Matte PR gives back with A Love Letter to the Great Lakes

July 19, 2016, TORONTO: As part of its ongoing commitment to city-building and creative initiatives, Matte PR recently partnered with A Love Letter to the Great Lakes, Toronto’s first ever international street-art festival, an extension of PangeaSeed Foundation’s Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans.

The week-long festival hosted a lineup of 21 renowned local and international artists, who painted permanent murals designed to stimulate public awareness of critical environmental issues facing this precious natural resource, while pointing towards long-term solutions. As part of this partnership, Matte PR and A Love Letter to the Great Lakes hosted a panel discussion on June 23 at Rally Ossington which explored how public works of art can inspire people to think and act differently about the world’s water resources. Artists’ collections were showcased and sold at an exhibition at Rally Ossington to raise funds for the cause.

Mural by Jason Botkin at the Lower Don site | Photo by Friends of the Pan Am Path

Three primary production sites hosted this inaugural festival, which are each in themselves a ‘Love Letter’.

• Queen/Ossington
• Queen/Spadina
• The Lower Don (in collaboration with Friends of the PanAm Path)

“The success of any Sea Walls/Love Letter project hinges on its media outreach, underlining a core component of ARTivism: communication. Matte PR offered a tremendous local and international amplification to our impassioned project. The agency’s unique vision and intimate access to various media resources gave us an unprecedented opportunity to highlight key issues and solutions concerning this freshwater treasure,” said Jason Botkin, Artistic Director, A Love Letter to the Great Lakes, Canadian Regional Project Coordinator, PangeaSeed Foundation.

When the firm was launched in January 2016, Matte PR created a policy to support up to three not-for-profit initiatives per year, starting with Toronto architecture firm Brook McIlroy’s Green Gardiner project, a volunteer initiative to build a linear park above the Gardiner Expressway. Continuing with supporting creativity with environmental implications, A Love Letter to the Great Lakes was an ideal follow up partnership, as it clicked with Matte PR’s ‘ideas in action’ criteria for this program.

“As part of our commitment to supporting art, design and city-building initiatives, as well as raising the overall profile of the City of Toronto, this project was a natural fit.” said Heidi Ruggier, founder and director of Matte PR. “A Love Letter to the Great Lakes combines public art, activism and raises awareness for issues facing the largest freshwater system in the world. We hope their work inspires others to use art as a conduit for issues that they are passionate about.”

PangeaSeed’s Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans is the first movement of its kind helping to save our seas, lakes and water resources via public art and activism (ARTivism). This festival adapted for the Great Lakes featured leading contemporary artists to collaborate and bring vital environmental issues into the spotlight. Sea Walls and the Love Letter Projects aim to educate and inspire individuals and communities to protect the planet’s most important resource: water.

ARTWORK

Lower Don

 

Queen & Spadina

Queen & Ossington

Mural by Bruno Smoky. Photo by Halopigg.

By Miguel Valiñas. Photo by Halopigg.

Matte PR Inc.

Matte PR is a boutique public relations agency that specializes in creating strategic public relations campaigns for a diverse range of lifestyle clients. Programs combine traditional media relations, social & digital outreach, strategic partnerships and influencer relations to achieve powerful results. For more information, visit www.mattepr.com and follow @MatteStories.

 

A Love Letter to the Great Lakes

A Love Letter to the Great Lakes is the fresh water edition of Sea Walls, bringing the Pangeaseed mandate to Toronto. Inspired by the international work and impact of the Sea Walls mandate, a small group of Canadian change-makers spearheaded inviting Tre’ Packard, PangeaSeed Foundation and Sea Walls to the Great Lakes basin for the creation of a fresh water focused mural festival. For more information, visit www.loveletterprojects.com and follow @loveletterprojects.