By Alison Horn

Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.

Photo of Justin Rutledge by Ivan Otis. Courtesy of the Junction Arts Festival.

COMMUNITY: With the summer street-festival season drawing to a close, the west end may be getting the last word in with the seventeenth annual Junction Arts Festival. True to the festival logo, the five-day celebration will feature a mosaic of visual and performing arts, speakers and workshops in the Green Village, a juried art exhibit featuring more than seventy artists, gallery open houses, arts and crafts for the kids, and an artisan marketplace. The festival boasts an all-Canadian lineup with the Starlight Orchestra opening the show tonight, and performances by hometown favourites The Framework, Mr. Something Something, The Beauties, Jason Collett, and Justin Rutledge this weekend. Junction City Square (2960 Dundas Street West), 7–11 p.m., FREE.
ART: The Textile Museum goes off the hook tonight with a lecture on the history of rug hooking in Canada. Appealing to dilettante and connoisseur crafters alike, Sharon MacDonald will present “Hooked Rugs And The Economy,” an exploration of this art form that goes well beyond an account of domestic craft. During her talk, MacDonald will draw from diverse communities and geographic regions to weave together the significant role that hooked rugs have played in the economy throughout the past century. Textile Museum of Canada (55 Centre Avenue), 6:30 p.m., $12 (FREE for students and museum members).
FASHION: Parkdale fashionistas go philanthropic tonight with the “Walk The Walk” fashion show and silent auction at Shopgirls Gallery Boutique, the local design collective that merges fashion and art. All proceeds from the event, which will feature Shopgirls’ customers as models, will be donated to Windfall Clothing, an award-winning Canadian clothing bank that provides new basics for those in need. The twenty-dollar admission will also get you a drink in hand and a gift bag stuffed with goodies, not to mention the satisfaction of knowing you’ve helped someone less fortunate. Shopgirls Gallery Boutique (1342 Queen Street West), 7–11 p.m., $20.
ART: The AGO is unveiling a new exhibition this evening, “Beautiful Fictions: Photography at the AGO,” featuring the Vivian and David Campbell Collection with works by more than sixty Canadian and international photographers exploring the analog to digital transformation of contemporary photography during the last forty years. The show, which runs through January 2010, will hone in on an exploration and exploitation of new possibilities in the medium, with works by Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Cindy Sherman, Michael Snow, and Jeff Wall, in addition to three pieces by internationally acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Mark Lewis. After perusing the show, be sure to enter the draw to win an original print by German photographer Candida Höfer. Art Gallery Of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West), 10 a.m.–8:30 p.m., $10–18 (FREE 6–8:30 p.m.).