Project Introduction & Credits

 

The Fort York Project was developed in collaboration with Susan Fohr, Coordinator, Fort York, City of Toronto Museums as a pedagogical museum outreach project for Art & Design Education undergraduate students at OCAD University. The intent of this project was to provide student resource ideas in the form of pedagogical learning-with-object plans - working with objects and site buildings - for Fort York. Students investigated many issues and concerns that arose in response to the fort as a site of past defense and of present community engagement.  The themes explored were: conflict and peace and how the past connects to the present. 

Exploring this particular museum, with the astute support of Susan Fohr, has been astounding. In her initial visit she assisted student idea generation by providing ways to link their research and thinking to Indigenous community engagement, to food/use waste, to contemporary exhibition, to historical content/context, and to contemporary intervention. This dialogue enhanced and informed their work as educators. We are grateful to Susan for her generosity and passion which has informed this project work. Other project assistant guests included Sean Lee (Tangled Art + Disability), Mallory Tolcher (Artist and Community Educator), Paola Poletto (Director of Engagement & Learning, AGO), Peter Sramek (OCADU), Chelsea Good (OCADU), Jihane Mossalim (Educator and Artist, Concordia University), and Vicky Talwar (Educator and Artist). 

Here on this site, students provide a range of creative and critical pedagogical designs  in response to Fort York, Toronto, as place, during the month of November 2024. Each contributing student is named and his/her/their contribution can be viewed.

Welcome!

Contributors

Project Leaders: 

Pam Patterson, Judith Librach & Anna Petrosyan

Project Design: 

Anna Petrosyan

Museum Educators:

Miriam Altamira Gama

Kristina Anderson

Japrose Bhelay

Alexia Constantinidis

Feier Dai

Xinyue Ji

Caelan John

Fatimah Kuba

Joshua Lewis

Heli Sanjaykumar Patel

Shawnique Rhooms-Thompson

Jovanka Shiva

Isabella Staffieri

Dillan Williamson-Sebasta

Mupeng Zhang

Renmai Zhu