About the DVAC
Last modified: November 19, 2009
The DVAC meets at the Toronto Brick Works.
Our members gather to create and share our appreciation of art at the Brick Works in the heart of Toronto’s Don Valley.
The Don Valley Art Club has a long history in the Toronto art scene, having been established over 60 years ago. There are 170 full time members, most express themselves primarily through painting. Some members have worked in fine arts or another creative field their whole life, others have only recently found the time to develop their talent. A common thread through the membership is a life-long desire to create art.
This club cooperatively deals with all the aspects required to be a showing artist in Toronto, volunteers organize the groups’ publicity and exhibitions. A volunteer executive committee is elected annually.
During its long history the DVAC has developed programmes that appeal to all types of painters. There are regular programmes five days a week and a few weekend workshops though out the year. Most events are held at the historic Brick Works in the heart of the Don Valley. The club also exhibits regularly at Todmorden Mills, situated close by on Pottery Road.
Regular DVAC programmes include the following:
Monday afternoon is an opportunity to paint amongst friends
Tuesday evening is painting from the live model
Wednesday afternoon is painting from the live model
Friday evening This is our Club night. Updates on Club news will be presented, we have guest demonstrators and speakers, educational features and social activities.
Sunday afternoon the club is open for members to work individually while socializing with their peers.
Our DVAC 2009 Annual Spring Show marked The Don Valley Art Club’s 60th anniversary, a very special landmark in the club’s long and successful history in the Toronto arts scene.
One of the oldest art clubs in Toronto, the DVAC was founded in 1948 in a public school on Chester Avenue by a group of people whose shared desire was to create art. A few years later the club members, who strongly identified with the valley of the Don River, built a clubhouse at the foot of Don Mills Road. In 1972, the club then moved to Todmorden Mills, which was its home until 2000, when the DVAC relocated to its current headquarters in a restored building at the old Toronto Brick Works.
The Don Valley Art Club has a rich cultural heritage whose many activities include painting sessions, socializing, lectures and demonstrations by guest artists, workshops, and painting excursions. The club has 150 members and a waiting list of approximately (50?).
The DVAC traditionally presents three exhibitions per year in the gallery at Todmorden Mills.
Our current home is the 2nd floor of the main building at Toronto’s Brick Works, a natural environment with wetland and wildflower meadows and an industrial heritage park. As the former site of the Don Valley Pressed Brick Works Company where bricks were made from 1889 to 1989, this location is also of important geographical importance, showcasing sediment deposits from the past million years.
The following link has more on our history:
www.virtualmuseum.ca
