"Sending sparks to fuel creativity and community"

The OCTOPUS PROJECT provides an outlet for artists to continue making art by offering a challenge to create. The challenge is issued as a spark—an idea or image—sent out every eight weeks for interpretation by the artists. The interdisciplinary community of Octopus Project artists creates a shared visual representation of diversity through one theme with many voices.

The Octopus Project was founded by Toronto mixed media artist Catherine Mellinger and Toronto photographer Melanie Gordon. Now in its second year, the project's goal remains first and foremost the building of community, extending from the unique tapestry of artists working in Artscape's Case Goods Warehouse where Melanie Gordon has had a studio for six years. The project creates a space in which both established and emerging artists can show their work, connecting with, challenging, and inspiring each other. Beyond bringing artists together, the project's exhibition location on the 4th floor of the Case Goods Warehouse invites the public to view the artists’ work in a space where artists themselves create.

The Case Goods Warehouse was established by Toronto Artscape in March 2003 as a space for artists and arts organizations to create, produce, and sell their work. It houses the studios of 60 tenants including a mix of artist and designer/maker retail studios, non-profit, theatre, dance, music, and arts-in-education organizations, and artist work studios.

Participants in the Octopus Project include painters, sculptors, photographers, illustrators, printmakers, filmmakers, mixed media artists, musicians, performers, writers, dancers—anyone who uses creativity as an outlet, who uses creativity to express themselves and who wants to share with others in a collaborative and supportive community.