How can public art be made more sustainable? In the warm spring of 2023, Synthetic Collective and Centre for Sustainable Curating teamed up with The Bentway and Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto to start a dialogue with architects, public art commissioners, conservators, artists, curators, and arts managers on sustainable approaches to public art. The conversations led to “A Public (Art) Notice” a free poster and downloadable guide to promoting more environmentally conscious ways to curate, create, and produce public art. We see this as the start of a vital conversation for the field. Access it here.
Centre for Sustainable Curating
The Centre for Sustainable Curating supports research, exhibitions, visual/digital production, and pedagogy focused on environmental and social justice. Located in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University, the CSC encourages research into waste, pollution, and climate crisis, and the development of exhibitions and artworks with low carbon footprints. @centreforsustainablecurating.
The Synthetic Collective
The Synthetic Collective is an interdisciplinary collaboration between visual artists, humanists, and scientists that focuses on plastic pollution in the Great Lakes Region. Crucial to their research methodology is the driving principle that artists and scientists conduct research together, from the outset of the inquiry, and said research should not do further environmental harm. The Synthetic Collective works to better connect scientific knowledge with potential cultural imports and enrich artistic production with informed science. They have organized exhibitions at The Art Museum at the University of Toronto and The Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris.
The Bentway
Anchored under Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway and guiding its complex future, The Bentway is a growing public space, and much more. We are a new type of civic organization: a not-for-profit, powered by vital partnerships with the City of Toronto, residents, supporters, artists, city-builders, and dreamers. The Bentway is a creative catalyst rooted in experimentation, leading a creative movement to re-imagine the opportunities of urban spaces. @thebentway.
Evergreen Brick Works
Evergreen is a national non-profit transforming public spaces in our cities to build a healthier future for people and our planet. Evergreen Brick Works, located in Toronto’s ravine system, is a year-round destination where the world comes to experience sustainability in action. Once an industrial brick factory, it is an internationally renowned showcase of green design, an award-winning public space and a test site to pilot ideas that can shape our cities for the better. @evergreen_brick_works.
A Public (Art) Notice is supported by Canada Council for the Arts and a collaboration between Synthetic Collective, Centre for Sustainable Curating, The Bentway and Evergreen’s Institute for Public Art and Sustainability.
