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ART IN THE PARK: GRANGE PARK, THAT IS
The Art Gallery of Ontario's backyard is getting its groove back
NADJA SAYEJ
Special to The Globe and Mail
November 15, 2008
Like all good party hosts, the Art Gallery of Ontario has done a thorough job of tidying before throwing open its doors to the hordes who have come for the grand reopening. The AGO has even gone as far as cleaning up its own backyard.
Grange Park, which is owned by the AGO, has long been known as a shady place after dark - both literally and figuratively - where drug dealers do their business under cover of sparse street lighting. Even by day the place has its problems: Six dead trees were dragged out of the park earlier this week. The wading pool takes 4½ hours to drain and is surrounded by spikes and blocks to discourage skateboarding.
But the new Grange Park Advisory Committee has a proposal to revitalize the space and keep it maintained, in light of the AGO's renovations.
Come Dec. 8, the committee's first public meeting will reveal the plan for the park, which includes giving it a green kick and some creative soul to echo that of the art gallery and the neighbouring school, the Ontario College of Art and Design.
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"To match the extraordinary institution, it has to become an extraordinary park," said Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), co-chair of GPAC with Rupert Duchesne, the vice-president of the AGO board of trustees.
And they've just scored the bling to make it happen - the AGO was the prime fundraisers in getting $50,000 from the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation for GPAC, which pocketed it this
September.
The first goal is to make this upcoming summer the greenest one Grange Park has seen. A landscape architect company has already started planting, tagging trees and taking soil samples as part of an environmental assessment that started last month.
"We became more aware of Grange Park as we entered the expansion," said Bev Carret, the co-ordinator of GPAC and manager of government and community relations at the AGO. "It's going to attract more and more attention to Grange Park and we want it to look as beautiful as possible."
Graffiti will be maintained weekly and more streetlights will go up.
The grass will be replenished as well - which will certainly help the view from the AGO's new spiralling Barnacle Staircase, which looks out onto a sizable bald patch of lawn.
After bringing the park's health up to par, the second phase - which kicks off next winter - will reveal the artistic personality of Grange Park.
The plan envisions "interactive" abstract sculptures in the park that can be climbed and played on, inspired by the amorphous Henry Moore piece that graces the corner of McCaul and Dundas. Ken Greenberg, an architect and urban designer who is a consultant with GPAC, calls the new sculptures "play equipment."
"From the community point of view, we care about the park and now there is the need and opportunity," said Ralph Daley, a local resident and interim chair of the Grange Community Association, a new alliance that will launch with GPAC next month.
"From everything I see, I think we're going to have a successful, dramatic plan," he said. "We have an opportunity to revitalize a green oasis in the core of the city."
The Art Gallery of Ontario's backyard is getting its groove back
NADJA SAYEJ
Special to The Globe and Mail
November 15, 2008
Like all good party hosts, the Art Gallery of Ontario has done a thorough job of tidying before throwing open its doors to the hordes who have come for the grand reopening. The AGO has even gone as far as cleaning up its own backyard.
Grange Park, which is owned by the AGO, has long been known as a shady place after dark - both literally and figuratively - where drug dealers do their business under cover of sparse street lighting. Even by day the place has its problems: Six dead trees were dragged out of the park earlier this week. The wading pool takes 4½ hours to drain and is surrounded by spikes and blocks to discourage skateboarding.
But the new Grange Park Advisory Committee has a proposal to revitalize the space and keep it maintained, in light of the AGO's renovations.
Come Dec. 8, the committee's first public meeting will reveal the plan for the park, which includes giving it a green kick and some creative soul to echo that of the art gallery and the neighbouring school, the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Print Edition - Section Front
Enlarge Image
"To match the extraordinary institution, it has to become an extraordinary park," said Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), co-chair of GPAC with Rupert Duchesne, the vice-president of the AGO board of trustees.
And they've just scored the bling to make it happen - the AGO was the prime fundraisers in getting $50,000 from the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation for GPAC, which pocketed it this
September.
The first goal is to make this upcoming summer the greenest one Grange Park has seen. A landscape architect company has already started planting, tagging trees and taking soil samples as part of an environmental assessment that started last month.
"We became more aware of Grange Park as we entered the expansion," said Bev Carret, the co-ordinator of GPAC and manager of government and community relations at the AGO. "It's going to attract more and more attention to Grange Park and we want it to look as beautiful as possible."
Graffiti will be maintained weekly and more streetlights will go up.
The grass will be replenished as well - which will certainly help the view from the AGO's new spiralling Barnacle Staircase, which looks out onto a sizable bald patch of lawn.
After bringing the park's health up to par, the second phase - which kicks off next winter - will reveal the artistic personality of Grange Park.
The plan envisions "interactive" abstract sculptures in the park that can be climbed and played on, inspired by the amorphous Henry Moore piece that graces the corner of McCaul and Dundas. Ken Greenberg, an architect and urban designer who is a consultant with GPAC, calls the new sculptures "play equipment."
"From the community point of view, we care about the park and now there is the need and opportunity," said Ralph Daley, a local resident and interim chair of the Grange Community Association, a new alliance that will launch with GPAC next month.
"From everything I see, I think we're going to have a successful, dramatic plan," he said. "We have an opportunity to revitalize a green oasis in the core of the city."
