Community gathers to celebrate the history of Allan Gardens
The People, Power, & the Park festival featured live music, poetry, and archival exhibits to showcase Allan Gardens’ vast history as a place of protest and gathering.
Photos by Alyssa K. Faoro
Photo: Exhibition banners featuring key figures and moments in Allan Gardens’ history.
Earlier this fall, the downtown Toronto community gathered in Allan Gardens for People, Power, & the Park, a four-day festival celebrating the park’s vast history as a gathering place for various communities and groups.
Led by the Office of Social Innovation, under the Imagine the Park program, People, Power, & the Park was organized in partnership with community groups to celebrate and reflect on Allan Gardens’ rich history and its continued impact on the city. From gay rights activists to G20 protesters, people have come together in Allan Gardens to enjoy the greenspace, celebrate their communities, and advocate for their causes.
In a celebration of this history, the four-day festival featured live music and poetry readings, including a performance from Juno Award-winning dub poet Lillian Allen, walking tours led by local historians, and a series of archival exhibits and installations created in collaboration with TMU students, staff, and community organizations.
“Allan Gardens is a brilliant microcosm of everything that's best about Toronto, right at the heart of the city. We were struck by how much there was to know about this one large city block, how much living and how much community, and about the range of groups that gathered here, decade after decade, to make their voices heard and to speak out for social justice.”
Photo: Community members in opening ceremony dance with Philip Cote
The exhibits and installations provided a deeper look into key moments in Allan Garden’s history. These pieces included a large-scale archival exhibit with 30 curated boxes designed and built by students in the Department of Architectural Science. The boxes offered snapshots into events like the 1999 Allan Gardens Housing Protest and the 1965 Anti-Fascist Riot. Alongside the archival exhibits were banners featuring images of historical figures and activists designed and created with the assistance of TMU School of Performance students Brenda Diep and Shaan Tahir Mehdi under Dr. Caroline O’Brien. In the evening, a series of light projections featuring reflections and perspectives on the park were displayed on the Allan Gardens conservatory roof; students created these projections in the TPH 350 Projection Design course with Dr. Michael Bergmann.
Photo: Community members looking at archival installation.
“The reduced size of items in the cases forced me to step close to see clearly. I marvelled at how much story was conveyed in such a compact space and at the power that intimate contact wields.”
People, Power, & the Park is one of many ongoing initiatives under the Office of Social Innovation’s Imagine the Park program. Developed in partnership with community organizations that service the downtown neighbourhood, Imagine the Park aims to create a bridge between TMU and the Allan Gardens community. This has been accomplished over the last year through a wide range of programming, including bi-weekly children’s storytelling in the park with the Children’s Book Bank, a seasonal Sunday in the Park festival hosted with the Friends of Allan Gardens, and an annual Indigenous Artist in the Park Residency, held this year by Michel Dumont.
“From the opening ceremony to the evenings of music, it was incredible to see a wide range of community members come together in this historical park to celebrate. It was a type of community joy we’ve been missing for the past two years, and I hope to see more events like this developed at Allan Gardens through Imagine the Park and our partners.”
After its debut in Allan Gardens, the installations and exhibits from People, Power, & the Park were moved to the Department of Architectural Sciences’ Paul H. Cocker gallery, where it will be available for viewing until October 27. Visit torontomu.ca/peoplepowerpark to learn more about Imagine the Park and where to find the People, Power, & the Park exhibit next!
Photo: Architecture students sitting on archival installation with TMU President Mohamed Lachemi.