MakeRoom Inc partnered with Sankofa Square to curate work from 4 artists to wrap 24 benches and bins within the iconic Toronto landmark.

Sankofa Square is a cultural landmark within the heart of downtown Toronto. Having just done a pivotal rebrand, the Sankofa team was looking to revamp their community arts programming and approached MakeRoom Inc for their services as their official art partners.

Through a brainstorming session with the Sankofa team, we identified the initial collaboration would be curating art wrappings for the 24 benches and bins within the square.

One of goals we identified with the Sankofa team was community engagement. With the rebrand, we wanted Torontonians to feel like they had ownership over the pedestrian Square. One way to help achieve this was with public art sourced from the community through an open call.

Using MakeRoom’s proprietary platform, we put out an open call for 4 artists to contribute their artwork to the benches and bins in the square. The call received over 150 submissions and over 300 pieces of artwork. These submissions were then juried by MakeRoom Inc, The Sankofa team and two members of the Toronto arts community who lived in the same ward as the Square.

Selected Artists:

Adams Amaning
Sharn Bassi
Apanaki Temitayo
Chantelle Dorafshani

The art wraps achieved a great amount of press including two surprise cultural moments. Since FIFA was being hosted in Toronto, one of the pieces covered in artwork by Adams Amaning caught the eye of the president of Ghana and was covered by Ghanian media. The other surprise was a paparazzi photo of the stars of Heated Rivalry hanging around a bin covered with artwork from Sharn Bassi, which then became popular among the Heated Rivalry fandom.

By Jess Smith

By Ron Johnson

By Building Editorial

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