Using Black Archives to Rethink Toronto’s Public Art
Integrating Community and Collective Heritage
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21344057 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cheryl Thompson (0000-0003-3046-8619, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario Canada), Lucy Wowk (0000-0001-9067-1702, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 453-476 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Canadian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-9495 • E-ISSN: 1911-0251 |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/jcs-2025-0025 |
| OpenAlex | W7140277861 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
Using Toronto as our case study, this article examines the ways in which the city’s heritage industry may be improved by locating culture not only within the confines of a museum, but by engaging more deliberately with community-engaged artists whose work exists as both formal and informal public art. In Canada, Black people are underrepresented in the field of archives, and in the heritage sector, specifically museums, two institutions that play a significant role in the preservation, dissemination, and promotion of Canadian culture. This article probes the ethical question of why the selection process related to public art does not engage in dialogue with archives and the larger issue of how to preserve, protect and promote a diversity of interests, living spaces, and ecosystems. What is the potential value in collaboration between public art and the archive? What does it look like for public art to imagine the public sphere as an exhibition work rather than a static work of art? And in what ways does the archive hold the potential to disrupt colonial logics related to public art memory, storytelling, and heritage preservation? The authors argue that the archive is fundamental to knowledge sharing and that by thinking more deliberately about the efficacy of public art, we can begin to bring into conversation with people(s), place(s), and identities that are not traditionally thought of as fundamental to the notion of the “public” in public art. This article also examines the connection between Black Excellence and public art, arguing that the way some art exalts Black individuals over Black community is ultimately harmful to heritage commemoration
Citizen journalism · Conversation · Cultural heritage · Diversity (politics) · Excellence · Exhibition · Public history · Public sphere · Value (mathematics) · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Photography and Visual Culture · Public Spaces through Art
| Highly cited | No |
|---|