Arts Hub Discovery
Intersections and the Creative PlaySpace

Intersections at the Creative PlaySpace

You’re standing on the spongy surface of a children’s playground. Looking up you see an array of colourful painted banners. Are they abstract landscapes? What do you see when you look at them?

> Welcome to Intersections at the Creative PlaySpace. This is part of our Placemaking initiative to create spaces where people want to live, work, and play. 

• The Creative PlaySpace provides a safe and inspiring outdoor area for the kids in our Montessori school to play. It is also a place where our tenants can create programming opportunities to intersect with the community
• The initial build of the space was completed in October 2021 with support from The Edward and Kal’s RePlay Fund
• Local painter Billie Rae Busby was engaged to enhance the play area with a community art project. The final banners for “Intersections” were installed in early April 2022. 

In the fall of 2021, structural work was completed on our community playground, the Creative PlaySpace. The playground nestles between the East side of cSPACE and its neighbour, The Edward, Curated Living building. Featuring a soft rubber surface made from over 200 recycled passenger car tires, a playfully sinuous wooden stage area, and topped with 60 colourful banners criss-crossing in the air above, the PlaySpace represents an intersection of ideas and spaces. 

“This space will be an example where lifelong learning through the arts, play and environmental responsibility all come together.”

– Deeter Schurig, President and CEO of cSPACE. 

Generously supported through Kal Tire’s community program, Kal’s RePlay Fund, and by The Edward, building the PlaySpace utilized the talents of 02 Planning and Design and local landscape artist Billie Rae Busby to create an inviting atmosphere for both kids and adults. 

Titled, Intersections, the colourful hanging banners were created through workshops led by Billie Rae last fall, collaborating with young children in the Maria Montessori Education Centre at cSPACE, and with the residents next door at The Edward. Finally, in April 2022, the banners were installed and now activate the space with colour and movement at any time of day. In a few years when the banners will have weathered through a few Canadian winters, they will be taken down and find new life as they are recycled into bright bookmarks.

Meanwhile, the PlaySpace will create opportunities for outdoor play for the Montessori children, as well as a programming area for our art-friendly tenant organizations at cSPACE. Look to see the area activated with live music this summer during Saturday’s Farmers and Makers Markets as well. 

Thanks again to Kal’s Replay Fund, The Edward, 02 Planning and Design, and Billie Rae Busby for helping us create this beautiful multi-purpose space. We hope the community will enjoy it as much as we do. 

Additional reading:

• Making the Discarded, Marvellous

• Billie Rae Busby, Intersections