A group of artists has come together to give a house a last hurrah before it is demolished to make way for a new residential development.

Led by artist Stephanie Avery, the crew of 30 artists and muralists is transforming the house on 91 Barton Avenue into a surreal canvas for a colourful new art installation dubbed Art on Barton.

Avery says she wrote to the developers with a pitch to transform the house before it was demolished and they agreed. Avery and project manager Bobby Beckett were the first to arrive on the scene in early June to clean the house, weed out the garden and prime up surfaces for artists to paint on.

The painting began in July with a team of 15 artists. The team has been clocking in 30-40 hours a week on this multi-storey house that has a basement, back yard, porch, front lawn and a garage.

The backyard has been turned into an immersive art installation. Photo by Etti Bali.

You see glimpses of art starting in the back alley. The four garages in the alley lead up to a small green door that opens to the backyard on the left. The garden is teeming with shrubbery and markers of bygone domesticity.

Items like a piano, dresser and filing cabinet are part of an immersive sculpture experience.

A side alley, canopied by vines, leads back to the front of the house. A mural in deep shades of plums and purples is a befitting nod to the fruit of the vines.

A mural painted by artist Ghazaleh Rastgar. Photo by Etti Bali.

Avery says that the guests get to choose their own adventure as they navigate through the house.

Once inside the house, you will notice that the artists have inculcated pre-existing materials from the house in their art. Each room is different as artists divided the house into segments.

Avery used the fireplace as a point from which fluorescent flames of her art emerge. She called it the cleansing fire. 

Artist Stephanie Avery stands next to her mural. Photo by Etti Bali.

Artist Jenneen Marie recreated old greeting cards and posters to create murals on the walls with a stained-glass effect. This installation is aided by black light.

The house has become their Ship of Theseus. An original structure that has taken on a new identity. 

Beckett estimates the house to be over 50 years old, in which the family raised seven kids. 

A mural painted by artist Jenneen Marie inspired by greeting cards and playing cards found in the room. Etti Bali.

To get into something knowing full well that it has an expiry date could not have been an easy task. But Avery says that it is this very nature of this project that is liberating.

"For us, the journey of creation is the important thing. It's very cathartic for us to make this art, knowing that it's going to get demolished soon. It really liberates us to experiment," Avery said.

Artists Ghazaleh Rastgar, Bareket Kezwar and Sowl working on murals on the house's exterior. Etti Bali.

The artists self-funded part of the project. The rest of the money was generated through a grant and a yard sale of items they found in the house.

"The first group of artists were each able to get $100 to pay for their supplies. We got [a] $1,000 grant from the Toronto Awesome Foundation," she said.

She says that the developers have also given "some money to cover some of the costs."

Avery, who tackled the issue of gentrification at this year's Art Nest with an installation she made with sandwich board ads for condos, says that development need not come at the cost of art spaces.  

Artist Erin McCluskey giving finishing touches to her mural. Photo by Etti Bali.

"This is such an amazing example of how we can actually work together. We don't have to be at odds. Everything needs to evolve. There is this world that exists that we're standing in right now, where artists are working with developers, doing a project that benefits both of us. They've given us the space that we appreciate so much," Avery said.

Art on Barton will have its first open house on Aug. 10 from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. It will be open on Aug. 11 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. and then from Aug. 16 to Aug. 18.