What’s next Toronto?

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As part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art, Monument Lab headed to Toronto for a week of participatory programs around the city from October 29-November 3, 2021.

ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022 is a celebration of Toronto’s incredible collection of public art and the artists behind it, creating more opportunities for the public to connect and engage with artwork in their everyday lives.

The Philadelphia-based public art and history studio, co-founded by Ken Lum and Paul Farber, worked with Toronto artist and Monument Lab fellow Quentin VerCetty, on a series of public activations at various civic sites of memory through the mobile A Monument For The Inquisitive and Critical – a truck with a flatbed gallery space outfitted with 3D digital sculptures, collages, and maps that summon the past, present, and future of Toronto’s monuments landscape.

MASSIVart collaborated in bringing this event to life by managing the production aspects of this travelling program. For a week, the mobile monument made daily stops across the city at Nathan Phillips Square, RoundHouse Park, Cloverdale Common, Scarborough Town Centre, Wexford BIA, and Mel Lastman Square.

At each location, against the backdrop of the A Monument For The Inquisitive and Critical, a team of locally-based Monument Lab researchers conducted an open engagement process with participants and passerbys around a guiding question: What’s Next for Toronto?

The reflections from the week of public engagement and research will inform a final report to the City of Toronto’s Arts and Culture Services next year regarding civic commemorative policies within the Public Art and Monuments Collection.

The project also included a special day of public dialogues at Roundhouse Park and online with Lum, Farber, and VerCetty, alongside Toronto-based artists, memory practitioners, civic officials, and performers including Rebecca Carbin, Mark Cheetham, Sally Han, Andrew Lochhead, Karyn Recollet, Randell Adjei, and hosted by Nico Taylor & Queen Kuyoyi.

MASSIVart is proud to have been a part of this crucial project for the future of Toronto’s monuments and public art.