U of T Art Museum

Eight Indigenous artists are behind a specially commissioned temporary art installation outside the University of Toronto's Hart House, Windspeaker reports.

Called Tree Protection Zone, the installation features mural-sized works by Indigenous artists and their collaborators on tree-protection hoardings in the Hart House Commons. The works will focus on the preservation of life, water and kin – and how each is linked to the protection of trees.

The project is curated by Maria Hupfield, an assistant professor of Indigenous digital arts and performance at U of T Mississauga and member of the Wasauksing First Nation, and Mikinaak Migwans, an assistant professor in the department of art history in the Faculty of Arts & Science and a member of Wikwemikong Unceded First Nation. In addition to Hart House, presenting partners include: the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Office of the Vice-President, Operations and Real Estate Partnerships, Indigenous Student Services and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives.

The temporary public art project is designed to set the stage for the Indigenous Landscape project, which is being created alongside the Landmark project on the St. George campus and is set to begin construction next year.

U of T prof hosts ‘McLuhanesque’ marathon talk with Margaret Atwood, Mayor John Tory and others

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 13:53:21 +0000

U of T prof hosts ‘McLuhanesque’ marathon talk with Margaret Atwood, Mayor John Tory and others

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 07/20/2021 - 09:53

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Clockwise from top left; John Tory, Riley Yesno, Margaret Atwood, Paolo Granata, Mark Kingwell, Joe Wong, Derrick de Kerckhove and the late U of T professor, philosopher and renowned media theorist Marshall McLuhan.

Yanan Wang

Topic

Global Lens

French

Toronto Rehabilitation Institute

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Faculty of Arts & Science

Indigenous

Marshall McLuhan

Philosophy

St. Michael's College

University Health Network

Victoria College

In the 1970s, the late University of Toronto professor, philosopher and renowned media theorist Marshall McLuhan regularly hosted gatherings at his home on Monday nights, when an eclectic group of students, fellow faculty and others came together to answer his open-ended question: “What’s on your mind?”

A lengthy discussion would ensue, with no specific agenda or subject. The purpose of the dialogue was not to draw conclusions, but rather to keep the conversation going.

Paolo Granata
(photo by Martyn Jones)

In the same spirit of free-flowing inquiry, Paolo Granata will host the second-annual Global Village Day today – a 12-hour online streaming marathon that runs noon until midnight and features speakers from a range of cultures and disciplines.

“Global Village Day is a way to gather an international community of scholars, thinkers and artists to not only celebrate one of the most iconic Canadian philosophers, but also to conceive of Toronto as a global village,” says Granata, an assistant professor of book and media studies at St. Michael’s College, referencing the term famously coined by McLuhan.

In partnership with the McLuhan Institute and the Marshall McLuhan Estate, the event aims to tackle questions surrounding place, public art and global governance that have arisen from the pandemic. Much like McLuhan’s own gatherings, the discussion aims to be free-flowing and open-ended. The speakers have been placed into groups of three to five, with each group occupying an hour of the marathon. They will address three core questions on lessons from the pandemic and how the global village can be reimagined for a sustainable future.

The event will be highly interactive and participatory, Granata says. The marathon will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, and audience members are invited to submit comments and questions, which Granata will in turn pose to the guest speakers.

Hailing from 12 different countries, guests will include: world-renowned author Margaret Atwood, a graduate of U of T’s Victoria College; Joe Wong, U of T’s vice-president, international; Mark Kingwell, a writer and professor of philosophy in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Riley Yesno, an Anishinaabe writer who graduated from Victoria College this year; Derrick de Kerckhove, former director of the McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology and a professor emeritus in the department of French; and Roda Muse, secretary-general of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.

Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Ontario’s lieutenant governor, and Toronto Mayor John Tory, a graduate of U of T’s Trinity College, will kick off the marathon with remarks. In his greeting, Tory will also introduce ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022, a slate of public artworks and related programming set to officially launch this September.

Professor Marshall McLuhan with students and other faculty during one of his famous evening seminars (photo by Robert Lansdale Photography via U of T Archives)

“I’m sure McLuhan would be struck by the vibrant media arts landscape that Toronto has created,” Tory says in a pre-recorded greeting. “And, of course, we can continue to thank him for teaching us that in a diverse city like this, a global village in a big city, communication is vital to understanding and to mutual support.”

U of T has worked with the city and other partners on a number of projects for ArtworxTO, including upcoming exhibitions and programming at the U of T Art Museum on the St. George campus and at U of T Scarborough, collaborating with the city on the annual Nuit Blanche event, student-led research through U of T’s School of Cities to evaluate the Year of Public Art and a future mural honouring Terry Fox at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, part of the University Health Network.

The initiatives emphasize how U of T and the city of Toronto are connected, says Barbara Fischer, executive director of the U of T Art Museum.

“The university is at the heart of the city and vice versa,” Fischer says. “The projects will highlight how much art informs our sense of place and how intertwined the city is with the U of T campus.”

Screenshots from last year’s Global Village Day event, which was held online due to the pandemic.

One project is already underway at Hart House Green, where an Indigenous Landscape will ultimately be formed on the site. In the meantime, Assistant Professors Maria Hupfield and Mikinaak Migwans are working with Indigenous artists to develop murals celebrating Indigenous relations to the land that will adorn the hoarding currently used to protect existing trees.

Moreover, U of T Scarborough is working with the city to develop an app that will allow users to take self-guided tours of public art around Toronto. Graduate students are working with the U of T Art Museum to develop the script for the audio tour, which will introduce perspectives and ideas surrounding public art that can be found in various neighbourhoods, parks and streets.

ArtworxTO is part of a years-long effort connected to Toronto’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, for which Granata was the principal driver in 2017.

“U of T has played an instrumental role in fostering media arts, technology and creativity in the city of Toronto,” Granata says.

While the first Global Village Day took place during the early days of the pandemic last summer, this year’s event will highlight the lessons gleaned from a year and a half of upheaval.

“Now is the time to reflect on a fundamental question: what did we learn during this pandemic?” Granata says. “It is time to take account of all the valuable lessons in terms of cultural participation, higher education and all other fields. What really matters to us in a post-pandemic world? If we don’t address these questions, we may go back to the old normal without really growing as a society.

He added that COVID-19 underscored the need for global governance.

“We need the flexibility of different countries working together and making decisions for the common good.”

While this year’s Global Village Day will once again be entirely virtual, participants will show themselves passing around the marathon’s “torch” on their screens: an object of their choosing that they believe represents the idea of the global village in the 21^st century. At the close of the event at midnight, there will be a toast to McLuhan to mark the 110^th anniversary of his birth on July 21.

“As McLuhan said, ‘I don’t explain, I explore,’” Granata says. “So, we will be explorers celebrating his legacy.”

Rooftop gardening and Toronto Fringe Festival: Check out these July events

Romi Levine — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 14:20:16 +0000

Rooftop gardening and Toronto Fringe Festival: Check out these July events

Romi Levine Tue, 07/02/2019 - 10:20

Cutline

Spend a Thursday afternoon gardening on a U of T Scarborough rooftop this July (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Isabel Armiento

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

Faculty of Music

Hart House

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

With convocation behind us, the University of Toronto has once again undergone its seasonal transition from a bustling hub of activity into a more relaxed space. Take advantage of this quiet(er) time to participate in the many events campus has to offer during the month of July.

The Toronto Fringe Festival is in full swing this month and several U of T theatres are prominent venues, including the Robert Gill Theatre, the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse and the George Ignatieff Theatre. This year’s Fringe lineup is also replete with U of T students and alumni – so be sure to show your support for U of T talent this month for only $13 a ticket.

Or, if nurturing a green thumb is more your thing, learn to grow your own vegetables at the Instructional Centre’s scenic rooftop garden at U of T Scarborough.

Here is just a snapshot of the various events happening in and around U of T in July:

July 4

Kick off the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival with News Play, a comedy about chasing success in the elusive print news industry. Created by U of T alumnus and eight-time Fringe veteran Madeleine Brown, the play was influenced by Brown’s own time working as a newspaper editor at U of T Mississauga’s The Medium. Stop by the Annex Theatre from July 4-14 to celebrate – and lament – the joys of working in publishing.

July 6

The Fringe Festival’s Above & Beyond features a full cast of U of T alumni, including producer Angela Sun, director Rebecca Ballarin, set/costume designer Jules Mendoza, sound designer Frank Incer and actor Francis Masaba. Catch this workplace comedy about two millennial women navigating office politics from July 4-13 at U of T’s Robert Gill Theatre.

July 7

See the Toronto Fringe play Every Silver Lining from July 4-13 at the Al Green Theatre. Co-created and co-produced by – and co-starring – alumna Laura Piccinin, this dramedy-slash-musical intersects the hopefulness of youth with the hopelessness of disease to construct a poignant coming-of-age story about resilience.

July 8

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design hosts Bits & Bytes, a youth workshop on the fundamentals of urban design and landscape architecture. Students and staff are welcome to bring their children aged nine to 11 for a week of architecture-based programming.

July 9

Join theatre troupe Tita Collective, the self-styled “Spice Girls of Comedy with a Filipina twist” and winners of the Toronto Sketchfest 2019 Producers Pick, for Fringe play Tita Jokes, which is co-created, co-produced and performed by jazz musician and U of T Faculty of Music grad Belinda Corpuz. Catch this comedy sketch revue from July 4-14 at the Tarragon Theatre Mainspace.

July 10

Get acquainted with U of T Mississauga Assistant Professor Steven Chatfield – as well as with the various medicinal plants on campus – with Wicked Plants, this summer’s Walk with your Professor event. All members of the U of T community are invited to attend this informative nature walk.

July 11

Gather in the Great Hall to hear the Hart House Singers belt out a stirring musical medley in their showcase Journeys: Songs of Travel and Discovery. Admission is free.

July 12

Join your fellow graduates for the second Grad Escape of 2019 – an evening of Shakespeare in High Park featuring the Bard’s light-hearted classic Much Ado About Nothing.

July 13

Enjoy the beautiful summer weather with weekly rooftop gardening sessions scheduled every Thursday afternoon. Learn to grow your own vegetables in the Instructional Centre’s scenic rooftop garden at U of T Scarborough.

Or, if you prefer eating the food to cultivating it, stop by for a drop-in weekly lunch and the opportunity to taste the fresh produce instead.

July 14

Kevin Vidal, from the hit musical Come From Away, directs Toronto Fringe’s Ouvrez la Porte, Fermez la Bouche. This compelling story about communication and vulnerability runs at U of T’s Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse from July 4-14.

The cast of Tita Jokes, including U of T's Belinda Corpuz (left), Ellie Posadas, Maricris Rivera, Alia Rasul, Isabel Kanaan (photo by Tyra Sweet)

July 16

View In & Out of Saskatchewan, a nuanced depiction of Saskatchewan on display at the U of T Art Centre until July 27. Experience this unique rendering of the artistic journey between urban centres and rural spaces through a varied collection of artwork curated by Kate Whiteway.

Catch a weekly drop-in tour of U of T’s featured summer art exhibitions every Tuesday at 2 p.m.

July 18

Join your peers for the third grad escape of 2019 – a board game night at Bampot House of Tea, including food, tea and a spirited round of Cards Against Humanity.

July 20

Celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing at Space Time, a lunar-themed event hosted by the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics. With moon-themed games and engaging talks by astronomers, there will be something for every space enthusiast.

July 24

Register now for A Little Touch of the Caribbean, a two-part event that includes a Caribbean dance workout followed by a lunch of authentic Jamaican cuisine. Listen to steelpan music while learning about Caribbean culture at this Caribana-inspired celebration, which will take place in the U of T Mississauga Student Centre. Free with registration.

July 26

Attend the 2019 OISE Summer Institute conference on the theme of Media & Digital Literacy Education for Social Justice. This two-day session offers workshops and discussions designed to refine participants’ digital media literacy skills, as well as strategies for practising social justice in the classroom.

July 27

If you’ve been struggling to find a place to stay during the upcoming school year – or a roommate to stay with – the U of T Housing Fair is a must. Located at the Student Success Centre, this event brings together students and landlords along with all the housing resources U of T has to offer.

July 30

Take time during your relaxing summer break to get a head start on developing strategies for handling school-year stress. The Academic Success Centre offers a workshop on managing exam anxiety, as well as other helpful workshops for effectively managing procrastination, motivation and stress. Enrol to ensure that this school year is full of success – as well as self-care.

July 31

For fresh produce from local farmers, visit U of T Scarborough’s weekly f armers’ market. Whether your appetite is for fruits, meats, sweets or carbs, the market will satisfy all your Wednesday afternoon cravings throughout the summer.

Beat poets to rock stars: See the massive collection of photos by Allen Ginsberg on display at U of T

Romi Levine — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 20:27:47 +0000

Beat poets to rock stars: See the massive collection of photos by Allen Ginsberg on display at U of T

Romi Levine Tue, 01/30/2018 - 15:27

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A young Allen Ginsberg and his longtime partner Peter Orlovsky (photo courtesy of Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library)

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

U of T Art Museum

John Shoesmith remembers the first time he came across the Beat poets. He had just graduated from university and had yet to find a job, so he spent his afternoons sipping coffee at Future Bakery on Bloor Street while getting lost in the free-flowing stories and poems of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

“What I responded to with the Beats is the sense of freedom,” says Shoesmith.“This idea that one can live an unconventional life.”

Today, Shoesmith is a librarian at University of Toronto’s Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library where, for the past four years, he’s had access to a gold mine of artifacts from the Beat Generation: the largest collection of photographs by famed poet Allen Ginsberg in the world.

The collection, made up of over 7,000 photos and prints, were donated to the Fisher Library and the U of T Art Museum by the Rossy Family Foundation, which had acquired them from the Ginsberg estate.

Nuit Blanche Toronto comes to U of T, Queen's Park for exhibition by Art Museum curator

Romi Levine — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 19:07:59 +0000

Nuit Blanche Toronto comes to U of T, Queen's Park for exhibition by Art Museum curator

Romi Levine Fri, 09/29/2017 - 15:07

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Nuit Blanche is coming to U of T's downtown Toronto campus (photo by Anton Bielousov via Flickr)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Cities

U of T Art Museum

Subheadline

“Art can speak to ... what the city means to us through a lens that is informed by different histories but also different futures”

As the sun sets tomorrow, thousands of people will be bundling up and heading to downtown Toronto for the all-night art festival Nuit Blanche.

Inspired by the vibrancy of Toronto’s streets and gathering places, Barbara Fischer, executive director and chief curator of the University of Toronto’s Art Museum, has curated a Nuit Blanche exhibition called Taking to the Streets, with eight installations around Queen's Park and U of T’s downtown Toronto campus.

“There's an incredible celebratory aspect to Nuit Blanche, with so many people interested and curious about encountering something that surprises them, where people seem to really enjoy seeing things they're not familiar with,” says Fischer.

Approaching Queen's Park, you’ll hear the bass from a group of souped-up cars blasting music for the Automobile installation. At the park’s College Street border, join artists and activists for Won’t Back Down, a commemoration of a Black Lives Matter protest march in 2016. Head to the U of T's Medical Sciences building for a different perspective on how police and passive protesters clash, with Holding Still // Holding Together, and have a rest while voices sing to you in unison in the Faculty of Music building for Dream Variations.

Explore all of the Taking to the Streets installations

U of T News spoke with Fischer about the festival and why it’s important to showcase art in the city.

What's the message behind Taking to the Streets?

For me, Nuit Blanche is in public spaces, and how we are able to be in public space and who is welcome and how people feel when they are in them.

The idea is to look at what brings us into the street, but beyond the pragmatic there's the idea that the streets are where we celebrate in collective ways – where the city could be collectively somehow – whether it's Pride days or Caribana. But it's also a site of protest and constant negotiation of public space and the presentation of concerns that are collective in particular.

I wanted to pick that up and draw it out through the Nuit Blanche festival and through curating a section this year.

Queen's Park – the venue for many of these installations – has been the site of many of those celebrations and protests. Was that a deliberate choice?

The project remembers aspects of history of protest and, at the same time, it tries to think through them through the eyes of artists and how artists work with aspects of memory, and, at the same time, what the conversation is today and where it might be going.

Queen's Park was the magnet – it's resonant with these histories. It's the focal point in the city for people speaking to power or making themselves heard and seen.

What is the role of a large-scale art festival like Nuit Blanche for advancing the city's cultural scene and providing public access to the arts?

It's an event which is so open, anyone can come and enter into it. I think there's a sense that you don't need to know a lot about art to be able to participate and enjoy the surprises that greet you along the way. Nuit Blanche has become a particularly successful way for people who want to experience something different and new, and see the contemporary art as a way of opening up new worlds and different perspectives, whether at a physical, a sensory or conceptual level. I think that is part of what art can do.

I think art can speak to particular places, to what the city means to us, through a lens that is informed by different histories, but also different futures. Artists sometimes project a way out, towards a different way of being together, whether socially or collectively or individually.

It encourages us to think about what is important about a city and what we want a city to be, and how we imagine our lives to be in a city. Artists can contribute to that in very interesting, thought-provoking, stimulating and also sensuous ways.

U of T Art Museum presents history of Toronto told through its artists

Romi Levine — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 13:07:31 +0000

U of T Art Museum presents history of Toronto told through its artists

Romi Levine Fri, 09/30/2016 - 09:07

Cutline

All photos by Romi Levine

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Subheadline

Form Follows Fiction covers 50 years of art by local artists, curated by Luis Jacob

Toronto’s art scene is as diverse and fragmented as the city itself.

You’ll find the work of local artists scattered across the city in small galleries and large institutions alike – all offering a different perspective of the place they call home.

Rarely, however, are these works brought together under one roof. But that’s what artist, U of T alumnus and visiting professor, Luis Jacob, has set out to do with the Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto exhibition at U of T’s Art Museum.

The exhibition, curated by Jacob, explores the way Toronto artists have visualized the city over the past 50 years through the themes that connect them.

Form Follows Fiction runs from now until December 10.

Find out more about the exhibition here

U of T News spoke with Jacob about the exhibit and why it’s important to tell Toronto’s story through art.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

How did Form Follows Fiction come about?

The exhibition is a product of a long conversation of Barbara Fisher, the director of the Art Museum. She’s also a very important curator in the city. For many, many years we’ve had this ongoing conversation about Toronto and the particular forms of culture that have been developing here. Something I’ve felt for a long time is that there’s obviously a great deal of artistic activity in Toronto – lots of artists, lots of exhibitions, lots of galleries. So there’s a sense of vitality that’s a discernible quality of art in Toronto. But something I think we don’t do so well is connect the dots between artists of one moment and another moment, generations of artists, even different aesthetic practices. In part, the exhibition is trying to connect the dots.

What can we expect at the exhibition?

The premise of the exhibition is that certain themes connect works that might at first appearance look quite different from each other. There are many threads in an exhibition like this but I’m trying to look at how these themes have something to say about this place we call Toronto.

One of the interesting themes that is explored in the exhibition is the theme of the vacant lot. The idea of the vacant lot as a kind of metaphor or allegory or figure that artists adopt in order to say something about Toronto as a specific place.

We have this historical document called a Toronto purchase. It documents the agreement conducted between the Mississaugas of New Credit first nation and the British crown about the terrain we now call Toronto. Something I find fascinating is that the British surveyor who made the document rendered the land as a kind of blank page. The drawing is quite striking. It was made at the end of the 18th century and yet it also looks like a work of minimalist art or conceptual art from the 1970s.

Today’s Toronto is definitely marked by the question of real estate, the value of real estate, the process of gentrification and so I think this idea of treating what exists as something waiting to be exploited is something that has a prevalence today which one can trace its roots to the colonial founding of the city as a kind of vacant lot. So this 18th century idea of Toronto of the land as a vacant lot waiting to be exploited does influence our contemporary relationship to the environment. Gentrification is simply another version of that kind of an impulse.

Why is it important to present work from Toronto artists in one place?

To bring together works from different generations shows us the things that change over time and the things that remain the same. What are the themes, the ideas, the imagery and the allegories that remain the same although obviously the city itself changes over time, artistic practice changes over time.

The city right now is undergoing very rapid change and that provides a good opportunity to reflect on what artist have been telling us about this place we call Toronto.

Toronto’s art scene tends to take place in smaller galleries across the city rather than in large art institutions like in New York City. Do you think it’s an advantage that Toronto’s art scene is so decentralized?

That’s a great observation that there’s something about the mechanics in Toronto that emphasize decentralization in contrast to other cities like New York that operate very much in a kind of centralization and subsequent hierarchy. There’s something to the mechanics of culture here in Toronto that is suspicious of hierarchy and hierarchy that’s produced by centralization. That’s another theme the exhibition does explore.

There’s one room where there’s a juxtaposition of paintings. There’s a painting by Lawren Harris called “Pyramid” which obviously relates to the idea of hierarchy and centralized power with another Group of Seven artist (Arthur) Lismer who made a painting called “Undergrowth” which is looking down rather than up, looking at weeds and the great proliferation of life that happens right on the ground rather than on the rarefied pinnacle.

That juxtaposition talks about decentralization or interest among artists in Toronto to not assume the centralized, hierarchal model is the most desirable model to adopt.

You moved to Canada from Peru when you were a child. Do you think that’s influenced your perspective of Toronto?

In some way my experience as an immigrant is very typical of Toronto in that Toronto is largely made up of immigrants. We talk about the multiculturalism of the city. I think that’s part of the DNA of the city by now.

At the same time, even those of us who are born in the city, unless we are of Indigenous descent, we are also immigrants to the city even having been born here in the sense that we are acculturated with settler patterns of inhabitation. How all of us negotiate the colonial reality of this place we call Toronto, the memories and histories that are told and narrated and those that are silenced or overlooked, how we negotiate these things is part of what we call the culture of this place.

U of T Art Museum

U of T unveils Indigenous public art installation at Hart House: Windspeaker

Read more at Windspeaker

U of T prof hosts ‘McLuhanesque’ marathon talk with Margaret Atwood, Mayor John Tory and others

Rooftop gardening and Toronto Fringe Festival: Check out these July events

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July 6

July 7

July 8

July 9

July 10

July 11

July 12

July 13

July 14

July 16

July 18

July 20

July 24

July 26

July 27

July 30

July 31

Beat poets to rock stars: See the massive collection of photos by Allen Ginsberg on display at U of T

Read more about the collection

Nuit Blanche Toronto comes to U of T, Queen's Park for exhibition by Art Museum curator

Explore all of the Taking to the Streets installations

U of T Art Museum presents history of Toronto told through its artists

Find out more about the exhibition here