ABOUT
BIC VISION AND VALUES
Funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant, the Building Inclusive Cities project brought together multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral partners and audiences to demonstrate the values of community narratives and the importance of centering marginalized people and histories in the sectors of city planning, civic engagement, heritage and museums through its arts and community-based participatory research dissemination and co-creation activities. Overall, this project explored how the Toronto Ward Museum’s arts, equity, and community-based participatory engagement methodology (via their “Block by Block” program) can inform how planning, heritage, and museum practices can collaborate with communities more equitably. The project had four specific objectives:
Bridge dialogue between local community organizers and city planners and museum/heritage professionals around the Block by Block methods and exhibition.
Assess the impact of oral histories and community-based research for local communities and professional practice.
Assess the power dynamics within the engagement process between community members/advocates and professionals.
Understand the opportunities, challenges, and implications of using oral histories as a form of knowledge sharing for professional practice and the policymaking process.
RELATION WITH BXB AND TWM
Building Inclusive Cities examined and leveraged insights from the Toronto Ward Museum’s Block by Block program and the BIC symposium was planned to coincide with the program’s culminating exhibition (Block by Block: Stories of Migration, Life, and Change in Four Toronto Neighbourhoods, TD Gallery). Founded in 2015, the Toronto Ward Museum is a ‘museum without walls’ that centers immigrant voices and stories to better reflect the diverse life experiences of one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Block by Block engaged diverse youth, newcomers and Indigenous community members in the collection and interpretation of oral histories of migration and settlement. By training young people to interview community members about their lived experiences, the program preserved and animated stories of migration, settlement and civic life in Canadian immigrant neighbourhoods through community dialogues, events, exhibitions, video stories and more. The program ran from 2018-2022 in Toronto’s Agincourt, Parkdale, Regent Park and Victoria Park neighbourhoods, involving over 100 community storytellers, 45 young researcher/curators and 10 program partners. Building Inclusive Cities examined the relevance of Block by Block’s arts and community–based methodology for contemporary planning, heritage and museum practices.
Learn more about the Block by Block program here. Visit Toronto Ward Museum’s Block by Block digital exhibition here.
BIC TEAM
Dr. Zhixi Zhuang
MCIP, RPP, Associate Professor, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Maggie Hutcheson
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Faculty of Informaiton, University of Toronto.
Former Block by Block Program Director/Lead Curator, Toronto Ward Museum (2017-2022)
Dr. Irina D. Mihalache
Associate Professor, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Dr. Lena Mortensen
Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough
Brannavy Jeyasundaram
Co-Executive Director, Toronto Ward Museum
TEAM COLLABORATION STATEMENT
The BIC symposium was co-developed by an ongoing partnership between an academic team (based at the Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Toronto) and community-based researchers, all with a long history of collaborating with the Toronto Ward Museum. Collectively, the academic team has expertise in museum studies, heritage studies, urban planning, anthropology, communication studies, and community-based research. The team continues to support equity-focused city-building initiatives that center lived experience and prioritize migrant cultural heritage.
TEAM BIOS
Dr. Zhixi Zhuang
MCIP, RPP, Associate Professor, School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Zhixi Zhuang is an Associate Professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University. Founder of the DiverCityLab (www.divercitylab.com), her research explores the growing urban diversity and how city-builders can incorporate equity and inclusion into their practices. Her work focuses on the lived experiences of immigrant and racialized communities, emphasizing their agency for cultural recognition, as well as social, economic, political, and spatial inclusion. Thus, in turn, sheds light on municipal policies and governance
Dr. Irina D. Mihalache
Associate Professor, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Romanian-Canadian scholar Irina D. Mihalache researches on the lands of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. She is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. Her research covers histories of volunteer women in art museums, intersections between food and museums, the material culture of food, and practices of museum interpretation professionals. Irina applies community-centered approaches to her research and teaching, and works alongside the BIC team to support storytelling driven by Toronto migrants.
Dr. Maggie Hutcheson
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Faculty of Informaiton, University of Toronto.
Former Block by Block Program Director/Lead Curator, Toronto Ward Museum (2017-2022)
Dr. Maggie Hutcheson is a Toronto-based educator, artist, curator and consultant. She has worked with a range of organizations including the CBC, Jumblies Theatre and the Toronto Arts Foundation. Maggie co-founded the longstanding collective ‘Department of Public Memory’ and authored the Ontario Arts Council’s handbook on best practices in community-engaged art. She was the Lead Curator/Program Director of Toronto Ward Museum’s Block by Block program from 2017-2022. Maggie is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Lena Mortensen
Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough
Lena Mortensen is faculty in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She specializes in community-based cultural heritage and placemaking, and maintains research and teaching interests in tourism, value, intellectual property, material culture, archaeological ethnography, and heritage management. In all her work, Lena centers community-based, participatory approaches and regularly teaches qualitative research methods courses that train students in ethical, community-driven, equity-focused methodologies.
Brannavy Jeyasundaram
Co-Executive Director, Toronto Ward Museum
Brannavy Jeyasundaram is a writer and museum professional living in Toronto. Brannavy is an interpretive planner at the Royal Ontario Museum and was previously the co-executive director of the Toronto Ward Museum. In 2023, she wrote and curated “We Will Remember This”, a collection of literary essays published by Nova Dance and Dance Collection Danse. Much of her work is motivated by an effort to understand diasporic will and memory.
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
We are grateful to the stellar Research Assistants who supported the BIC team and who took leadership on several aspects of the project: Ryan Lok, Harleena Jheeta, Anu Sasi Kumar, Shakthi Suthakaran, Sophia Narayan, and Parita Patel.
We are grateful for the collaboration with the project’s community research/curator, Vidhya Elango.