From:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=968342212737
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How to create a metropolis with art in its arteries
Apr. 16, 2006. 01:00 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUTSUL
STAFF REPORTER
We like to think of Toronto as an artful city. On paper, we have all the markings of a populace that's engaged with art: galleries, concert venues, literary festivals.
But we have to ask ourselves, is art a way of life in Toronto? Do we, as a city, engage with art, literature and performance in any relevant, lasting manner? (And don't think matinee tickets to the Blue Man Group count.)
We asked artists and leaders in the creative community to suggest how art can become an important part of everyday life. This isn't about more money for the grants system or building new studios. Rather, it's about a cultural shift to a more art-conscious state of mind.
One place to start is graffiti. While it's a dirty word to police and city officials, many creative people see it as vibrant artistic expression.
For painter Fiona Smyth, graffiti should be flat-out decriminalized. "Billboards are taking over," she says. "Every available space is being grabbed by corporations, and graffiti can be a counterpoint to that .... "
The art form could extend to our rooftops, which Smyth believes are an untapped resource for gallery space. She imagines a city where rooftops are connected by a network of catwalks and feature sculptures, art pieces and gardens.
If the city is going to become a more artful place, its arts institution should lead the way.
The challenge for the Art Gallery of Ontario, in the midst of a massive rebuilding, is to take all the art and culture that exists within its walls and find a way to let it spill into the city.
Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the AGO, has been contemplating this issue for some time. He believes the AGO can transcend its current role as a contained cultural destination.
One way to do that is to physically bring the gallery's collection into the city. It's a project the gallery would try to pull off in conjunction with other art institutions, such as the Ontario College of Art and Design.
"We've begun thinking about the possibility of doing projects in public spaces — Union Station, the waterfront," says Teitelbaum.
Around the corner, OCAD is contemplating similar issues. There's no questioning the talent and creativity that percolate inside the revamped building, but the challenge will be finding a way to share that with the people of Toronto.
Newly appointed president Sara Diamond, a working artist who's known as a forward-thinking advocate for the arts, wants to re-introduce art "happenings" to daily life. These would be similar to those of the 1960s, but rather than being based in the counterculture, these sessions — designed to contemplate the challenges facing our world — would invite not only artists but also scientists and others with specific expertise.
"I really believe that, especially now, art should be at centre, not the periphery," says Diamond. "There's an articulate sense of anxiety surrounding these issues. One of the great things artists do is turn that sense of anxiety and desperation into a kind of envisioning of what could happen in the future, and find creative ways of problem solving. "
Diamond also advocates the introduction of an artistic "welcoming brigade" at Pearson airport that "would declare that culture is at (Toronto's) heart and it wants to attract people to move here in part because of its cultural environment."
In a literary vein, Molly Peacock, poetry editor at the Literary Review of Canada, suggests we stamp poetry into every new sidewalk square. Peacock, who helped bring "Poetry in Motion" to the New York transit system, says if this were to happen, we'd be "the most marvellously literary city in the world."
Toronto poet Sonnet L'Abbé believes the key to a more artful city is for people to "ease up on the gas" in the pursuit of economic prosperity and make a "personal commitment to loving art. And when I say loving, I mean paying attention to it, getting to know, not just throwing money at it.
"It's like a person growing their own artistic flower ... If you have enough flowers, then the whole city becomes a garden of people who love and consume and make art."