WHAT: Innovative Approaches to Managing Public Places forum
WHEN: Tuesday, February 26, 2:30pm-5:00pm
WHERE: Trading Floor of the Design Exchange, 234 Bay Street
The Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Public Advisory Group and City of Toronto Facilities & Real Estate and City Planning divisions present a forum exploring how governance, programming, and funding of public places in Toronto and other cities are successfully structured and delivered. Plus, guest speaker Dan Biederman — a driving force behind the revitalization of Bryant Park in New York City — will share his thoughts and experiences.
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WHAT: CITIES — John Hartman
WHEN: now until March 15
WHERE: U of T Art Centre, 15 King’s College Circle
As one of Canada’s leading contemporary painters, John Hartman is known for his large-scale expressionistic landscape paintings animated with the imagery of local historic events and personal narratives. For CITIES, Hartman has painted cities both large and small, from Parry Sound, Port Severn and Owen Sound on the shores of Georgian Bay, to London, New York, Toronto, Montreal and Glasgow.
On Thursday, March 6 from 7-10pm Spacing Associate Editor Shawn Micallef has organized a psychogeographic walk, open to all, called Know your City: Take a walk starting and ending at the gallery. Admission is free. For gallery hours and more information, visit www.utac.utoronto.ca. More information will be posted about this event closer to the date.
Take an hour-long algorithmic walk — where each turn is predetermined by a simple formula, removing choice and likely leading to an undiscovered part of the city. The walks designed by Shawn Micallef co-founder of the location-based mobile phone documentary project [murmur] will be followed by a collaborative psychogeographic map making party at the University of Toronto Art Centre.
Free / Cash Bar
The Events Guide is a new, regular feature on Spacing Toronto. To submit a listing, email eventsguide@spacing.ca. Please note that, due to demand, we cannot guarantee publication of your listing.
Photo by Richard Hsu
2 comments
I just saw the Hartman show for the second time (the first time was when it was at a King West gallery in the fall) – it’s remarkable, I strongly recommend it. The only disappointment is that one or two of the views of Toronto, from above the Don Valley and the Rosedale Ravine, are no longer with the show – I’m guessing because someone bought them. They were really spectacular, and put the city in a somewhat better light than the remaining two Toronto paintings, which are spectacular but not quite as pretty, since they highlight the gashes of the railway lands and Gardiner through the waterfront.
Also, look out for the whimsical figures in the sky of some of the paintings – I missed them the first time around, they’re a lot of fun.
Just missed the ‘Innovative Approaches to Managing Public Places’ forum, but let me bring up an important issue that has been ongoing for several years. There is a school in central Toronto in which its own school park is right next to a main road. Mornings, beginning from the spring months to the occasional warm winter days, there are local pedestrians strolling by the park and leave bread and other food items for birds, which consist of sparrows and pigeons. The birds, as a reward for the generosity from the humans, pollute the park. The parent council at the school brought up concerns that children cannot sit on the grass, nor play and wanted the park cleaned up. The result–the school placed a chainlink fence around the park instead. As of today, the children of the school are not allowed to use the park because of the pollution continually left by passerby, bread and other foods that rot and the discharges left by birds. The school’s caretaker does not have the correct equipment to wear in order to make a through cleanup of the park. Parks and Recreation were called as well as the Works and Emergency Services of the City of Toronto, who can singlehandly tackle the problem, but guess what folks? The park is the property of the school board and no City worker is allowed to cross the fence lines.
The result–an unused school park, gated, now going into it’s 7th year.
Signs have been placed “Do not feed the birds on school property” but has no effect. City by-law officers have yet to ticket anyone for polluting the park.
The City of Toronto knows this park as well as the local councillor, school board trustee, parent council, staff of the school, and you ask why has something not been done? Again, no City worker is allowed to cross the fence lines.
There you have it folks. Red tape at its best.