By Karen Whaley

In May 2006, artist/curator Jessica Rose and dancer/choreographer Jenn Goodwin were both working for the city, organizing Toronto’s first Nuit Blanche. The pair began going on runs around City Hall on their lunch break to blow off steam. Since then, Rose and Goodwin have organized runs around various art centres around the city as The Movement Movement: a community art project where marathon meets performance.
On Monday, April 21 at 8:00 p.m., The Movement Movement is premiering their short film, Run the ROM, at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West). Directed by Nick de Pencier, the film documents a 5k “art run” through the Royal Ontario Museum by 300 participants: high school students, athletes from Toronto’s running community, artists, arts administrators, and museum patrons.
What happens when you give the museum audience agency to break the fundamental taboo of cultural institutions—”Don’t run in the hallway”? The result is a living, breathing, moving (and sweating) social sculpture that develops new relationships between the public and the museum space.
Run the ROM will be followed by a Q&A by Misha Glouberman of Trampoline Hall, and a dance party in the Gladstone Ballroom.
Photo by Dean Baldwin, courtesy of The Movement Movement.