culture
Councillor Proposes Toronto Biennale
For a 150th birthday present, Kristyn Wong-Tam wants Toronto to throw a big arts party.
Photo of the Architecture for Canada Venice Biennale project by funinthegym from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) wants to ring in Canada’s sesquicentennial with a giant art fair.
The Ward 27 councillor has proposed a member’s motion for next week’s council meeting, asking the Economic Development department to study the feasibility of launching a Toronto Biennale of Art to mark Canada’s 150th birthday.
Wong-Tam’s motion reads in part:
“Toronto is the ideal city with its dynamic and unique neighbourhoods to host a new multi-month, bi-annual arts festival showing the very best in Canadian and international contemporary visual arts.”
In the last council term, Council resisted Wong-Tam’s push for high-profile international events. She put forward motions to host the Olympics or a World Expo, but neither gained significant traction.
But there is a tradition of attaching legacy projects to major anniversaries. In Toronto, Canada’s centennial saw the restoration of St. Lawrence Hall, the construction of the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, the Ontario Science Centre, and even the Island Hedge Maze.
It’s also worth mentioning that a sizeable body of research suggests that there are important economic, education, and health benefits to be gained from an active arts scene.
A months-long arts celebration could be a nice way to enjoy public art while also avoiding the stampedes of Scotiabank™ Nuit Blanche. If that isn’t enough (and it should be), at the recent Toronto Arts Foundation Awards ceremony, John Tory stated that investing in the arts is a priority, and the City should set a higher per capita funding goal.
Whether the arts community will see follow through on the rhetoric from City Hall is an open question, but there’s an opportunity out there.