Professor Dan Silver was recently featured in the U of T News discussing Toronto's public art policy. Professor Silver is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Acting Chair of Sociology at the UTSC campus. He recently co-authored a report titled Redefining Public Art in Toronto, in which he and his co-author Professor Sara Diamond, President and Vice-Chancellor of OCAD University, outline recommendations for improving the future of public art in Toronto. The report provides suggestions based on their extensive analysis of public art policy in the city and comparisons with other cities. Professor Silver's research interests include social theory, cities, culture, and cultural policy.
We have posted an excerpt of the article below.
Toronto needs to adopt a fresh vision for its public art policy, says report co-authored by U of T expert
By Don Campell | Oct. 23, 2017
Toronto needs to develop a fresh vision for its public art projects and integrate public art in all future planning, says a new report on the subject.
“A renewed vision for public art is something that should be given priority, especially as Toronto tries to market itself and position itself as a cultural leader in the country and globally,” says Sara Diamond, president and vice-chancellor of OCAD University, who authored the report with the University of Toronto's Dan Silver.
The authors and their teams, which included researchers from U of T and OCAD U, pulled together an exhaustive list of materials for the report, titled Redefining Public Art in Toronto. In addition to interviews with artists, architects, developers, politicians and other art experts in Toronto and Montreal, they relied on an inventory map of all public art projects completed in the city from 1967 to 2015, created by Ilana Altman.
They also looked at a host of public art policy documents for the City of Toronto and collected similar documents from 30 other cities around the world as part of a comparative analysis. The result? While there are areas where Toronto is doing well, there are clear areas where it’s falling behind.
Read the full article here.