The RedBall Project in Toronto was a great success. I was thrilled by the Canadian response to the project and it suggests new possibilities for the project to venture elsewhere in Canada.
Nothing like RedBall can take place without a team of individuals helping to make it happen, and am grateful to everyone who helped out in big ways and small to keep the project moving with the right energy everyday. Even passersby occasionally chipped in to support the project!
The idea to bring RedBall to Toronto began with Robert VanderBerg, who fortunately happens to be the Associate Producer Visual Arts & Public Installations at Luminato. Robert followed that idea through approvals, battles for sites, stroller tours and all the nitty gritty right through the festival to the last RedBall installation. My respect and gratitude go out to him, I hope we get to work together again.
If you were on site chances are you talked to Christina Milan, my project assistant, who had endless enthusiasm to spread the word while heading back every night to blog on the day’s events, keep the press schedule in check, and help keep everything together. Christina is now back with me in NYC, sporting a serious tan, and getting some sleep. Thanks Tina!
Katia Mercuri joined us to help translate the project for her fellow Torontoians and turned to be a perfect match for Christina’s energy on site, they were quite the duo. She also did a great guest post for us on the blog, and will be do doubt making trouble in Toronto for some time. Our intrepid installation team of Samuel and Alden got the project up and down everyday in perfect time and occasionally kept crazy restaurant owners at bay. Alden never lost his cool and Samuel was shooting film in every spare moment. Robert’s assistant Diana also lent a hand when not consumed with other parts of the Luminato tornado, and helped keep Robert sane, which we all appreciated.
The project also got great support from the bloggers, photographers, and art fan’s of Toronto and they sent the word out on the project far and wide, having conversations on all sorts of sites.
Of course my deep thanks to Janice Price, CEO of Luminato, and Chris Lorway, Artistic Director, for bringing the project to Toronto and making room for it to roam.
- Kurt Perschke
