverside Window Wonderland creations and VOTE for your faves!
THANK YOU TO ALL THE ARTISTS!!!
THANKS ALSO GO TO…⠀
The Government of Ontario’s ‘Ontario Reconnects’ programme and the Riverside BIA for funding support to help make the Riverside Reconnects series possible.