Art Metropole

#16362

Parkdale Provincial Park: Where Gritty Meets Pretty

Date

2023

Publisher

Self-Published

Format

Zines

Size

28 × 21.5 cm

Genre

Pamphlet, Activism, Tkaronto/Toronto

Parkdale Provincial Park opened on December 3, 2022 on an empty lot on Brock Ave, north of Queen St, on the site of a former LCBO.

I had been visiting a house on Brock Avenue, just north of Queen Street, and had been looking out the window at the empty lot across the road. Sometimes people played with their dogs on the empty lot. One time, film trucks were set up at the site, while Boston cop cars were parked along Queen Street, while a film shoot was in progress. Otherwise, not much happened there. It was mostly vacant and useless.

The liquor store had been at the location until it closed in 2015, and in January 2022, the LCBO building was demolished. The space has been sitting empty since then. The property is eventually going to be the site of affordable housing. Since the development has been stalled, I knew this lot would make for a good follow-up to Bloordale Beach. I suggested to Martin Reis and Stephanie Avery that we create Parkdale Provincial Park on the site, and that’s what we did.

Much like at Bloordale Beach, others contributed to the park by adding their own signs.

In January 2023, Parkdale Provincial Park was part of an exhibit at Northern Contemporary Gallery called The Art of Intervention: The Collected Work of Shari Kasman, Martin Reis, and Stephanie Avery. For the show, the artists made an Information Centre for the provincial park.