In recognition of International Youth Day on August 12, 2021, the Toronto Ward Museum podcast explains how a team of youth succeeded in re-imaging the future of museums to help shape a more just and equitable and sustainable future.
In recognition of International Youth Day, on August 12, 2021 the Toronto Ward Museum released “ Going Back in Time – How the Toronto Ward Museum Youth Founders went from Concept to Reality,” our second podcast of an ongoing series. Podcaster Kassandra Mann has a conversation with one founders of the Museum, Simon Vickers who shares insights on how a collective of traditional museum “outsiders” all of whom were youth with majority being female and people of color, identified a need for Toronto to have a museum of migration featuring intergenerational storytellers, how they succeeded in making this idea a reality and how it can serve as a role model for other museums.
Perry Lupyrypa , Toronto Ward Museum Executive Director reflects that “In 2015 the Toronto Ward Museum founders were youth, museum outsiders and people of color whose voices historically had not been represented in the institutional heritage sector. They envisioned a society that values immigrants as makers of Toronto’s past and present and sought to bring together people of all backgrounds to shape a more just, equitable and sustainable future.” Lupyrypa asserts “These Youth Founders rejected physical buildings,collections and launched Toronto’s first museum of migration as a ‘Museum without Walls’ and it is fitting that on International Youth Day, this podcast launch recognizes celebrates the potential of youth as active partners in both the global and local society.”
The Toronto Ward Museum “InConversation” Podcast Series was made possible through our programming partnership with York University/Glendon College and support from Global Public Affairs, Royal Maple Creative and Business/Arts artsvest. Global Public Affairs is Canada’s leading strategic communications and government advocacy consultancy with offices across the country. They have a dedicated Cultural Industries practice to serve diverse arts and culture sectors including heritage, multidisciplinary programming, nonprofits and charities. Royal Maple Creative offers print and web design services, artsvest is Business / Arts signature mentorship training program designed to build capacity in Canada’s cultural sector.
Please visit www.wardmuseum.ca/podcast to listen to the podcast.
Toronto Ward Museum: Founded in 2015, the Toronto Ward Museum is a registered charity, a cultural institution and Toronto’s first museum of migration. It is a Museum-without-walls that strengthens our understanding of immigration history through innovation in interpretation and public engagement facilitating the preservation and sharing of personal stories of migrants in Toronto’s history. We utilize collaborative processes to identify community needs and opportunities then use those insights to create programming that promotes empathy and curiosity between storytellers, community members and the larger public. The museum also creates forums for dialogue from arts and/or history-based programming that is relevant to migration, citizenship and pluralism within an urban context. Finally, we act as a catalyst in community initiatives and forge partnerships between individuals, communities, and organizations toward our collective empowerment. Since March 2020 the Toronto Ward Museum has been operating virtually and programming pivoted to pandemic-reality conditions in accordance with public health guidelines.
The Museum’s namesake the St. John’s Ward was a densely populated and diverse district in downtown Toronto on land that had been a site of human activity for 15,000 years, most recently being the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit River. From the mid-nineteenth century to the years just after World War II, it attracted the city’s newest arrivals seeking a better life. Afterwhich amid protest, residents and businesses were pushed out of the neighbourhood as buildings were demolished to make way for hospitals, government buildings, new City Hall, Nathan Phillip Square, department stores and a bus terminal.
To learn more about the Toronto Ward Museum visit: wardmuseum.ca/