Welcome to Extra N.A. Online! Friday September 3, 2010 Homepage    |    News    |    Archives    |    Advertise    |    Contact Us    |    News Email to a Friend > Project celebrates Toronto’s diversity Thursday, September 24, 2009 contributed Photos Onlookers at a recent collaborative photography and dialogue project on diversity, BeingToronto and Beeing.ca, at the corner of Broadview and Gerrard streets in Toronto. Neil Armstrong TORONTO, Canada It is not often that multi-media projects stop Torontonians in their tracks but that was what happened recently at a corner of two busy streets in the city’s east end. This was a collaboration between BeingToronto, a series of temporary installations in neighbourhoods across Toronto, and Beeing.ca, a company whose vision is to create diverse and inclusive spaces by opening dialogues among groups. The project drew many onlookers and community members to the corner of Gerrard and Broadview streets, just outside the Riverdale Library. BeingToronto, a project started by photographers, Michelle Gibson and John Beebe, showcases intimate portraits in a very public arena thus creating an opportunity for Torontonians to understand each other, as neighbourhoods, and as a city. Using a unique process developed by Beebe, the project creates a temporary installation on the streets of Toronto by capturing, producing, printing and exhibiting large-scale museum quality portraits on location and in real time. The couple’s first project was held at Eglinton Ave. West and Oakwood, in the heart of “Little Jamaica”. Now they’ve decided to do the east end, not far from where Gibson’s childhood neighbourhood. “I actually grew up in the Queen and Broadview area, it was always a very diverse neighbourhood. Growing up it was the place where I felt, now in hindsight, I’m very lucky to have experienced, because it has helped me build relationships with people from all over,” says Gibson. Gibson has been back from San Francisco for the last four years and had this project in mind to show the people who are living in the city. “I find after shooting and photographing people and talking with everyone, there is a lot of commonality as well, like just the stories of people coming here and what made them want to come here.” Beebe is a native New Yorker who moved to Toronto. His work has been featured in a joint exhibition at the United Nations, and a solo show at Hart House at the University of Toronto where he was named photographer of the year by the Hart House Review. gallery Gibson would like to use the photos in a show at City Hall, not at a gallery which she says sometimes frightens people for socio-economic reasons. Beeing.ca (Building Equitable Environment) was on site to use the community installation to engage people in meaningful discussion and dialogue about the photographs and what diversity means to them - providing an interactive component to the visual art segment. The results of these conversations will be shared online at a later date. Annemarie Shrouder , founder and president, and Jean-Paul Jean-Baptiste, a diversity and equity consultant of Beeing.ca were on hand to engage participants in discussions about diversity in policy and practice, from the inside out. “It’s great that we’re taking pictures. It’s lovely, we get to see, but what about if we engage people in a conversation,” says Shrouder regarding a discussion about their project. Beeing.ca decided to sponsor the east end multi-media project and had a videographer taping the conversations about diversity. The photographers will use some of the video clips and Beeing.ca will talk to people about diversity in Toronto in the workplace. They will use materal from these conversations in their workshops. “Then we started talking wouldn’t it be great to have an online discussion. Not everybody can come down to have their picture taken. What if we put the video on the website and encourage people to blog.” Shrouder believes people are not really talking about diversity enough, or well, and that people have to talk about it together to create change. Jean-Baptiste says participants in the project all agree that Toronto is a very diverse city but they also agree that the city is not very inclusive. “We see diversity in a certain level but as soon as you start to talk about the top management, diversity doesn’t exist anymore, inclusiveness doesn’t exist anymore,” says the diversity and equity consultant. Send your comments about this Note. Include your name and location at the bottom of your comments. 1000 characters left. Change Image Write the Validation Code from the image above >>Read More News Stories © 2006-2010, Gleaner Extra NA, All Rights Reserved.