I’m not a Toronto native; moving to the big city was a big event in my life, and while it’s nice to be somewhere new, I feel like I haven’t taken the time to properly appreciate Toronto for possibly its most important feature: itself. I sat in on “The City As Art”, a talk on the Dean’s lecture series which basically highlighted the city’s architecture and how it both compares to other cities and affects the citizens as a whole. Speakers included Claire Hopkinson, Executive Director for the Toronto Arts Council, Toronto Star columnist Geoff Pevere and Lisa Rochon, a art and architecture columnist for The Globe and Mail.
The auditorium was packed with students who scribbled notes away and listened to each speaker take their turn; while the discussion wasn’t as heated as some of the other series’ I’ve been to, it seemed like more of an academic function than a forum for discussion. I got the feeling that many students were there as a requirement to their classes, but it was refreshing seeing the school take a different direction and provide them with actual real-life critics to the industry they were entering into.
I think it’s high time I start paying attention to the buildings around me, as opposed to which subway stop happens to be next on the line. Who knows? I might even walk home one of these days, and simply take the time to look up.
