The City of Toronto and the Government of Québec will host a three-day virtual symposium, focusing on the future of public art in cities. The ArtworxTO symposium “Public Art of Tomorrow” will run from Monday, November 22 to Wednesday, November 24, as part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021–2022.
This virtual symposium will celebrate Toronto’s impressive existing public art collection, while discussing the future role of art and artists within urban centres. Keynote speakers, panelists and industry leaders will discuss pandemic recovery and rebuilding — specifically the essential role of the cultural and creative sectors within urban areas.
Public art is at the heart of a city’s development and vitality. By reimagining and animating public spaces, cities can bring people back to plazas, main streets and neighbourhoods that were severely impacted by the pandemic. The integration of public art in communities city-wide connects citizens to their surroundings and assists with the social development and sustainability of the sector.
Building upon the relationship between Toronto and the province of Québec, the symposium will connect arts organizations, industry professionals and businesses from Toronto, Montréal and Québec to work together towards economic recovery. The Content Director of the symposium is MASSIVart and the three-day virtual event will be hosted on Swapcard.
The symposium will include conferences, panels, discussions, artist showcases, an ArtworxTO call for proposal to artists with ties to Ontario and Québec representing the theme “Public Art of Tomorrow” and art displays throughout Toronto that the public may view in-person. Attendees will get to vote on the temporary public artwork that they want to see installed as part of ArtworxTO.
Confirmed symposium speakers include:
Tom Finkelpearl, former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
Sara Diamond, President Emerita, OCAD University
Ana Serrano, President & Vice Chancellor, OCAD University
Ashley McKenzie-Barnes, Curator and CCO/Founder, D.PE Agency
Pierre Poussin, artist
Farnoosh Talaee , Director of Mayten’s
Guillaume Aniorté, Partenariat Quartier des spectacles, Montréal
T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, Interdisciplinary artist (Toronto/B.C.)
Participating speakers, artists and industry leaders will be live from all over North America, discussing topics including: “Public Art: A Real Possibility for Social Change?”; “Actions to Take Now for A Better Public Art Future”; “How to Export Canadian Public Art Expertise”; and “Reaching the Community & Citizens Through Public Art”.
The symposium is part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021–2022, which kicks off the City’s new 10-Year of Public Art Strategy and signals Toronto’s renewed commitment to public art.
The City’s 10-Year Public Art Strategy is available here
More information about ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021–2022, including an interactive map of the City’s extensive collection of public art, is available here
“Public art continues to play a critical role in the vitality of cities, especially during this period of pandemic recovery and rebuilding. I’m delighted that the City of Toronto and the Government of Québec are partnering through this symposium to discuss the essential role of the cultural and creative sectors within urban areas and to celebrate Toronto’s impressive public art collection.”
– Mayor John Tory
Toronto is home to more than 2.9 million people whose diversity and experiences make this great city Canada’s leading economic engine and one of the world’s most diverse and livable cities. As the fourth largest city in North America, Toronto is a global leader in technology, finance, film, music, culture and innovation, and consistently places at the top of international rankings due to investments championed by its government, residents and businesses. For more information visit the City’s website or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
