PARADE

University Avenue / Queen's Park

Follow curator Patrick Macaulay's Parade route along University Avenue. Meet the Queen of the Parade at Queen Street West, then walk north to Charles Street West to see all 14 projects.

Near by

  Pick up a map at Yonge-Dundas Square or Nathan Phillips Square.
Hop off the subway at Osgoode Station.

Curatorial Statement

PARADE

The format of a parade is archetypal; one that is well understood and consistent across the globe. A parade route is set. The audience stands on either side of the procession and observes the succession of spectacles.

The intent of PARADE is to create, at first glance, an unconventional parade. The floats do not move forward and the people, who would normally be stationary, become the procession by actively participating in the parade. In essence all parades require pageant + people. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche perhaps most patently encapsulates the power of this equation. This art parade is in fact putting the focus forward onto the spectator since, in truth; all parades are at their core a vehicle to create civic ceremony.

PARADE shifts the denotation of mere procession to be a large-scale art installation convoy. Artists and architects create the "floats" but unlike a gallery setting these works are placed in the street. How one views and understands these artworks is dependent on the stream of people moving down the street and interconnecting with the streetview itself. The PARADE is place and populace. The PARADE is art and occurrence.

— Patrick Macaulay

Biography

Patrick Macaulay is the Head of Visual Arts at Harbourfront Centre. Over the past 15 years he has curated hundreds of exhibitions and has moved the visual arts programming at Harbourfront Centre in new and exciting directions. He received his MFA from The Art Institute of Chicago, and BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

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Open Call Projects

To encourage involvement by a wide range of artists – established and emerging – each exhibition includes projects selected by the curators through an open call process.