Geography, history, memory all guide us as we struggle to find a sense of belonging and identity. They can direct us as clearly as a map or a compass. But does your heritage define you or does it make you part of a community? Do you belong to your neighbourhood or does it belong to you? What is your place in the world?
Simon Frank
"As my practice leads me to a more profound understanding of how a specific place can echo or reflect all places, I find myself less interested in seeking out new landscapes than I am in seeing and exploring this place with fresh eyes."
— Simon Frank
Visual Artist
Toronto Music Garden
"Birds, Breezes, Buds and Bach—this year a number of programs at the Music Garden overtly honour, reflect on, or tip their hat to the power of place of this magical garden, inspired by the first Suite for solo cello by J.S. Bach. But it would be hard to find any concert that does not in some way connect with the creative power and fantasy of Bach—a genius who brought together the "world musics" of his milieu—the French, Italian and German styles of Baroque music that we sample over several concerts this year; a composer and improviser who seemed to capture the irrepressible life-force of nature in his music, even as Julia Moir Messervy has transformed the musical forms of Bach's music into a living garden."
— Tamara Bernstein,
Artistic Director, Toronto Music Garden
Shawna Dempsy and Lorri Millan, Lesbian Rangers
"Geography is the canvas on which we live our lives. And the prairies are a big canvas. There is plenty of room for each of us to inscribe ourselves, as idiosyncratically as we choose."
— Shawna Dempsy and Lorri Millan
Lesbian Rangers
