With 35 captivating neighbourhood-based walks on the program, this year’s edition of Jane’s Walk promises to be the most deliciously diverse version of the festival yet.
We don’t have the space to preview all of the tours on offer this weekend, but we do want to draw our readers’ attention to several of the walks with a strong Spacing connection.
From the outset of this blog, the people behind Apartment 613 have been huge supporters of Spacing Ottawa and it is no surprise to us that they have also brought their interest in all things urban to helping organize and promote the Ottawa version of Jane’s Walk. As well, this year they’ll be leading a tour of the Bank Street business strip, meeting at 2.00 PM on Saturday at the corner of Bank and Laurier and talking to owners of that ever-evolving street’s most interesting businesses, live-blogging as they go.
Tonya Davidson has written a series of intriguing posts for us on the social aspect of Ottawa’s statuary; she is writing a doctoral thesis on that very topic and walkers on her tour of Ottawa are guaranteed to find out something completely unexpected about the bronze memorials we too often take for granted on our streets and in our parks. Her tour is called “The Social Lives of Statues” and it begins at 9.30 am on Saturday at the National War Memorial at Elgin and Wellington.
Rounding out the contingent is our Muncipal Election co-columnist Ian Capstick. With a wide experience of working on Parliament Hill and a deep interest in public space, Ian has discovered that the built form of Parliament is far from a finished product; new buildings are on the drawing books and Ian is planning his tour to be a glimpse at what the Parliamentary Precinct will look like in the year 2032. Ian’s walk will muster at what must be the festival’s most “can’t miss” meeting point; you can join him at 3.00 PM Saturday just under the Peace Tower.
photo by fieldtripp