HIGHLIGHTS OF JAMII's RECENT PROGRAMMING YEARS

“Water is Memory” was the theme of 2022. While we explored what this theme meant to us, to the artists we collaborated with and community members who participated in programming, memories, like bubbles of water, popped through the months and floated down the river of new connections.

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In 2022...

We were in our park for 31 days for 60 live performances attended by 4,735 Esplanadians.

We organized 4 photo exhibitions viewed by 4,000+ people.

We held 84 LAINI workshops participated by 69 girls and young women of The Esplanade.

We worked with 118 artists.

We organized 203 workshops attended by 194 participants with over 500 participations.

Our 2021 theme was “Looks Like Us” and was an invitation to explore one of the foundational values of the Esplanade neighbourhood: the concept of “mix”. We wanted to ask if, white we celebrate each other’s cultural heritage, we also celebrate intercultural mixing, and if so, how? Through a wide range of artistic experiences, we explored if we could bring our cultures together while retaining our cultural traditions, sense of identity and uniqueness. We hoped to continue engaging artists and audiences with questions around representation and belonging, and to ignite conversations. Did we succeed? Only you can say.

At Jamii, we define our success by the legacy of qualitative memories we ignite for all “Esplanadians” - people of all ages who have taken part in the Jamii’s journey. By creating shared memories, we are creating stronger connections and bonds between people. In doing so, we create a sense of belonging, ownership and identity for the people engaged in the work we do in the community. This circles back to our mandate of enhancing social cohesion through the arts.

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In 2020, we worked with 91 artists;
We organized 101 workshops;
We hosted 166 workshop participants;
We counted 2300 audience members;
We produced 34 public events,
And all of this, during a pandemic.