Museum Studies / en U of T alumna aims to bring the history of Emancipation Day, on Aug. 1, to a wider audience /news/u-t-alumna-aims-bring-history-emancipation-day-aug-1-wider-audience <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T alumna aims to bring the history of Emancipation Day, on Aug. 1, to a wider audience</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Jackson%20Park%20Parade.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=MXzJhoF4 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Jackson%20Park%20Parade.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=aJ2yJCf6 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Jackson%20Park%20Parade.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=_dvb2Quh 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Jackson%20Park%20Parade.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=MXzJhoF4" alt="archival image of young black cheerleaders in an emancipation day parade in windsor, on"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-07-30T09:32:09-04:00" title="Thursday, July 30, 2020 - 09:32" class="datetime">Thu, 07/30/2020 - 09:32</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">An undated photo of Emancipation Day celebrations in Windsor Ont., which once drew figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and musical acts like the Supremes (photo courtesy E. Andrea Moore Heritage Collection/Essex County Black Historical Research Society)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/ann-brocklehurst" hreflang="en">Ann Brocklehurst</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/black" hreflang="en">Black</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/museum-studies" hreflang="en">Museum Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/royal-ontario-museum" hreflang="en">Royal Ontario Museum</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Before COVID-19 struck, the city of Windsor, Ont. was looking forward to its&nbsp;biggest Emancipation Day celebrations in recent years on Aug. 1. And, thanks to the efforts of local history buffs, it was well on its way to bringing back an event that recalled the days when Windsor attracted famous civil rights activists and Motown stars to celebrate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in most of the British colonies in 1834.</p> <p>The history – and recent revival – of Windsor’s Emancipation Day is being closely followed by <strong>Tonya Sutherland</strong>, who graduated from the Ƶ with a master’s degree in museum studies this year. Building on research for her 2018 capstone project,&nbsp;Sutherland and two other women from the Toronto area – retired teacher Catherine MacDonald and actor and producer Audra Gray – sought to bring this chapter of Black Canadian history to a wider audience.&nbsp;</p> <p>In the 1950s and early1960s, hundreds of thousands of people would arrive in Windsor for the multi-day festivities that took place the first weekend in August. They heard from figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt – and watched the Supremes, Stevie Wonder and the Temptations,&nbsp;who&nbsp;crossed the Detroit River to perform at Windsor’s Jackson Park. But by the late 1960s, Windsor’s Emancipation Day festivities had begun to lose steam.</p> <p>“These celebrations were some of the biggest in North America, but they didn’t remain in people’s consciousness,” says Sutherland. “It’s a bit of a shame how they’ve been mostly forgotten.”</p> <p>But efforts are underway&nbsp;to make Emancipation Day a big deal again. When Windsor’s Emancipation Day Committee announced it was cancelling this year’s events, it also said it was planning for an significant event in&nbsp;2021.</p> <p>In the meantime, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto will mark Emancipation Day <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/whats-on/emancipation-day-canadas-past-present-future">with a special ROM Connects talk moderated by Sutherland on Aug.&nbsp;5</a>, which follows an earlier talk given this month.</p> <p>Working under the umbrella of the Jackson Park Project, named for the park where the Emancipation Day celebrations were held in Windsor, Sutherland’s goal is to create a digital archive of historical material.</p> <p>As for Sutherland’s partners in the project, MacDonald is aiming to create&nbsp;educational resources for use in classrooms that would be hosted by the digital archive while Gray wants to produce a drama television series based on the annual festivities as well as a documentary. The documentary&nbsp;would chronicle both the team’s behind-the-scenes journey and a proposal before Parliament to formally recognize Emancipation Day nationally (<a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/08e25">Ontario officially&nbsp;recognized the day in 2008</a>).</p> <p>“Audra was watching TV one day and came across this documentary, <em>The Greatest Freedom Show on Earth</em>. It was a larger history of Emancipation Day, somewhat focused on Windsor, but with a broader view,” says Sutherland. “She wondered why she had never heard of it.”</p> <p>Thinking it a story worth dramatizing, Gray linked up with MacDonald, her former teacher who was also interested in Canada’s Black history. MacDonald’s husband mentioned the project to his co-worker, Sutherland’s father, who in turn told his daughter about it.</p> <p>“I tend to get really invested in the personal element of history,” says Sutherland who also&nbsp;earned an undergraduate degree in English and history from U of T in 2016. That interest caused her friends to suggest she might want to check out the Faculty of Information’s museum studies program. The idea resonated with Sutherland, who had also been inspired watching the TV program&nbsp;<em>Mysteries at the Museum</em>.&nbsp;</p> <p>During their first research trip to Windsor in 2018, Sutherland, MacDonald and Gray spent a week researching and filming. Irene Moore Davis, president of the Essex County Black Historical Research Society, shared a wealth of information with the visitors. “While we say this is a history that’s not known to a broader audience, people from Windsor – whose families were involved&nbsp;– are very aware,” says Sutherland. “Irene has been really key to our project because she has quite a large collection of family history including boxes of documents. Her family was very involved in Emancipation Day.”</p> <p>While in Windsor, Sutherland visited the University of Windsor archives, looked at hundreds of photographs&nbsp;and examined the programs printed annually, which typically included a letter from the mayor of Windsor and sometimes featured messages from prominent speakers. “From magazines, you could see who was buying ad space and supporting the celebrations,” she says, adding that the documents helped with her primary research.</p> <p>Sutherland&nbsp;digitized the materials as part of her capstone project with the goal of creating a permanent digital archive. “I’ve learned all the things that go into creating an archive and a digital archive,” she says. “The more I learn, the more it teaches me what I don’t know.”</p> <p>That also goes for Black Canadian history, says Sutherland, who adds that Canadians often don’t know what became of the people who arrived in places like Windsor via the Underground Railroad. “Was everything amazing? Did they face racism and struggle?”</p> <p>The holes in our knowledge “speak to a larger unknowing,” she says. “This whole thing has been extremely eye-opening to me.”</p> <p>MacDonald says the history of Windsor’s Emancipation Day is a perfect subject for teaching because it is so multi-faceted. “It’s the story of Canada and the Black diaspora. It’s the story of English and French, and the story of Canada and the U.S. It’s the story of two cities.”</p> <p>Black families were often divided between Detroit and Windsor with cousins walking across the frozen Detroit River in winter and holding large family get-togethers at Emancipation Day events in the summer. A Detroit historian, Kimberly Simmons, has spent more than a decade trying to get the Detroit River declared a UNESCO World Heritage site for the role it played in the underground railroad.</p> <p>Meanwhile Sutherland, MacDonald and Gray continue to move forward on their Windsor projects. The teaser for Gray’s documentary debuted last summer at Emancipation Day. MacDonald is working with local Black educators, members of Windsor’s Black historical society and the Ontario Black History Society to produce lesson plans. And Sutherland has produced a digital archive feasibility report as her capstone project in museum studies.</p> <p>In some ways, the work they are doing emulates that done almost a century ago by Windsor citizens. In 1932, they, too, decided that they wanted to build up their small Emancipation Day celebrations into a much bigger event – and eventually turned their vision into reality.&nbsp;</p> <p>Despite COVID-19, the work behind the scenes on bringing Emancipation Day to a wider audience&nbsp;continues. “We’re now trying to seek out and establish viable and more stable sources of funding,” Sutherland says.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 30 Jul 2020 13:32:09 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 165433 at Alumni of U of T's museum studies program on the importance of internships /news/alumni-u-t-s-museum-studies-program-importance-internships <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Alumni of U of T's museum studies program on the importance of internships</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/laura-skidmore-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=OcC-vIMa 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/laura-skidmore-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=xDxwV-TJ 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/laura-skidmore-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=OWh8yhQZ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/laura-skidmore-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=OcC-vIMa" alt="Laura Skidmore at Camp Bastion, Helmand, Afghanistan"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-09-26T00:00:00-04:00" title="Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 00:00" class="datetime">Thu, 09/26/2019 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Alumna Louise Skidmore's work at the Imperial War Museums has taken her to Afghanistan. She continues to use contacts she met in her internship (photo by Richard Ash/IWM)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/suzanne-bowness" hreflang="en">Suzanne Bowness</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/art-museum" hreflang="en">Art Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/internships" hreflang="en">Internships</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/museum-studies" hreflang="en">Museum Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>As the head of contemporary conflict at the Imperial War Museums in London, England, <strong>Louise Skidmore</strong> has a job description that sounds more like a&nbsp;daring foreign correspondent than a curator toiling away in the backrooms of a museum. Her work has taken her to Afghanistan to collect artifacts and stories from the height of wartime.</p> <p>Although she had already worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario and gained professional museum experience before completing her museum studies degree at the Ƶ, Skidmore’s four-month internship at the International Center of Photography in New York City remains a program highlight for her. It’s also a contact she continues to use in her work&nbsp;– for example, when she recently put her curators in touch with her old bosses&nbsp;for a project on photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya in 2011.</p> <p>Skidmore’s time in New York was made possible in part by the Vivian and David Campbell Family Foundation Summer Training Fellowship, established in 1998. She is one of dozens of museum studies students to benefit from the Campbell fellowships and the similar Rebanks Family Fellowship, which subsidizes internships at smaller-sized museums, galleries and historic sites. The success of these awards convinced the museum studies program’s 50<sup>th-</sup>anniversary committee to make increasing support of paid internships one of their goals for this year’s celebrations.</p> <p>“While museum studies internships offer students important&nbsp;opportunities to test out what they learn in the classroom, most of them are unpaid, which adds to the financial challenge many students already face,” said the program’s director, Associate Professor <strong>Cara Krmpotich</strong>. “This is why we wanted to put paid internships at the centre of our 50<sup>th</sup>-anniversary fundraising efforts. With the Campbell and Rebanks fellowships, the results are very clear.”</p> <p>As the Faculty of Information, home to museum studies since 2006, has reconnected with the program’s 800-plus alumni over the past year, many of them raised the importance of their internships. <strong>Megan Richardson</strong>, the director of the Virtual Museum of Canada, a federally funded investment program managed by the Canadian Museum of History, gained entry to the Ottawa museum world through her museum studies internship at the National Gallery of Canada in 1989 after her first year in the program.</p> <p>Based on that experience, she focused her final year’s major research paper on ways to create new interpretive materials for children to use at the gallery. “When I finished my degree, they hired me to develop a series of self-guides for teenagers. It was directly related to what I had researched,” she says. “I was basically hired to put my money where my mouth was.”</p> <p>Class of 2019 alumna <strong>Erica Chi</strong>&nbsp;credits her internship with landing her a full-time job as an art administrator at the TD Bank Corporate Art Collection, one of Canada’s largest company collections, known for its Gallery of Inuit Art in the bank’s south tower in downtown Toronto as well as its works by artists like Lawren Harris and Jean-Paul Riopelle.</p> <p>Chi had interned at U of T’s Art Museum, where her work focused on its “Art on Campus” initiative, arranging art loans to different university departments and buildings. At TD, she works under a senior curator on a variety of tasks, including art moves across the enterprise and co-operating with partner organizations on exhibits.</p> <p>Unlike a public gallery where five to 10 per cent of the art is on display with the majority in storage, Chi says a corporate collection intentionally inverts that ratio. “Having art in your work environment or in client-facing areas, it becomes a conversation point and can help build relationships. It both enhances the setting and your experience of going to work,” she says.</p> <p>In fact it was the late <strong>David Campbell</strong>’s love of art that led to his donation to the museum studies program in the first place. As collectors and philanthropists, he and his wife <strong>Vivian Campbell</strong> were particularly interested in the training of future generations of museum and art gallery curators, educators and administrators.</p> <p>David Campbell participated in a series of casual lunches with students to learn more about them and to answer questions about&nbsp;the role of private collectors. A relationship developed that eventually led to the creation of the fellowships, which now fund five students per year.</p> <p>As alumni like Skidmore make clear, the Campbells’ generous donation ended up doing just what its benefactors intended.</p> <p><em>With a file from Ann Brocklehurst</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 26 Sep 2019 04:00:00 +0000 noreen.rasbach 159202 at Explore Canada’s culinary history at U of T library exhibit and Doors Open event /news/explore-canada-s-culinary-history-u-t-library-exhibit-and-doors-open-event <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Explore Canada’s culinary history at U of T library exhibit and Doors Open event</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/MAIN%20Massey-children-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=8iIQDkza 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/MAIN%20Massey-children-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=M2iGZaRr 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/MAIN%20Massey-children-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=LOV26n45 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/MAIN%20Massey-children-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=8iIQDkza" alt="Children at the Lillian Massey School of Domestic Science and Art"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-05-16T00:00:00-04:00" title="Wednesday, May 16, 2018 - 00:00" class="datetime">Wed, 05/16/2018 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Children at the Lillian Massey School of Domestic Science and Art (which later became the Department of Household Science) learning how to prepare food (photo courtesy of U of T Archives) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fisher-library" hreflang="en">Fisher Library</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/jackman-humanities-institute" hreflang="en">Jackman Humanities Institute</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/museum-studies" hreflang="en">Museum Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-libraries" hreflang="en">U of T Libraries</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>If you want to stump a Canadian, ask them to describe their national cuisine.</p> <p>Unlike pasta in Italy or tapas in Spain, Canada’s culinary culture is hard to pin down. But that’s what makes our food culture so unique, says <strong>Irina Mihalache</strong>, assistant professor of museum studies in the Faculty of Information. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Mihalache is co-curating an exhibit at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library that explores Canada’s culinary history through the voices of women from the 1820s to the 1960s using a range of artifacts,&nbsp;including rare cook books, manuscripts, culinary objects and photos.</p> <p><a href="https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/exhibition/current/old/">Mixed Messages: Making and Shaping Culinary Culture in Canada</a> will run from May 22 to Aug. 17.</p> <p><img alt="Curry powder bottle from the 1800s" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8313 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Curry-bottle-750-x-500.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>The exhibition includes a bottle of curry powder from the 1890s and scent cubes – small museum-grade boxes that contain a scent (like pineapple or curry)&nbsp;that helps to tell the story of Canada’s culinary history. “We thought it was important to give visitors that sensory experience,” says Sadie MacDonald, Master of Museum Studies student and curatorial assistant (photo by Romi Levine)</em></p> <p>“We wanted to deconstruct the idea of Canadian identity,” says Mihalache. “What we wanted to do is rather than say this is what Canadian culinary culture looks like, we wanted to show how chaotic and messy and impossible it is to pin down.”</p> <p>Mihalache worked alongside <strong>Elizabeth Ridolfo</strong>, special collections projects librarian at Fisher Library, and <strong>Nathalie Cooke</strong>, professor and associate dean of library rare and special collections at McGill University, on curating the exhibition with the help of Master of Museum Studies students <strong>Cassandra Curtis</strong> and <strong>Sadie MacDonald</strong>.</p> <p>Additional research was done by students <a href="/news/cook-it-s-1817-u-t-students-make-culinary-connections-past-fort-york">as part of the Jackman Humanities Scholars in Residence</a>.</p> <p><img alt="The Female Emigrant's Guide " class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8314 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Emigrants-guide-750-x-500.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>On display are various editions of Catharine Parr Traill’s Female Emigrant’s Guide. “She could arguably be the first person to create Canadian cookbooks with Canadian people in mind and Canadian ingredients,” says Ridolfo. The book includes advice on what immigrants should bring to Canada from England, what seasonal produce to grow, and observations about Indigenous food (photo by Romi Levine)</em></p> <p>The exhibition will touch on a number of themes, including how recipes were adapted during wartime when resources were scarce, how recipes were collected and distributed and who was left out of the conversation about culinary culture.</p> <p>“We want to think about the absences and the forms of marginalization,” says Mihalache.&nbsp;“For example, the fact that you have Chinese recipes in a 1930s <em>Chatelaine </em>but you wouldn't have the voice of the Chinese community.”</p> <p>The same goes for Indigenous recipes, she says. “When the settler Canadians came, they appropriated a lot of dishes Indigenous people were eating and they became Canadian.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8315 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/CCF-cookbook-750-x-500.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>This community cookbook was published by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a precursor to the NDP.&nbsp; Recipes are attributed to individual women, says MacDonald. “They crowd-sourced their recipes from a huge variety of people – including immigrant and Indigenous communities – and these recipes are credited" (photo by Romi Levine)</em></p> <p>In addition to the Fisher Library exhibition, Curtis and MacDonald will be at Fort York during this year’s Doors Open on the weekend of May 26, running activities using the themes of Mixed Messages.</p> <p>“The idea is to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the Mixed Messages exhibit,” says Curtis.</p> <p>The Fort York programming will include a spotlight on the women behind Canadian cookbooks, an opportunity to try out culinary technology throughout the ages and, of course, a taste test of dishes like&nbsp;a wartime cake and mulligatawny soup.</p> <p>“Learning about the history of culinary culture in Canada has been so eye-opening,” says Curtis. “I had no idea it was so complicated – so many different layers, all these different people coming from different places, contributing different things.”</p> <p><img alt="Cassandra Curtis and Sadie MacDonald" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__8316 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Cassandra-Sadie-750-x-500.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Curtis and MacDonald will help to tell the stories of women in Canadian culinary culture at Fort York during Doors Open (photo by Romi Levine)</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 16 May 2018 04:00:00 +0000 Romi Levine 135050 at U of T student-curated art exhibition offers a different view of Toronto’s neighbourhoods and people /news/u-t-student-curated-art-exhibition-offers-different-view-toronto-s-neighbourhoods-and-people <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">U of T student-curated art exhibition offers a different view of Toronto’s neighbourhoods and people</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Views-main-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BrWxK6KV 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Views-main-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HJPEnj9d 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Views-main-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=pLE3LMVN 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Views-main-1140-x-760.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BrWxK6KV" alt="Student curators Nikita Lorenzo-Vicente and Amanda McNeil"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-03-14T00:00:00-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 14, 2018 - 00:00" class="datetime">Wed, 03/14/2018 - 00:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Student curators Nikita Lorenzo-Vicente and Amanda McNeil sit in front of Florin Hategan's Vertical Series prints (photo by Romi Levine)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/humanities" hreflang="en">Humanities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/museum-studies" hreflang="en">Museum Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>If you search for “Toronto” in Google Images, you’ll find endless photos of the city’s iconic skyline – with the CN Tower and Rogers Centre front and centre.</p> <p>But that’s not the image of the city <strong>Nikita Lorenzo-Vicente </strong>and <strong>Amanda McNeil</strong> want to project in their new art exhibition <em><a href="https://www.different-views-exhibit.com/exhibition/">Toronto: The Views Are Different Here</a></em> at the John B. Aird Gallery.</p> <p>The master of museum studies students in the Faculty of Information wanted to tell a deeper story about Toronto for their capstone project – one that snakes through the city’s dense neighbourhoods, gets stuck on the DVP and includes the perspectives of a group of artists as diverse as the city itself.</p> <p>“Anything anybody ever thinks about the city is really just the CN Tower and the city skyline,” says McNeil. “It's a very touristic approach to the city, so we wanted to showcase the city in a more representative way of what people living here feel like the city is.”</p> <p><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S8-ZgRht1Uo" width="560"></iframe></p> <p>The art on display includes paintings of snowy laneways, intimate photographs of Black Torontonians and works that express the intergenerational challenges of immigrating to a new country.&nbsp;</p> <p>Lorenzo-Vicente and McNeil chose 29 artists from 80 who responded to their open call, including painters, sculptors and photographers at varying stages of their careers.</p> <p>“It was hard for us to narrow it down,” says Lorenzo-Vicente.</p> <p>The exhibition was put together in partnership with the City of Toronto, which connected the student curators with newcomer artists through the <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/employment-social-support/employment-support/success-story-spotlights/gaining-opportunities-through-art/">Art Connections</a> program.</p> <p>Art Connections, led by Aleksandra Molnar, works with well-established immigrant artists to help them break into Toronto’s art scene.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Newcomers have specific sets of barriers but especially so for creative professionals,” says Molnar. “All of these very successful, highly acclaimed artists from all parts of the world coming here and not being able to access the art community or market at all in Toronto because of just not understanding the ecosystem and the relationships and who is who and how it works.”</p> <p><img alt="Views are Different Here" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__7829 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Views-embed-750-x-500.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>The exhibition features photographs from Addae Nurse's Futurism series (photo by Romi Levine)</em></p> <p>When Molnar and Devi Arasanayagam, manager of community and labour market at Toronto’s Employment &amp; Social Services, found out about <em>The Views are Different Here</em> exhibition from the gallery’s executive director Carla Garnet, they saw it as a chance to introduce their artists to Toronto's art lovers&nbsp;– and Lorenzo-Vicente and McNeil were happy to have them.</p> <p>“They're a key component of the show because part of Toronto is the amount of incoming people who haven't had the chance to ground themselves,” says McNeil.</p> <p>And the exhibition’s theme really resonated with the artists, says Arasanayagam.</p> <p>“[They] had to come here and establish a new home and a different identity and found their art was changing as a result to moving to Canada, and they had a different view of home,” she says.</p> <p>This will be the first time the Art Connections artists involved in the exhibition will be showing their work in Canada, says Molnar.</p> <p><strong>Matthew Brower</strong>, assistant professor, teaching stream in&nbsp;museum studies, and Lorenzo-Vicente and McNeil’s course instructor, says he remembers when Toronto was a stand-in for other cities. It’s clear through this exhibition that this is no longer the case, he says.</p> <p>“The two students have been clear from the beginning about their vision which is really grounded in their experience and understanding of the city, which is in some ways different than my understanding and experience because they've come of age at a time in which Toronto has been represented differently,” he says. “It's an interesting reflection or expression of a shifting understanding of the city and how it's reflected in the practices of the artists who are participating.”</p> <p><em>Toronto: The Views are Different Here</em> will be on display until April 6.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 14 Mar 2018 04:00:00 +0000 Romi Levine 131265 at Monet with your macaron: U of T professor explores relationship between food and museums /news/monet-your-macaron-u-t-professor-explores-relationship-between-food-and-museums <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Monet with your macaron: U of T professor explores relationship between food and museums</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/AGO%20main_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=mxz-MKKo 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/AGO%20main_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=W5XoC8wC 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/AGO%20main_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=-z4VV1CE 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/AGO%20main_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=mxz-MKKo" alt="Photo of AGO in Toronto"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Romi Levine</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-11-28T16:48:27-05:00" title="Monday, November 28, 2016 - 16:48" class="datetime">Mon, 11/28/2016 - 16:48</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The Art Gallery of Ontario often pairs museum exhibitions with themed food (photo by Jeff Hitchcock/Flickr)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/romi-levine" hreflang="en">Romi Levine</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Romi Levine</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/art" hreflang="en">Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/museum-studies" hreflang="en">Museum Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/culture" hreflang="en">Culture</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/food" hreflang="en">Food</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>They’ve always been a hot spot for art lovers and history buffs, but now&nbsp;museums and galleries around the world are making way for a new kind of culture vulture – foodies.</p> <p>Cultural institutions are turning attention toward their restaurants, hiring celebrity chefs and curating menus to match exhibitions, says <strong>Irina Mihalache</strong>, assistant professor of museum studies at U of T’s Faculty of Information.&nbsp;</p> <p>Her newly-released book, <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/food-and-museums-9781474262248/"><em>Food and Museums</em></a>, co-authored with Nina Levent, founding director of Sapar Contemporary Gallery in New York City, explores the relationship between culinary and culture.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__2674 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/irina.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Irina Mihalache poses with one of her favourite cookbooks from the "Pioneer Woman Cooks" series&nbsp;(photo by Romi Levine)</em></p> <p>When the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) showcased the work of artist Marc Chagall in 2011, the gallery’s executive chef, Anne Yarymowich, created a menu influenced by Russian and French cuisines – countries that played important roles in the artist’s life and work, says Mihalache.&nbsp;</p> <p>“There were a lot of behind-the-scenes conversations between chefs and curators to really understand how to make eating a meaningful experience. This is something relatively new – chefs discussing with curators, or chefs being brought to the table for curatorial meetings or meetings about public programming,” she says.</p> <p>“It was born out of the realization that food can be another form of engagement for the visitor. It can happen in the restaurant. It can happen in the gallery.&nbsp;But in order to have a coherent narrative about food, we have to sit together at the table and have these conversations.”</p> <p>A carefully curated menu, however, can run the risk of being exclusionary by only offering expensive food or making the menus hard to understand, says Mihalache.</p> <p>“A lot of restaurants in museums are doing amazing things but they are not necessarily accessible,” she says.<img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__2676 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/book%20cover.jpg" style="width: 338px; height: 500px; float: left; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>While large, internationally-renowned cultural spaces are mastering gourmet gallery food, historic houses and sites are incorporating cooking into their exhibitions and programming.</p> <p>Fort York, for example, takes an academic approach to food, says Mihalache.</p> <p>“They have a very research-intensive component of their practice. Before they release a recipe, sometimes they spend one or two years to finesse it.”</p> <p>You can find binders' worth of information about butter tarts, she says.</p> <p>To get a well-rounded perspective of the cultural importance of food, Mihalache and Levent interviewed experts from neuroscientists to artists.</p> <p>“One of the most interesting discoveries is that there’s this similarity in the way in which an artist thinks about art and a chef thinks about food,” says Mihalache. “Just like a canvas can allow for forms of creativity, a plate can be used in the same creative ways&nbsp;down to the chemical and scientific aspects of combining different pigments as opposed to combining different ingredients.”</p> <p>Her favourite museum food? At the Musée Jacquemart-André historic mansion in Paris.</p> <p>“Every dish is inspired by an aspect of the collection. It’s this whole immersive experiential moment.” &nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="/news/street-food-impact-and-allure-dangerous-culinary-practice">Read about Mihalache's research into street food culture</a></h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 28 Nov 2016 21:48:27 +0000 Romi Levine 102585 at Information, Faculty of (iSchool) /node/8595 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Information, Faculty of (iSchool)</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-01-07T15:47:15-05:00" title="Thursday, January 7, 2016 - 15:47" class="datetime">Thu, 01/07/2016 - 15:47</time> </span> <div class="field field--name-field-url field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">URL</div> <div class="field__item">https://ischool.utoronto.ca</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-above clearfix"> <h3 class="field__label">Tags</h3> <ul class="links field__items"> <li><a href="/news/tags/ischool" hreflang="en">iSchool</a></li> <li><a href="/news/tags/library-science" hreflang="en">library science</a></li> <li><a href="/news/tags/museum-studies" hreflang="en">Museum Studies</a></li> <li><a href="/news/tags/faculty-information" hreflang="en">Faculty of Information</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-campus field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Campus</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6953" hreflang="en">St. George</a></div> </div> Thu, 07 Jan 2016 20:47:15 +0000 sgupta 8595 at Working north of 60: Museum Studies grad manages visitor experience at Yukon Wildlife Preserve /news/working-north-60-museum-studies-grad-manages-visitor-experience-yukon-wildlife-preserve <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Working north of 60: Museum Studies grad manages visitor experience at Yukon Wildlife Preserve</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-03-04T06:15:25-05:00" title="Wednesday, March 4, 2015 - 06:15" class="datetime">Wed, 03/04/2015 - 06:15</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Most museums in Canada are quite small – so whatever position you take, you do many different things," says Paleczny (photo by Lindsay Caskenette)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/scott-anderson" hreflang="en">Scott Anderson</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Scott Anderson </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/museum-studies" hreflang="en">Museum Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/environment" hreflang="en">Environment</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Catching lynx kittens, skiing to the office, all in a day's work for Jake Paleczny </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p> <em>Most of us drive or use transit to get to work, but <strong>Jake Paleczny</strong>, a 2012 Museum Studies grad, sometimes skis to his job as director of programming and education at the <a href="http://www.yukonwildlife.ca/">Yukon Wildlife Preserve</a>. Featuring more than 160 animals in a “living collection” on 700 acres, the preserve is about a 30-minute drive from Whitehorse.</em></p> <p> <strong>How did you find yourself in the Yukon?</strong><br> My folks were living there, so after visiting them a few years ago, I expanded my job search. The wilderness appealed to me, and the artiness of the place. There’s a great sense of community, and so much to do, like canoeing and hiking. It’s a great place to live and work.</p> <p> <strong>So the cold doesn’t bother you?</strong><br> I enjoy a good winter. And after you’ve experienced -35 for a week, -20 seems the perfect temperature for being outside!</p> <p> <strong>Your office sounds like it’s in a beautiful setting. What does your actual job entail?</strong><br> I manage the public side of the <a href="http://www.yukonwildlife.ca/">Yukon Wildlife Preserve</a> – the visitor experience, our guided tours, the nature camps and school programming, as well as our social media content, newsletters and website.</p> <p> <strong>Have you introduced anything new?</strong><br> We’re using social media a lot more to communicate with the public. For example, we gave cameras to our nature camp instructors and asked them to take pictures all week. At the end of the week, we had about 50 photos, which we sent to parents and put on Facebook. It gives them and the public a chance to see what we’re doing.</p> <p> <strong>What’s the goal of your programming?</strong><br> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_deficit_disorder">“Nature deficit disorder”</a> is a term coined several years ago to describe the negative side effects of how kids nowadays are growing up with a lot of structured, indoor time. That’s on our minds a lot. We are in a natural setting but we have fences, so we can do some interesting activities – big, forest-running games. It’s an environment that’s safe but allows kids to explore and have formative experiences with nature.</p> <p> <strong>Science and biology are part of the learning experience but there’s a cultural element as well, isn’t there?</strong><br> Yes, in our Grade 7 caribou program, for example, we blend the ecology with contemporary Yukon culture and First Nations culture. We take the group into the caribou pasture to look at tracks, follow tracks and see the caribou up close in their natural environment.</p> <p> <strong>How did your degree prepare you for this job?</strong><br> There was a good emphasis on practical experience. Most museums in Canada are quite small – so whatever position you take, you do many different things. Having the background provided by U of T’s Museum Studies program means there are fewer surprises in the job and you’re more competent in a wider variety of situations.</p> <p> <strong>Tell me something interesting you’re doing at work this week.</strong><br> Last night I started a YouTube channel for the wildlife preserve and put up the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52OSf6mOaE">first video</a>. It’s about our new moose, and I shot and edited it myself. We have two moose now.</p> <p> &nbsp;<iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P52OSf6mOaE?rel=0" width="560"></iframe></p> <p> <strong>Just two?&nbsp;</strong><br> It’s about managing our collection. Not everyone sees a zoological facility as a museum but we have a collection and a curator – she’s a vet – and we have a plan to maintain a healthy collection into the future. We only have two or three moose at any given time because they are typically solitary animals.</p> <p> <strong>I’m guessing you don’t spend all day at a desk. Do you interact much with the animals?</strong><br> We do have a full animal care staff, but occasionally we help them out when they need an extra set of hands. There’s a show on National Geographic Wild called <a href="http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/dr-oakley-yukon-vet/">Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet</a>. A good portion of that show is filmed here, and in one of the episodes we had to catch lynx kittens to give them a booster shot. That was pretty exciting.</p> <p> <strong>Have you ever had any scary encounters, like with a grizzly bear?</strong><br> I was skiing to work one day and I saw what I thought were dog tracks on the trail. It looked like a big dog, and I was surprised there were no people tracks next to them. When I came over the top of a hill, I found the remains of a deer spread all over the trail. I spent the rest of the trip looking over my shoulder for wolves.</p> <p> <strong>Arriving at work must have been a huge relief! What’s your favourite part of the job?</strong><br> The variety – you’re constantly learning and getting to try new things. It’s a small organization so you can focus on things that you think are important.</p> <p> <em>(This article appeared originally in U of&nbsp;T Magazine; <a href="http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/">read&nbsp;more U of T Magazine stories</a>)</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-03-04-jake-and-the-elk.jpg</div> </div> Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:15:25 +0000 sgupta 6832 at