A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
From the Star:
Just dancing on the head — of an issue
Mar. 11, 2006. 03:05 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Like nature, the city abhors a vacuum. When leadership doesn't come from the expected quarters, it must come from somewhere else.
In Toronto today, civic leadership is coming from the cultural sector.
Forget City Hall, Queen's Park and Ottawa. Forget the ward system and our failed regional governments. Forget a political system grown so dysfunctional that we as a city and country are still living off infrastructure laid down 30 to 40 years ago.
Here in Toronto, Mayor David Miller has fought valiantly to right some of the most glaring inequities. But the process has been agonizingly slow and the results deeply unsatisfactory.
Caught up in jurisdictional quarrelling and crass political partisanship, our governments bicker while the world passes us by. How many politicians can dance on the head of an issue — and never made a decision?
In the face of all this, the cultural community's insistence on thinking big seems all the more remarkable. If there's any city building going on in Toronto today, it's thanks to the galleries, museums, performing arts centres, concert halls, universities and community colleges.
Alone among public institutions, they remain engaged with the idea of the future. Only they clearly possess the courage to act and to lead. Everywhere else there is fear and paralysis.
Though "Culture City: New Toronto Buildings" a mini-exhibition on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario until the end of the year, doesn't pretend to be comprehensive, it can't help but raise big questions of leadership and political will.
Simply by mounting this selection of architectural models and sketches, organizers have made their point. Though many of the projects included are additions, not new free-standing structures, the list is impressive. In addition to Frank Gehry's remake of the AGO, there's the Royal Ontario Museum, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the National Ballet School of Canada, the Ontario Science Centre, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, the Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre and the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Though they weren't included, the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Biomolecular and Cellular Research and the Leslie Dan Pharmaceutical Building at the University of Toronto are part of the same phenomenon.
"When you stand here and look at all these models," says AGO president and show co-ordinator, Matthew Teitelbaum, "you can see the future of the city. In a very real sense, we are building the city."
But as Teitelbaum also points out, the backdrop to this burst of activity was a decade of governmental neglect. Because so little investment had occurred, the institutions had all outgrown their facilities.
While none of these projects would have happened without public support, most of the funding came from the private sector. That's good news, of course, though the truth is that philanthropy in Canada still can't match American levels.
Besides, the real test will come in the years ahead once these institutions have reopened and operating costs must be met. But as Teitelbaum argues, a reinvigorated arts scene will mean an increase in creative energy and boost in cultural production as well as tourism.
Meanwhile, civic officials rattle on about "Live with Culture" and "Toronto Unlimited" and wonder why the city's becoming irrelevant. It's unlikely there will be a Bilbao effect in Toronto, nothing like Gehry's Guggenheim Museum to put the city on the world map. That would require a concerted effort on the part of all levels of government to rebuild the physical infrastructure, as the Spaniards did. This city and province are far behind on this score. Consider the sorry spectacle that unfolded this week when TTC officials made it clear they don't have the money to run the proposed York University subway line even if does get built.
In addition to its Guggenheim, don't forget, Bilbao also constructed a new Metro, with stations designed by acclaimed English architect Norman Foster. Almost as many people travel there to see it as the Gehry.
The cultural sector can't remake Toronto all by itself, but it can turn empty boosterism into civic confidence and transform the city.
AoD
Just dancing on the head — of an issue
Mar. 11, 2006. 03:05 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Like nature, the city abhors a vacuum. When leadership doesn't come from the expected quarters, it must come from somewhere else.
In Toronto today, civic leadership is coming from the cultural sector.
Forget City Hall, Queen's Park and Ottawa. Forget the ward system and our failed regional governments. Forget a political system grown so dysfunctional that we as a city and country are still living off infrastructure laid down 30 to 40 years ago.
Here in Toronto, Mayor David Miller has fought valiantly to right some of the most glaring inequities. But the process has been agonizingly slow and the results deeply unsatisfactory.
Caught up in jurisdictional quarrelling and crass political partisanship, our governments bicker while the world passes us by. How many politicians can dance on the head of an issue — and never made a decision?
In the face of all this, the cultural community's insistence on thinking big seems all the more remarkable. If there's any city building going on in Toronto today, it's thanks to the galleries, museums, performing arts centres, concert halls, universities and community colleges.
Alone among public institutions, they remain engaged with the idea of the future. Only they clearly possess the courage to act and to lead. Everywhere else there is fear and paralysis.
Though "Culture City: New Toronto Buildings" a mini-exhibition on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario until the end of the year, doesn't pretend to be comprehensive, it can't help but raise big questions of leadership and political will.
Simply by mounting this selection of architectural models and sketches, organizers have made their point. Though many of the projects included are additions, not new free-standing structures, the list is impressive. In addition to Frank Gehry's remake of the AGO, there's the Royal Ontario Museum, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the National Ballet School of Canada, the Ontario Science Centre, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, the Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre and the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Though they weren't included, the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Biomolecular and Cellular Research and the Leslie Dan Pharmaceutical Building at the University of Toronto are part of the same phenomenon.
"When you stand here and look at all these models," says AGO president and show co-ordinator, Matthew Teitelbaum, "you can see the future of the city. In a very real sense, we are building the city."
But as Teitelbaum also points out, the backdrop to this burst of activity was a decade of governmental neglect. Because so little investment had occurred, the institutions had all outgrown their facilities.
While none of these projects would have happened without public support, most of the funding came from the private sector. That's good news, of course, though the truth is that philanthropy in Canada still can't match American levels.
Besides, the real test will come in the years ahead once these institutions have reopened and operating costs must be met. But as Teitelbaum argues, a reinvigorated arts scene will mean an increase in creative energy and boost in cultural production as well as tourism.
Meanwhile, civic officials rattle on about "Live with Culture" and "Toronto Unlimited" and wonder why the city's becoming irrelevant. It's unlikely there will be a Bilbao effect in Toronto, nothing like Gehry's Guggenheim Museum to put the city on the world map. That would require a concerted effort on the part of all levels of government to rebuild the physical infrastructure, as the Spaniards did. This city and province are far behind on this score. Consider the sorry spectacle that unfolded this week when TTC officials made it clear they don't have the money to run the proposed York University subway line even if does get built.
In addition to its Guggenheim, don't forget, Bilbao also constructed a new Metro, with stations designed by acclaimed English architect Norman Foster. Almost as many people travel there to see it as the Gehry.
The cultural sector can't remake Toronto all by itself, but it can turn empty boosterism into civic confidence and transform the city.
AoD