HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is the first and only Toronto festival created by community artists, giving center-stage to the talent and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. HAPPENING gave space to embrace the cultural richness of our city, while creating professional development opportunities for artists. It offered a platform for organizations to connect, and form meaningful collaborations.
*HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is produced by MUSE Arts.
Big dreams need big teams to make them happen. We would love to have you involved in this year’s edition of HAPPENING Multicultural Festival and many other upcoming events.
Calendar
Calendar of Events
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Poetry Night – Ann de Leon, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike
Poetry Night – Ann de Leon, Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike
Facebook Eventbrite In this workshop, children will learn how to bring a sock puppet to life. The participants will be guided through the process of using common craft items to […]
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Artist Meet-up & Visual Arts Exhibit Opening
Artist Meet-up & Visual Arts Exhibit Opening
Facebook Register here Launch into our festival's inaugural event: an artist meet-up at Rivoli Restaurant. We want to highlight the power of collaboration and solidarity in the creative sphere. Join […]
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Poetry Night – Leilei Chen & Chro Zand
Poetry Night – Leilei Chen & Chro Zand
Facebook: Location: Facebook Live During our HAPPENING: Poetry Nights we celebrate poets who, among other things, identify as newcomers, refugees, or immigrants. Despite the fact that poetry inhabits many geographical […]
“Who Am I?” Zine-Making Workshop
“Who Am I?” Zine-Making Workshop
Facebook Register here Join us for a captivating zine-making workshop! Explore the art of crafting mini booklets as we delve into aspirations, dreams, and vibrant palettes. Let your creativity flow […]
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The Hero In Me – Drawing & Design Workshop
The Hero In Me – Drawing & Design Workshop
Facebook Register here Join artist Juan Pablo for an exciting workshop where you'll craft your own superhero from scratch! Delve into the depths of your personal heritage and experiences to […]
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Let’s Blossom – Embroidery workshop
Let’s Blossom – Embroidery workshop
Facebook Register here In this workshop, you will learn the basics of embroidering from flat stitch to embossed embroidery. The main embroidery figure will be flowers including their shapes and […]
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Experimental Poetry Workshop
Experimental Poetry Workshop
Facebook Register here Join multidisciplinary artist and creative writing instructor, Hanan Hazime for a fun and accessible Experimental Poetry workshop! Experimental Poetry is a great way to explore innovative, nontraditional […]
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Blooming Together: Cultivating Collaboration Networks in the Art Online seminar
Blooming Together: Cultivating Collaboration Networks in the Art Online seminar
Facebook Register here In this online seminar we will delve into the essence of collaboration among artists, emphasizing the significance of collective growth and mutual support. Join us as we […]
Blooming Hand Puppets Workshop
Blooming Hand Puppets Workshop
Facebook Eventbrite In this workshop, children will learn how to bring a sock puppet to life. The participants will be guided through the process of using common craft items to […]
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Creative Facilitation Training
Creative Facilitation Training
Register here Facebook MUSE Arts, in collaboration with PYE, invites immigrant newcomer and refugee artists interested in Community Arts and Arts Facilitation to participate in a transformative Creative Facilitation Training. […]
Networking Event for Artists & Organizations
Networking Event for Artists & Organizations
Facebook: https://fb.me/e/1RbktmTXw Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/884952856817?aff=oddtdtcreator This is a space for all newcomers, immigrants, refugees, and emerging artists to learn about existing services and opportunities from Toronto organizations, as well as […]
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The Colors of the Earth Workshop: Painting with Natural Dyes
The Colors of the Earth Workshop: Painting with Natural Dyes
Facebook Register Painting workshop with the colors of the earth, a dynamic learning through experimentation and the awakening of the senses. We invite you to explore with us together in […]
Community Celebration
Community Celebration
Join us for the grand finale of our festival at the park—a celebration of music and community! Experience the harmonious melodies of choirs, the electrifying beats of DJs, and the […]
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Happening Through The Years
2023 - HAPPENING MULTICULTURAL FESTIVAL
HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is the first and only Toronto festival created by community artists, giving center-stage to the talent and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. HAPPENING gave space to embrace the cultural richness of our city, while creating professional development opportunities for artists. It offered a platform for organizations to connect, and form meaningful collaborations.
2022 - HAPPENING MULTICULTURAL LIVE: PUBLIC ART AND COLLECTIVE VOICE
HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is the first and only Toronto festival created by community artists, giving center-stage to the talent and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. HAPPENING gave space to embrace the cultural richness of our city, while creating professional development opportunities for artists. It offered a platform for organizations to connect, and form meaningful collaborations. The 2022 year’s edition included one month of programming, 15 events for the community and around 150 artists involved in all of them.
HAPPENING Community Celebration
HAPPENING Community Celebration Indigenous knowledge Sharing We had the opportunity to learn more about indigenous
Dance and Performance Night
Dance and Performance Night Dance and movement is an integral part of the culture, entire
MUSE Arts Creative Lab Opening
MUSE Arts Creative Lab Opening The official opening of our first-ever physical space was a
Networking Event for Artists and Organizations
Networking Event for Artists and Organizations This was a space where newcomer, immigrant, refugee, and
Poetry Nights
Poetry Nights HAPPENING Multicultural Poetry Nights celebrated poets who, among other things, identify as newcomers,
2021 - HAPPENING MULTICULTURAL LIVE: PUBLIC ART AND COLLECTIVE VOICE
With 2020’s previous experience, we felt comfortable enough to host another online festival. This gave us the opportunity to broaden our guest and speaker list!
HAPPENING 2021 festival took place during the entire month of May and brought together over 80 artists and performers belonging to diverse communities.
2020 - Happening Multicultural: Power of Community
2020 was a year of profound uncertainty. Like the rest of the world, our floor was shaken by the lockdown 2 months away from what we had originally planned to be our week-long festival.
In response to the realities of those unprecedented times, and in an effort to continue staying connected, working together, and supporting our communities, 2020’s Happening Multicultural Festival adapted to an online format.
With a combination of community activations and online events, Happening lasted a whole month. Our main community activation was based around “Doves of Peace”, a project where we encouraged the community to portray what “peace” meant for them in doves made out of canvas. This way we were able to spread messages of peace throughout our audiences.
We also hosted diverse online spaces where we discussed themes such as the price of freedom of expression, music education within communities, art and mental health. As always, we sought to bring exciting programming for everyone.
2019 - Happening Community and Identity Multicultural Festival
In 2019 we took a huge leap and, as our community was growing, we decided to go for a 4-day festival! From May 29th to June 1st, we had the participation of more than 140 artists in different art branches such as visual arts, community arts, poetry, dance, music and storytelling.
That year we also incorporated a space for organizations and artists to network. As you can see, doors kept opening year after year, and Happening was gaining momentum in Toronto’s artistic scene.
Those 4 days of festival were made possible with the sponsorship from Audiovisuals, Independent Curator, 918 Bathurst, Sbabe She’s.
2018 - Happening: Multicultural Evening in Support of Community Arts & Cultural Exchange in Latin America and the Caribbean
In 2018, we were hosted by 918 Bathurst. It was a successful year as the artists were already familiarized with our event and were anticipating their participation in it. We had wonderful artists, many of whom were refugees and newcomers to Canada. We opened the space for poetry, music, performance, art exhibition and a silent auction.
2017 - Happening: A Multicultural Evening in Support of Community Arts
Fast-forward to 2017, a concept was born after seeing the benefits and happiness this encounter brought to the people. Then is when Happening: A Multicultural Evening in Support of Community Arts was made official. The concept behind this event was to collect funds to have enough resources to keep doing our work in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as to be a Multicultural space that celebrated diversity and was extremely intentional about inclusion. We gathered again on May 19th 2017, this time to support Muse Arts programming.
We made an open call for artists to participate, however, we quickly realized one night was way too short for the amount of talent that approached us.
2016 - Where It All Began...
Back in 2016, the Mexican Cultural House suffered the impact of a fire. Significant emotional distress was caused in the community, and so we made a call to convene other artists and members of the communities to uphold our fellow artists in need. There were 3 key aspects to make this possible: collaboration, unity, and generosity.