RE-LENSING THE CITY: ALUMNI CHECK-IN WITH BRUCE BEATON

 Alumni Check-In | Elizabeth Cytko

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Bruce Beaton.
Photo courtesy of Bruce Beaton.

Bruce Beaton is an Acting Museum Program Officer with the City of Toronto. Beaton is a theatre professional who graduated from the Master of Museum studies in 2013. He is a co-creator and presenter of Hands On Inquiry, where he visits high school classrooms with a suitcase of artefacts, and builds a narrative with students about The Great War. Beaton volunteers on the Board of Directors for the Kensington Market Historical Society.

What inspired you to move from theatre to museums?

My work in theatre was becoming more heritage-based. One of the prime drivers that I was running into again and again was the moment where you go, “Wow, that happened here” and this is not a theatrical conceit. It's an immediate response to something that happened. Theatre can do this, but it does it through sort of a make-believe lens. I just found it more interesting to go onto Spadina with a bunch of people rather than to write a play about it and perform it in the theatre.

There's an immediacy of experience that museums can wonderfully offer visitors. There's a kind of a jolt that occurs when you're there where something actually happened. That's one of the reasons that I crossed over. My museum work is basic storytelling where place is the “artefact” that helps tell a story rather than the way a script scaffolds and tells a story.

Everyone's got their own little sort of historical mental map. What is interesting is when you can take a group of people through a re-lensing experience where they have maybe a few ideas about something but you re-lense an urban landscape in a way that maybe they didn't know. That's part of the fun thing about what we do. We facilitate discovery.

How is heritage presentation incorporated into your work with the Kensington Market Historical Society?

There's kind of a continual movement in Toronto to just knock stuff down and try and start again. I live in Kensington Market. There was a big report that happened in the 1960s that suggested that city council should just knock it all down and start again, but luckily that didn't happen.

I think people come to Kensington because it doesn't work by design. You couldn't design a Kensington Market today. It works by accident and I think that people are hungry for that. People want to be in landscapes that aren't designed by people who want them to shop. Compare Kensington Market to the Eaton Centre, for instance. The Eaton Centre is designed for a very specific reason. Kensington Market has a ramshackle, anarchic quality that is something people hunger for. And sharing or revealing the history of the site directly relates to the experience of the contemporary street-scape.

How do you measure the success of a place like Kensington? Well, you can measure it by the amount of money that goes into somebody's pocket after they built a new multi-storied building here; or you can measure it by people's experience. I think that often the actual measurement of someone's visceral responsive experience is something that doesn't have a lot of swing when it comes to moving big wheels in a big city.

Cities are complex terrains, and urban memory is short. I'm interested in expanding and sharing urban memory, the memory of a city, the memory of a house, the memory of an urban landscape.

What inspired you to fit graffiti into a heritage interpretation of Evergreen Brickworks?

This was my final exhibition project while I was doing the MMSt program. I was familiar with the site from working with MOVE Expo and doing my internship there. Graffiti is curious. It's ephemeral. It's unknown to outsiders. And the graffiti at the Brickworks is the only artifact for about 20 years of this history of that site. If you're going to tell the whole history of the site, you can tell the brick making portion of its history, you can tell the current environmental charity chapter of the site but there's 20 years there when the site was abandoned, and without an artifact to share, how do you tell that story?

My co-creator Shannon Todd and myself, thought this might be an interesting way to share that chapter of the history of the site. It's vibrant and it’s everywhere down there. Our exhibit included an introduction to graffiti, a basic Graffiti 101 - what is a tag? What is the difference between graffiti and street art? Who worked the walls here? We included information about how the site changed and how it was used by graffiti artists as a blank canvas and why it's now preserved. There's heritage designation of that graffiti, the abandoned buildings there provided a safe space for graffiti artists to do their stuff. The place is sheltered, there aren't a lot of police around, and they could do what they wanted. There were also a lot of parties down there and there was a pig roast at one point. It was sort of like an abandoned urban playground, a dangerous but blank canvas.

What have been some of the greatest challenges in your career?

At Mackenzie House Museum we present a variety of programs about the lives of Black Victorians. I am an older white male, and it is challenging, rightfully so, for me to speak of black history within the city. How do I speak about black lives in 1840 here? The only way that that I believe this can work for me is to do my homework. When you're talking about what it was like here for a particular community in the 1840s even though you're not part of that community, even though you’re not from the 1840s, even though I have no way to experience the systemic oppression that has been foisted upon the community, being able to speak of that, in front of the community, is a challenge and an honour. There are risks associated with the telling difficult history and challenging history within a museum setting. Those risks I think are worth it. I think we have to speak about those difficult histories. I also have to be prepared to get it wrong. I am continually learning and I am grateful to have the opportunity to share what I have learnt with the curious publics that visit the museums where I work.

What advice can you give to museum professionals entering the field?

I would say that any involvement in any community organization is something that you should seriously consider. This can't just be about what you will get for your résumé from being involved. It has to be something that you are truly devoted to and something that you will commit some time to. Community involvement is something that will serve you very well, in terms of your own curiosity and your own sense of giving something back to whatever organization you volunteer with. There are certain skills that you have coming out of the MMSt program that community organizations can certainly benefit from.

YOU'VE CHANGED: A LOOK AT TORONTO'S STREET ART

Ghosts of Toronto's Past | Carys Owen 

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These days it seems that everywhere you look there is a beloved Toronto landmark being torn down or a small business closure. While many millennials, such as myself, weep for the end of their favourite independent coffee shops, change is rampant in this city whether we like it or not.

Yet never fear my friends, change and modifications to the city of Toronto doesn’t necessarily mean it’s lost its “cool factor.” Street art, graffiti, and murals are alive and well in the city. These art forms have temporality embedded in their very nature. As an urban space, Toronto is home to many pieces of street art and like many citizens, I would consider it a part of our identity. In this sense, street art is reminiscent of the past and the future as it holds the city’s identity and embraces the future. Our beloved murals and graffiti have the potential to appease citizens who long for lost Toronto landmarks that provided a unique identity for the city and citizens who crave modernization.

Graffiti Alley. Photo courtesy of Carys Owen 

Due to the fact that street art is often illegal, secretive, taboo and temporary, its exact history in Toronto is hard to define. Street art that was once seen as a criminal act of property destruction, began to embody a new understanding in the 1980’s. With works by Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Blek le Rat and more, the craft began to be seen as a legitimate art form. At the same time, the Toronto City Council began to debate the street works that could become an eye-sore. Fast forward to 2011 when late mayor Rob Ford initiated his “war on street art.” He promised to remove graffiti from the city and passed a bill that would hold Toronto residents and government officials responsible for removing graffiti. Owners of private property were charged with removing graffiti on their own buildings, while the city was responsible for any works found on government buildings or property. 

Kensington Market. Photo courtesy of Carys Owen 

Currently, on the City of Toronto’s website, the Graffiti Management Plan still prohibits illegal graffiti and holds citizens and the city responsible for its removal. However, in recent years the city has embraced the idea of street art. The city acknowledges the difference between illegal and un-permitted acts of vandalism and legal works that are approved by a building’s owner. In fact, the city encourages building owners to commission murals on their property because there is a unwritten rule that forbids putting graffiti over someone else’s work, so commissioned works often prevent illegal vandalism. 

Tranzac Club. Photo courtesy of Carys Owen

If you are a property owner looking to commission a piece, you may receive help from StreetARToronto. StART is a program that started back in 2012 in order to enhance public spaces, promote local artists and reduce city maintenance costs. As part of the city’s Graffiti Management Plan, StART is a project with multiple programs that help bring art into public city spaces. Since this program’s inception, creators of street art and their works have been elevated to become respected within the Toronto art scene. Graffiti Alley was one of the first legalized graffiti zones in the city and is now one of the most popular places to see street art in Toronto. While opinions of street art will vary between ugly acts of vandalism or beautiful art that enhances the city’s character, the Toronto street art scene is thriving. 

Graffiti Alley. Photo courtesy of Carys Owen

Today many Toronto artists are going beyond the traditional gallery and creating works of street art that rival prominent city museums and exhibitions. Some of the best art that Toronto has to offer can be seen on the streets and is becoming a popular tourist attraction with no entrance fee. But unlike the works that hang on gallery walls, street art isn’t meant to last forever. Just as the city of Toronto is in a constant state of change, so are our favourite murals.

The notion of constant change echoed in the city and its street art is reflected in the “You’ve Changed” mural located in the Paul Garfinkel Parkette near Queen and Ossington. Way back when, this neighbourhood was named the Gallery District because it was filled with artists, but it was very run-down and unappealing to buyers. Eventually, the winds of change blew and the area was built into something new. Gentrification came in and forced many artists out with rising rent costs and developers buying property. Today, this neighbourhood is home to the mural that reads “You’ve Changed” by Jesse Harris. The piece is located next to several CAMH buildings and while it’s meant to convey an uplifting message for mental health patients, it also has a darker meaning. The mural represents the unsteady history of the neighbourhood and the changes made to several other Toronto neighbourhoods.

"You've Changed" by Jesse Harris. Photo courtesy of Carys Owen

The sentiment of Harris’ work rings true for all of Toronto: the city and its neighbourhoods have changed enormously. For some citizens these changes are ominous and strike fear into their hearts while other citizens see these changes as positive improvements to the city. Similarly to the city, street art is constantly changing and is categorized anywhere between positive contribution to the city to destructive works of vandalism. City murals and graffiti have been appearing since at least the 1980’s, but they embrace fluid presence without completely being eliminated. Street art is a unique contribution to the city’s character because it represents both the past and the future. While many city landmarks such as Honest Ed’s, Sam the Record Man, and Humber Cinemas are lost forever, Toronto’s street art tradition is here to stay with the works themselves changing constantly. No matter your view of the city or its street art, change is inevitable.

College Street at Augusta Ave. Photo courtesy of Carys Owen

GRAFFITI ALLEY, A PUBLIC COLLECTION

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY KATLYN WOODER

Graffiti Alley, found behind Queens Street, between Spadina and Portland Street, is as the name suggests an alley filled with a collection of graffiti. On these sunny days in July, it is a perfect day trip to look at one of Toronto's large collections of public art. A collection that is always evolving, and reacting to every day, city life.

If you are familiar with Toronto, then you know that graffiti isn’t isolated to this alleyway. These are some of the images I captured walking to Graffiti Alley from the UofT Campus (sniff it's just so beautiful to see art be so prolific sniff/anime tears).

Photos of Graffiti seen while walking to Graffiti Alley:

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

(You'll see a lot of these birds in the Alley as well. Its fun to look around Toronto and spot an artists motif even if you can't spot the actual artist in the crowd.)

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

End of Graffiti photos before Graffiti Alley

What makes the alley way interesting to look at as a collection, is that it is an extended space, with layers of artwork built up over a long period of time, and the artwork found in there is understood to be artwork by a large portion of the people who live in and visit Toronto.

A friend was kind enough to come with me on this trip, and we had an interesting conversation about graffiti art, and whether it is considered rebellious or mainstream. Graffiti used to be seen as an act of aggression to the social norm, a way of breaking with the expected social regulations, and showing alternative narratives in areas where people felt marginalized or ignored. Do you think Graffiti is vandalism or art? or does it depend on how good the artwork is? (write a comment to share your opinion ;))

I think most graffiti is artwork, whether it is good artwork is another matter entirely. I find that graffiti often livens up the streets of Toronto, especially in the grey month of February. However, it wasn't long ago that all graffiti was considered alternative culture. To have a space dedicated to this type of culture is a sign of shifting cultural norms.

There are now areas in Toronto where graffiti is expected and accepted... a tourist destination. So if graffiti isn't an act of rebellion what is it? and what areas is graffiti expected to appear? Does graffiti act as a public museum where artists can converse directly with the public? An expression of Toronto's culture painted right onto the walls of our city? or just an unremarkable byproduct of humans nature wanting to impact our living environment?

Either way, graffiti is one of the few types of art that is accessible to everyone, all you need to do is be physically present to look at it. Hmmm... let’s circumvent that, and I’ll show you some highlights of my visit.

Graffiti Alley Photo's starting at Spadina

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder (this is a favorite of mine)

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder (we've all had these days)

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

Photo courtesy of Katlyn Wooder

End of Graffiti Alley Photos

I tend to have a preference for character work, my love a cartoons shines in my image section. There is a lot of tagging, with great font selection and crisp edges, that I didn't think to memorialize (personal fail). One of the great things of this alley way, is that there isn't an explanation, just a bunch of artists doing their best to visually convey their talent.

Graffiti alley is an collection that changes and grows. What's there now might not be there tomorrow. So, if you want to see some beautiful art in Toronto, and emerge into a vibrant area full of good restaurants, I would encourage you to go down to see this corner of Toronto for yourself.

MEMORY X MURALS

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

BY: CASARINA HOCEVAR

This summer I have been working with the Scarborough-based non-profit, Mural Routes, in documenting mural projects around the Greater Toronto Area into one comprehensive archive. Due to their rather temporal state - and the fact I haven’t lived in Toronto since its earliest commercial murals of the late 19th Century - creating a comprehensive archive of all the city’s murals has been a bit of tricky task. But it has also prompted some interesting reflections on how murals echo both private and public memories. This week’s Flashback Friday will unravel how local history is embedded in our city’s public artwork.

"Bomb Girls" by OMEN in collaboration with StreetARToronto and Mural Routes, near Warden x St. Clair East in Scarborough. 2014. Photo courtesy of Mural Routes. 

In many murals, especially those commissioned by the city or in partnerships with local BIA (Business Improvement Area), the themes and content of murals explicitly relay “heritage moments” or local legacies. A clear example of this can be found from the 1990s, when Mural Routes commenced their first series of murals along Kingston Road in Scarborough known as the Heritage Trail. Another example would be the several murals done by John Kuna for the Village of Islington BIA in Etobicoke from 2005 to 2014. These murals feature a range of characters and activities from Islington’s past, from families tobogganing to The Guelph Radial Line to local church communities. Such murals serve as tributes to the past, becoming a visual representation of collective community memories.

However, many of Toronto’s murals were not meant to be historical in nature, yet, their memory in the minds of local residents exist as landmarks of the city’s past. This is particularly evident amongst some of Toronto’s commercial murals. Until a few years ago, when the Church Street Mural Project added several new murals to the Church and Wellesley community, a large Molson Canadian advertisement was featured on Church Street as a mural known colloquially as The Gay Cowboys. Despite its obvious commercial purposes, the mural was recognized as a landmark in a generation of Toronto’s gay community. Recently, when Mural Routes’ held their archive exhibit at 389 Yonge St., several residents of the Church-Wellesley area shared their memories of the Gay Cowboys, revealing that in spite of its loss, the mural lingers in memory as part of the neighbourhood’s historical character.

Alternatively, many contemporary murals which aim to capture the diversity of Toronto’s communities (and perhaps, also tackle the lack of representation in Toronto’s public art) remind us of the multitude of intersecting communities that contribute to its vibrancy. For example, In July 2017, Parkdale held the event Women Paint, organized by Bareket Kezwer and StreetARToronto, where muralists came together to paint their unique and contrasting narratives of being womxn.

Congratulations to our friend @bkez and the 20 artists she brought together for #Womenpaintto! We are so lucky to know and work with these strong and talented women #Womenpaint #toronto #streetart #femaleartists #girlpower #Parkdale #laneway #transformation #thesix

A post shared by Mural Routes (@muralroutes) on Jul 17, 2017 at 9:19am PDT

Concurrently, other muralists, such as Philip Cote have been injecting the mural scene with art representing Indigenous history and culture. Last summer, Cote finished a mural near Old Mill Subway Station which illustrates Indigenous knowledge, that has been preserved through oral histories. Such projects are laced with narratives of the Toronto region, both contemporary and historical, which indeed beautifully draw attention to a multifaceted, complex urban identity that is often lost in the haze of gray buildings and in our hustling commutes.

#urbanart this mural is painted on the concrete below Bloor Street at Old Mill they were done by Indigenous artist Philip Cote #philipcote

A post shared by Steve Kerlovich (@dilettante.gallery) on Dec 2, 2017 at 3:52pm PST

Then, within the production and life of a mural, lies another source of memory. Some murals have become iconic features to Toronto, recognizable to city dwellers across demographics. The Rainbow Tunnel in the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) is an excellent example of this. Visible from the highway, a pedestrian tunnel is vibrantly painted as a rainbow - ensuring pass-byers of its visibility regardless of the time of year. First painted in the 1970s by Bc Johnson, community members came together to restore the mural in 2012-2013, thus, sharing in a collective effort to preserve its mural memory. This Saturday, June 16th, Mural Routes will be completing touch-ups on Rainbow Tunnel as maintenance.

Rainbow Tunnel undergoing its restoration in 2012-2013. Photos courtesy of Mural Routes' Archive.

While the intentions and longevity of murals differ greatly, they share a common connection to community memory. Murals engage audiences with their surroundings, provoke new ideas to recollect, and stir our consciousness of another time.

A THROWBACK TO THROW-UPS

THROWBACK THURSDAY

BY JESSICA SVENNINGSON

Do you remember being a kid and scratching your name into a desk? Or perhaps a wall? Or maybe just the street when your mom brought out the sidewalk chalk?

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This act, which some would call defacing, is an act of graffiti – the act of scrawling your name or some picture you made onto a public surface.

Archaeologists' fascinating quest to decipher medieval graffiti scrawled on cathedral walls.

Graffiti goes back centuries more than most people realize. It can include cave paintings from Australia, where men left pigment prints outlining their hands, and refer back to the Roman empire when the phrase, “painting the town red,” referred to what Roman soldiers did after conquering a new territory.

They covering the walls of the villages with the blood of those they killed, if you didn't catch my drift. Source

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In modern times, it has less malicious roots.

Some say graffiti in North America started with Latin America tribes who immigrated to the states, and would put their language up on walls  to mark territory. However, the only documented credit for where modern graffiti started, and where that credit remains, is with the a collective of teenagers in New York City in the 1970s, who became sick of feeling neglected and forgotten by their city, and decided to do something about it.

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Brooklyn and the Bronx in the 1970s were in rough shape. Fires were burning every day, drugs and dealers were everywhere, and everyone wanted a piece of Manhattan but no one could get it.Then one day, a couple of boys, ages 13 and 14, started drawing together at this bus stop bench at 149th Street Grand Course, where the 2^nd and 5^th lines crossed. They started in note books, eventually getting artists' journals, meeting there everyday to practice their new-age calligraphy style writings. It was aptly named The Writer’s Bench by the future writers who joined these boys to get their name out there.

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This humble, blocky style bench, meant for commuters, was the place for some of the most prolific graffiti artists in history. 

Its still there now, the same bench from the 70s. It’s covered in tags, has a plate stating its historic significance, and although it hasn’t been used much by writers since the 1980s, graffiti artists from abroad or who were born in the 80s and 90s will still come to pay a visit to this very important historic site.

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The Writer’s Bench was where all the graffiti writers met to sign black books, settle disputes, exchange information about the latest news, and admire or critique each other’s works as it was an ideal view to watch trains 2 and 5 pass by. Lines 2 and 5 had some of the best graffiti art of the 1970s, coming as no surprise as the train yards for both these lines were in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

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It was tough competition to get a good tag on those trains. If you wanted to tag a train while it wasn’t in the yard, over looked by security, you would have to go into the tunnels. Many teenage boys would spend their summers lifting up man holes and finding hidden doors all over the city that lead down into the subway station, dodging trains and police officers the whole time. I am sure plenty got hurt, but it didn't stop everyone else from trying. Fallen soldiers aren't spoken about during a revolution.

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Hip hop and graffiti have always been intertwined, they are both movements that grew in the ghettos, generated by the youth in need for something in their life to give them purpose, and then spread out into the rest of the world. As hip hop music grew in popularity so did graffiti art and vice versa.

There’s a lot of debate between New York and Los Angeles graffiti writers as to who started the movement first. It’s a tough call because both styles and movements began within months of each other. The most popular story is that one teenage boy was watching the news one night at home, and saw a report about the graffiti happening all over the trains of New York, and thought that’s exactly what L.A. needed. However, L.A. doesn’t have any trains, so the boys turned to buses.

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Graffiti was, and still is, a way for young men who feel they have no place in the world to ‘get famous’. By throwing their (street)name out there for everyone in the world to see.
Writers would compete with each other to be the best and most famous writer in their city. The only real way to know if you were #1 is if you could walk anywhere in the city core and everywhere you looked, from every angle, you can see you name, whether it was as a tag, a throw-up, a gallery, or a mural. Only then were you truly famous.  

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The boys would say that whenever they saw a train or bus go by with their giant throw-up, or mural, on the side of it, knowing it would reach as far as Wall Street with the men in their suits, it gave them a feeling that they made their mark on the world.

Graffiti started as a way to say, 

“I am here, I exist, and I will be heard.”