Description Rich Story Hour - Part Two

Not every park is an art park, and not every art park is Lee Lifeson Art Park. In this episode, we hear from former City Councillor John Fillion about how the Park achieved its current iteration, and there’s more wheeling and dealing involved than you might think. And we focus, rather appropriately,  on the Amphitheatre and the stage. What does it look like? What does it sound like? Who performs there? We hear from Dancer and Choreographer David Norsworthy about the Common Ground Dance Festival that will celebrate its fifth year on that stage the weekend of September 18-20, and we round off with a chat among the Described Toronto Collective about what it means to design and present inclusive events. And maybe there’s a few musical cameos by Christine, and our Associate Producer Janis Mayers.

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The Description Rich Story Hour and The Hopewell Garden Audio Story are created by Christine Malec, Rebecca Singh and Katherine Sanders. They are a trio of artists who came together for the purpose of creating audio experiences of the natural world from a Blind-led perspective.

These stories are made possible thanks to the generous support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Foundation.

Logo Image Description: A square with large yellow text that reads, "Described Toronto" and below it "PODCAST" in all capital letters, within a yellow rectangle. The title is layered on top of a photo of diverse women standing side by side outdoors in a park. One of the women holds a white cane.

Transcript

Christine Malec (00:06)
Welcome to this episode of the Description Rich Story Hour podcast series. I'm Christine Malec.

Christine Malec (00:19)
In Lee Lifeson Art Park, there's a stage. It's called the Limelight Stage, as a nod to the Canadian rock band Rush. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of the band both grew up in Willowdale, where the park is located. And so, the naming of the park and the stage is a recognition of artists, an expression of support for public art, and an invitation. When you build a stage, people come to it, some to perform, some to spectate.

But it's not a stage in a theater, a place where people go on purpose to experience a ticketed performance. It's not elevated. It's right at ground level. It's in a public park where people wander by, taking a shortcut to somewhere, strolling to enjoy some fresh air and the sight of trees, to find rest, or hopefully a spot of tranquility in a busy city. How did the park become an art park?

What happens when you create an art park? What does the stage look like? Here's audio describer Rebecca Singh on a hot July day in the park, giving us the visuals of the Limelight stage, which will be the performance space for the Description Rich Story Hour on September 27th.

Rebecca Singh (01:39)
Okay, so here we are approaching the back of the band shell in the amphitheater, an area of about 25 meters diameter. There's grass covering that comes down into a little bit of a bowl. In the center of this circular dip is a pad which is made out of wood slats. And on top of that pad is a very large shell.

It looks very much like a seashell and I'm standing under it right now. It's a three quarters of a shell which sticks up on an end out of the wooden floor and curves over slightly cupping the people standing underneath it. And I'm facing the shell, gives like a really interesting acoustic effect. You might be able to hear a little bit of an echo. And my back is now to a U shaped seating area in three steps.

This shell is covered with small tiles. They are in various shades of grey, black and reflective silver. Some of it is high gloss and it gives it a kind of ⁓ almost a wet look. Chris, would you like to go up to it and feel it? I'm approaching it and it really is a shell. It's concave so I'm facing it now and

In fact, you're probably hearing some great acoustics because I'm talking right into the concave part and I'm pretty sure it's naturally designed to do this, which is a bit weird because I think it's louder when you face the concave shell and now I'm turning 180 degrees and I'm now facing the audience and ⁓ I'm sure that changes the acoustic signature. But yeah, the tiles are... ⁓

I'm echoing somewhere up there too. my gosh. that's so cool. So yeah, these tiles are a couple of centimeters or so and ⁓ the texture is very grid-like sort of, but in a smooth way and it's very curvy, right? Is that like normal shells kind of look? Whenever I heard band shell, I thought that was just an expression, but it really is, it really is shell-like. There's a shell going on. So I've got my foot against the base of it and then...

I could totally just like lean back into ⁓ this performance shell space and it feels a little cave-like even, a little cave-like. And so those are shimmery? Yeah, so there's a bit of a rough texture on each individual tile and although it is curving over top of us, so giving us a little bit of shade, it's still reflecting the sunlight at different angles, which gives it a bit of a shimmery reflection.

Now I'm facing out into the audience. If this was full of people on the day, how many people do you think would fit in this audience space? Well, so it depends on if there people sitting on the grass. On the three rows of seats, you could probably fit maybe even a hundred people. There's also space behind those for people who brought their own chairs, for example, or wheelchair users. And then the first of those rows is

25 meters away from the back of the band shell and the stage area, the circular stage pad, I'm going to call it, with wooden slats extends for about 10 meters. And then there's another 10 meters of grass that continues in a circular shape all the way around. Beyond that is five meters of concrete. And then there's the first row of seating.

So people could be bringing blankets and sitting on the grass. And my goodness, you could have probably about 200 people if they were all wrapping around for a good music show. So quite a lot, maybe up to 300. That's what we can look forward to on the 27th. I'm just tripping out on turning around. I'm turning like 360 degrees just to like hear the different acoustic signature of the clam shell. That's, yeah, so right here.

I'm echoing off somewhere, but I can't tell where. That's very cool. I really like that. Amazing. Amazing. Awesome, Chris. And I think the other thing that I should definitely mention is the top of the clamshell is about 20 feet up and the entire edge of it, call it like a scalloped edge, like it ripples backwards and forwards. I'm just going to step backwards to look at it from the side. It's, it's only about 15 centimeters thick.

So it's kind of cool and I imagine like if you've ever held like a ball of dough in your hand and squished your knuckles into it, that's the kind of ridges that the shell has. They're kind of like slowly ⁓ undulating natural ups and downs, just as same thing as between your knuckles would create. And they all stem from a sort of center section, which is actually standing height the way, how tall are you, Chris? Five five.

So at about five foot five, that's sort of the center point and all the ripples emanate from that center point down to the ground and then all the way up 20 feet in the air. It's really tactically tempting. Like I just kind of want to keep following the curves and it's very organic and curvy and flowy and nice. And it's made to be visually appealing as well, I guess.

Yes, absolutely. And the thing also is that we are standing here like it's noon and it looks very different at night. At night it is also going to be reflecting any lights that are on facing the stage. They bring in lights for events that happen in the evening time. And so then you would actually get a bit of a shimmery or mirror ball effect.

So, and it would look, think, a little bit more silver at that point too. Very, very rock star. Appropriately so. Exactly, exactly. And the back of the clamshell is just as beautiful as the front. There's a pathway actually, so you can walk right up to it. And there's a little bit of a weathered effect that you can see on the clamshell itself, or maybe that has been caused somewhat by people's hands. I'm going to read now what it says on the plaque. The plaque is about...

60 centimeters off the ground and ⁓ black letters that are cut into an aluminum base. It says Limelight. That's the title. Paul Raff Studio 2017. Glass mosaic tile, fiberglass and steel frame. Limelight is a glass mosaic sculpture based on the principle of the parabolic reflector. The complex shell-like form

captures the sound of performers on stage and projects it towards the audience. Through its striking presence and unique visual character, Limelight invites curiosity and interaction. A mysterious presence in the park, a silent actor on the stage, Limelight invokes the communicative power of performance. And it says it's part of the Public Art and Monuments Collection, City of Toronto.

Christine Malec (08:55)
John Fillion was a city councillor for many years, both before and after Toronto Amalgamated. He was a key player in bringing Lee Lifeson Art Park into being. He had a clear vision of what he wanted, but an unclear path about how to get there. So, like many an artist, he improvised.

Christine Malec (09:16)
You were city counselor when Lee Lifeson Art Park came into being. So could you give us some background and tell us how that happened?

John Fillion (09:25)
First of all, it did not happen as a result of any City of Toronto policies quite the opposite. was, you know, how do I get around all of the existing city policies to actually create a park here? So back in the North York days, when I was a member of North York Council,

and a lot of development started happening along Yonge Street in Willowdale. The park staff came to me and said maybe we should identify some properties that we could acquire to create some parkland. The area was already deficient in parkland and I kept having all these fights with North York Councillors about requiring more parkland.

from developers. So I sat down with staff, we got out a map and ⁓ agreed on a spot, which is generally where the park is now located. And there was an opportunity a few years later to pick up a couple of properties. And so I said yes to those and we picked up the properties. Probably 15 years later.

The staff of the new amalgamated city called me up and they said we have these two properties that we own just off Doris Avenue and we want to sell them. And and I just thought I'll make up a story on the spot because I didn't want them to sell them. I said no, no, you can't sell them. We're supposed to be creating a park there.

which that part was true. And I said, and it's supposed to be an arts park, and I just made that up on the spot. And during the years that Ford was mayor, people didn't know up from down. Nobody knew what was going on, including the bureaucracy. And they were just kind of, ⁓ thanks for telling us that we didn't know that. And I said, yeah, so we need to not only keep those properties.

let's get out a map and I'll show you all the additional properties that we need to acquire. And I have a way to do that. And so they were like, okay, thanks very much. We really appreciate your help, Councillor. So then I got a couple of developers to agree to go out and purchase parkland that I wanted in that area. And they didn't knock on

say hi, I'm from the City of Toronto because the price would have gone way up. They just went around as if they were land speculators and they were mostly buying up properties from other land speculators. So they went out and acquired all the necessary properties.

Christine Malec (12:11)
So why an art park? Why was a seasoned city councilor scheming to make this specific kind of public space? What did he envision?

John Fillion (12:22)
So I was a counselor who probably would have preferred to be an arts entrepreneur. So the great thing about being a city counselor is you had your basic job description you had to do, but beyond that, you could kind of do whatever you wanted. So for example, I used to run a free

Arts Festival Friday nights during the summer at Mel-Lastman Square called Cultura. And ⁓ it wasn't the city that put it on. wasn't even Councillor Fillion, really. It was just John Fillion. But because I was the councillor, it was easy for me to book the square and, you know, raise some money to do it, that kind of thing. There hadn't really been any grassroots, like nobody had said, can you build us an arts park?

I just wanted to do it but because there was kind of no history of arts development in the Willowdale area and not a whole lot of artists living there. it was very hard while I was a counselor there to get the arts community to embrace it. Put a sign up saying anybody who

you know, wants to start a string quartet meet here at three o'clock on Sunday afternoon and just have things evolve you know, I wanted to have groups of people sitting in the park, writing poetry, reading poetry, you know, writing a play and then, you know, performing it in the same space. You know, I wanted to have all types of arts

going on there sort of generated in a grassroots kind of way and encouraged by the city.

Christine Malec (14:20)
That's our associate producer Janice Mayers on guitar. That's me on harmonica. We weren't scheduled to perform. We're imperfect. We're just jamming. We'd never played music together before, but the stage is right there, and so we're doing what John Fillian hoped people would do. Going to the park. Playing around with art, music and sound. Experimenting.

Improvising informally. Giving passers-by the opportunities to listen or to ignore us. Just goofing around.

It's called Lee Lifeson Art Park in honor of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of the legendary Canadian rock band Rush. But why?

John Fillion (15:19)
I decided that I wanted to name it after somebody who had a Willowdale connection. So Rush was the. You know the obvious choice, so I'd initially wanted to call it. I either Rush Park or I wanted to call it Getty Leap Park and when we approached Rush.

They sort of through their intermediary, was always a little bit difficult to communicate with them directly. But what we heard back was, Geddy doesn't want it just named after him. Him and Alex are both from Willowdale. So how about something that combines both of their names? So that's how we came up with Lee Lifeson.

Christine Malec (16:03)
But a park isn't just about designating land, especially this one. So how, once he had finessed securing the spot, how did then-Councillor Filion wheel and deal to shape the space into his vision of an outdoor public space dedicated to art?

John Fillion (16:23)
would come up with some, you know, way of getting a park built. And usually it was by getting the developers to go out and acquire parkland rather than following the city policy per se. eventually I had park staff who saw that this was working really well and would work with me to do it.

The problem with doing it that way is there's nothing in the capital budget to build the park. So you acquire the land, because it's not typically you already have a park and then the city puts money into the capital budget, you know, five years or more ahead to actually do something on the park. And that didn't work when we were.

creating these kind of instant parks with land purchased by developers. So we had the land for Lee Lifeson Park, but no money to build it. The Parks Department, I think, came up with some of it, but I needed to find two other sources of funding. So one was development charges and

at first it was like, well, no, you don't qualify for development charges here because this park wasn't in the development charges bylaw. So ⁓ we were just in the process of developing a new development charge bylaws. So I had a bunch of residents, residents groups, formal groups, contact the city.

and say they were going to appeal the bylaw because ⁓ it hadn't provided enough money in the past to create new parkland or new childcare centers and mentioned a couple of other things. So then the city staff, as I expected, contacted me and said, your residents

say they're going to appeal the bylaw, can you talk some sense into them? And I said, well, see what I can do. But, you know, I think if you want them to not appeal the bylaw, you're going to have to provide some funding for Lee Lifeson Park, and you're going to need to provide funding for a child care center at this location, and you're going to need to provide funding for something else. And so they said, OK, tell them we'll do that. ⁓

see if you can make a deal. So that way I got some development charge money for the project. And then we were at community council one day and a development was going through and a counselor named Howard Mosco, who used to like to add money on, have developers pay for public art, made an amendment to a motion.

to approve this development subject to them paying $3 million in public art money. So the developer is sitting in the audience and is is, you know, freaking out because they weren't counting on this $3 million. So ⁓ I go over to Howard and this was totally unscripted. He just was doing this spontaneously because he

did that kind of stuff. And I said, you know, can I make a deal with these guys? And he's like, Yeah, yeah, sure. I don't care. So I go over to them. And I said, Oh, it's terrible. What's what's happening to you? You do you want to see if I can talk some sense into him? And they were like, Oh, would you please? So I went over and talked to him again, I went back and said, like, so you know, what about? I can't remember the amount it was either.

⁓ 750,000 or one and half million. can't remember which it was. And they said, thank you, thank you. And I said, and will you agree that that money will go towards this project? I have Lee Lifeson Art Park, and because we'll be building some features that the city would consider public art. And they were like, yeah, sure, sure, whatever you want. So that

That plus the development charge money plus what parks had available gave us the money to actually build the park.

Christine Malec (20:58)
Some of that money went to commission the Limelight stage, where the description-rich story hour will take place.

And so, other than the described Toronto Collective, who else is making art in the park? I got the chance to speak with David Norsworthy of Toes for Dance, which will be offering some amazing performances on the Limelight stage as part of their Common Ground Dance Festival on the weekend of September 18th through the 20th. Like others in this episode, he's got some thoughts on the value of art in public outdoor spaces.

As someone who will be performing on the Limelight stage, I was especially interested to hear his perspectives on it.

Christine Malec (21:44)
Welcome David, can you just start by sort of introducing yourself and what you do?

David Norsworthy (21:50)
Absolutely, thank you for the warm welcome. ⁓ My name is David Norsworthy. I use he-him pronouns ⁓ and I grew up in Mississauga, so not so far ⁓ from Lee Lifeson Art Park ⁓ and I'm now based in Toronto in Midtown. I am a dancer and a choreographer and an artistic director.

And mostly my work as an artistic director is in relation to a non-profit organization that I co-founded with my friend and colleague, Kristin Karkoni, in 2012 called Toes for Dance. And every year since 2021, we've been producing the annual Common Ground Dance Festival at Leigh Lifeson Art Park every fall.

Christine Malec (22:37)
So there is a stage there. It's not a huge stage. ⁓ As ⁓ a dancer and an artistic director, what's your experience with that stage? How does that stage work for something other than singing or standing, telling a story? How does that work for dance?

David Norsworthy (22:58)
Well, I I really love the intimacy of the amphitheater while it still has a really open and expansive quality. think there's this beautiful shell sculpture at the back of the stage that is kind of like shiny and metallic, made up of these like small tiles of a kind of dark reflective material.

And it's there, I think, mostly for acoustic reasons, ⁓ which comes in handy for us sometimes when we have live performances on ⁓ live music, sorry, to accompany the dance performances that we're presenting. But it also creates a really stunning visual backdrop of this glimmering clam shell ⁓ in front of this pretty wide array of impressively large trees. ⁓

And so standing on the stage, there is a kind of proximity to the audience that is useful because it seats about maybe 200 people comfortably on benches in a quarter circle around the stage. But then there's also a wide-reaching expansiveness because there's also several condo buildings off in the distance.

So actually someone that I know who lives in the neighborhood, they saw our performances from their like 20th story balcony last year, which was so fun.

Christine Malec (24:30)
GASP

⁓ gosh, that is an aspect I had not considered. ⁓ I've been privileged lately to talk to some dancers and do a little bit of work about, ⁓ dance being sort of more accessible for the blind and low vision community. And one element that I hadn't considered is that dancers usually, I think usually perform in a way that highlights them visually. And so there's a stage and there's lighting and

The lighting is almost a character because it defines where the dancer is and it might be doing playful things, you know, with the dancers movements. so, as a dancer and yourself and someone who's, you helped curate a lot of dance performance there, how does, is that element, ⁓ even relevant? Like the element of lighting and the focus. Cause when you're in a theater, you're the proscenium and the stage is really obvious, but it's less so here. How does that play out?

David Norsworthy (25:34)
Yeah, thank you for that beautiful question. I think dance as an art form, it brings together a lot of different kind of creative sensibilities. And so, like in some ways, it's auditory with the music that accompanies the dance and the dancers breath and the sound of the dancers feet on the floor. ⁓

sometimes in shoes and sometimes there's a percussive element to that like in kata or flamenco or in tap dance. ⁓ And then there's also this really integral visual element as you're saying where the kind of shape and architecture of the dancer's moving body is working in relation often to the sound ⁓ that is either accompanying the dancer or produced through the dancing itself. ⁓ And in terms of the lighting design, ⁓

Yeah, because we're outdoors and when we present at Leigh-Lyfson Art Park, we do have to bring all of our equipment with us. We don't ⁓ usually have such an extensive lighting design, but even something as simple as ⁓ like an additional colour, ⁓ like ⁓ some blue tones or some warmer orange, amber tones can really kind of change the emotional ⁓ or expressive texture of the dance as it's received by an audience.

So, yeah, I mean, think that's what I love about dance is that it really, it holds like a theatrical element, it holds a musical element, it holds a kinesthetic element, and all of those things come together.

Christine Malec (27:12)
I was wondering about when, when someone walks through that park, there's some unusual stuff in there. Like there's the stage with that visually striking clamshell, but there's some other art pieces too. And, with no obligation to say, yeah, they're amazing. Like I'm, I'm genuinely curious about what you think happens when, ⁓ the average person or maybe someone with an artistic eye.

walks through the park and sees those things. So as a blind person, don't have a great sense of what the norms really are. So is it that odd to walk through a park and see those things? What's the general sort of reaction that you think people have when they see those elements in a park?

David Norsworthy (27:55)
I think there is absolutely a distinctive ambiance to this park because of this glittering clam shell as we've been talking about. But there's also another kind of like reflective ⁓ sound installation piece. It's a sculptural element with ⁓ many different sides of ⁓ a mirror that is in the shape of like a megaphone ⁓ and maybe every

every hour or every hour and a half, something like that, there is a recorded sound that emerges from this like mirrored, gigantic mirrored megaphone. There are, and then there are a couple of other sculptural installations around the park too, some of which are more participatory. Like there's one that almost looks a bit like a playground, again, with these kind of megaphone shapes that can swivel and then kind of, yeah, a bit of a

don't know how to describe it, like a metal scaffolding kind of that holds up these swiveling megaphones. So you can kind of like step up onto it and you can use your hands to manipulate the direction that the megaphones go. And then there's a little hole that you can also speak through that will amplify your voice in whatever direction you swivel the megaphone to. ⁓ And so there's often people in the park who are kind of clambering up onto this structure ⁓ using their hands in a tactile way to interact with the art. ⁓

So I think all of that is very palpable when you enter the park ⁓ because you can kind of sense that, okay, there's greenery here, know, there's shrubs and bushes and trees, ⁓ but there's also something else going on ⁓ that has a different kind of color and vibrancy to it that also invites interaction in a beautiful way.

Christine Malec (29:46)
This is a really broad question, but it's partly informed by the fact that a few days ago, I attended Shakespeare in the park in with row park, and I loved it in a way that I really did not expect. I had a lot of reasons why I thought, I'm not really going to like it. I loved it. And part of the reason was that I was right up in the front. I was as close to the stage as you can get. that

really changed the experience for me. so I wanted to ask you this anyway, but now I'm informed by my experience the other night. What for you is the value of art in public spaces?

David Norsworthy (30:23)
It's an important question and one that we need to be talking about more. think ⁓ for me, dance as a cultural and artistic practice, it is like a participant inside this ever evolving phenomenon of shared culture, which for me is actually a public good. ⁓ It's something that we all kind of play into on a daily basis with the decisions that we make. ⁓

the way that we choose to live our lives and the kinds of things that we value and in that sense what we kind of water or nourish grows. And I think in some ways, yeah, bringing art into public space is about reminding people of its ⁓ common nature. ⁓ And I think that's where our, I don't think, I know that's where the title of our festival Common Ground Dance Festival, ⁓

also comes from. I think our festival in some ways is an invitation or a provocation into ⁓ bridging difference in a way that ⁓ we can find a deeper understanding for values and practices that reach across cultures specifically. ⁓ Our festival has an intercultural mission and so

we're really interested in creating dialogue between different dance practices that have originated in different parts of the world and that exist here in our home city of Toronto. And yeah, I guess that's, you know, a complicated way of saying that by animating a public space with intercultural activity, we also

create a sense of belonging for all of the people who feel represented by that offering.

Christine Malec (32:21)
that's so beautiful.

So beautiful. so can you please tell about the, your event and when and how we know where, but when and what can people look for there?

David Norseworthy (32:35)
Yeah, this year's ⁓ festival will be our fifth anniversary, if I haven't said that yet. And it will take place between September 18th and 20th. ⁓ And the festival includes ⁓ performances and interactive workshops and also artist talks ⁓ with a really stellar group of artists, both from here in Toronto and from across Turtle Island.

The dance styles that are being showcased this year include Baratunatium and Flamenco and Hip Hop and Western Contemporary Dance and Indigenous Hoop Dance and more. So it's a really full and I would say like creatively rich offering for anyone who is either a dance lover or someone who's dance curious I would say. A great opportunity to experience a lot of

Yeah, a lot of different kinds of artistic offerings inside a shared space ⁓ and to learn about something new.

Christine Malec (33:41)
What live musicians will you have there? What types of live music will you have?

David Norsworthy (33:45)
On our main stage program, we will have an amazing percussionist named Miguel Medina, who will be performing alongside a flamenco dancer named Carmen Romero. Their piece is a kind of dialogue of rhythms where Carmen's feet and Miguel's hands will be making a conversation. And it's extremely dynamic and exciting. And it's one of the things I'm most excited about.

Christine Malec (34:11)
If, ⁓ as a, as a blind person who, if there's no described dance, which piece is that the piece that you think would, you'd recommend for me to check out?

David Norsworthy (34:21)
I think it would be very engaging. Yes.

Christine Malec (34:23)
Yeah.

What are the interactive workshops? What might I learn?

David Norsworthy (34:28)
Well, one of the workshops is an Indigenous hoop dance workshop, ⁓ which is being led by a world champion grass and hoop dancer named Beanie John, who will be joining us from Alberta. And then after one of the main stage programs, there will also be an intro to Garba workshop taught by Anjali Tanna, who's one of the featured artists on the main stage program.

And garba is a ritual and folk dance ⁓ from India ⁓ that is really ⁓ rhythmic, includes some clapping and is I think overall a very joyous experience communally.

Christine Malec (35:12)
Katie, Rebecca and myself all come to this work from different places but with a similar motivation. We had a really nice chat about inclusivity in our work and how the ideas play out in concrete ways and in how we conceptualize all the work that we do.

Christine Malec (35:29)
If you're listening to this podcast, it's no surprise that inclusion matters to the described Toronto Collective. As a member of the blind community myself, I've witnessed a slow but notable increase in the types of organizations that prioritize access. What does that look like on the ground for those of us with access needs? And what does it look like for grant writers, access providers and event planners? Now, in 2025,

It's occasionally possible for me to attend a live event with audio description, have a guide to assist me in navigating the theatre, and even the assurance that if I need anything during the performance, I can raise a hand and someone will make themselves available to assist. Back when I was a kid, this wasn't even the stuff of imagination. As a community, we've increasingly come to expect audio description for movies and TV, but live events?

that's next level. Access on a deeper level looks, well, it looks a lot like this podcast. These episodes are added value for everyone, but for blind and low vision listeners, they give information about the park that we wouldn't otherwise have access to, like the visuals, the layout, and descriptions of the artworks. As someone who's been a member of the blind community my entire longish life, I can say with confidence

that this level of inclusion just didn't exist until pretty recently. I'm privileged to work with other professionals in the Described Toronto Collective who value it as highly as I do. Rebecca Singh is an audio describer, and Katie Sanders is a grant writer and sometimes event planner. And we've all worked together to make the description-rich story hour as inclusive as we can.

As a collective, one of the values we share is ⁓ a love for outdoor spaces and the natural world. And as urbanites, we sort of live in a big city, but we all value ⁓ outdoor spaces. And all of our projects have reflected that and having inclusivity built in public spaces that are more nature-oriented. And our events often have that in them. And that's a new...

It's an innovative thing for the blind community because that's one aspect where accessibility doesn't really ⁓ get considered all that often. And so I wonder, Rebecca, can you give us a rundown of how we've made all of our events that relate in the natural world more inclusive for all communities?

Rebecca Singh (38:08)
Yeah, sure. I think ⁓ it's been really important to be in conversation with you, Chris, and with ⁓ some of our attendees to understand what ⁓ is helpful and what inclusion really looks like. So we have...

had ASL interpreters anytime we're doing a presentation, so we've had ASL available. We've also marketed with ASL ⁓ videos, so we're trying to make sure we're reaching that community in their own ⁓ first language. We have had audio description available, ⁓ and that was pretty robust in terms of how we've tried to implement that. So we had conversations with

⁓ presenters and talk to them to make sure that they understood ⁓ more about inclusive language. You've played a large role in that, Chris, as well. And we've also, beyond having ⁓ what some people call standard audio description, we've also had ⁓ more descriptive language being used, which is in some ways really how we ended up at this year's project. ⁓

the description rich story hours. those were all things that were important. And then in the actual like planning of the event, we want to make sure we're thinking about where the audience is coming from, i.e. like are they're coming from the bus stop and where is the bus stop, vis-a-vis the starting point or the audience seating area and that kind of thing. And this time we're having ⁓ cited guides available. So a cited guide is somebody who has

been through a training to understand how to guide folks who are blind or partially sighted, what kind of questions are appropriate to ask in terms of what their needs are, and we are having also a training for the sighted guide specific to our particular project in terms of ⁓ there are these amazing artworks in the park that we've talked about. So what is the plan to get people to be able to

experience the most of those artworks on their own timeline and so independently.

Christine Malec (40:34)
have this lovely images in my mind more than one of events that we've ⁓ planned and executed where there's someone who's blind or low vision and touching a plant for the first time, some plant that is new to them. And Katie and Rebecca, you're both more knowledgeable gardeners than me, but there's been times where I or other blind or low vision people are touching or smelling or experiencing a plant for the first time. And I just, that's to me is like one of the nicest ⁓ moments of inclusivity that come.

come to my mind when I think about the events that we've done. Katie, I've become more ⁓ aware in the last couple of years of the ways in which arts councils are supportive of this kind of work. so as a grant writer and a sometimes event planner, can you talk about some of the accessibility measures we've incorporated in this year's event that are supported by the Toronto Arts Council?

Katie Sanders (41:28)
Sure. Yeah, most arts councils now do have dedicated accessibility funding, not just to make your event or activity accessible to everyone, but also to allow people with disabilities to create and participate in projects like these. So for example, Chris, for you to participate in this project, there's a lot of things that...

we ⁓ need and can make use of to make it easier for you to do so. So for example, we're able to, ⁓ these are all funds that are covered by the Toronto Arts Council and we're really grateful for all this funding. We're able to hire a sighted assistant for you. We're able to get Uber rides and transportation assistance, the sighted guides for our touch tour, the... ⁓

And then the other thing that's really exciting is the 3D printed ⁓ tactile map and sculptures that we're getting made. And that is all, this is all stuff that enables you, Chris, to fully experience and be an equal participant in this project and not have everyone kind of having to do things for you. ⁓ It enables you to, you ⁓ you're going to be able to touch this tactile map.

⁓ that is being created by a couple of wonderful artists, ⁓ Lindsay Walker and Shaq Gobert. Lindsay's doing the sort of layout of the park and the amphitheater and you'll be able to run your fingers around that and feel different textures for where there's grass and trees versus where there's paved areas. ⁓ And Shaq Gobert is recreating the sculptures, the public artwork in the park with a 3D printer. So we're using all these different materials.

And all of this is covered through the grant because it's a necessary accessibility expense, we feel, in order to enable us all to work together. ⁓ beyond that, there's also accessibility expenses that are covered through the grant, such as ASL interpretation. And also, we also have a reserve for child care, for example, because that's also an accessibility expense for Rebecca and I to be able to participate.

So these are all things that we want to take into consideration when we're working on events. ⁓ we're really, like I said, really grateful for this funding and that this is something that people are taking seriously and considering now. I wanted to ⁓ tell an anecdote about when we first started working together and something that struck me, that made me realize the importance of work like this and supporting work like this, ⁓ was that, know, Chris, when you said

Parks for me are just sort of a gray area on a map and they're just an obstacle to be navigated around. And it had never really occurred to me that like, yeah, why would, if you're just trying to get around the city and find the easiest routes, you're not going to wander down a pathway through a treed area that you can't navigate easily. So it's wonderful that we're able to do this and allow people to experience fully.

that they may not otherwise ever go into. So I'm really excited that we're doing this work.

Rebecca Singh (44:49)
And I just want to add to that that ⁓ the fact that cities are getting on board in terms of like all of our projects have been supported by various different city agencies. The fact that they're getting on board more for inclusivity, specifically for blind and partially sighted folks and projects led by them ⁓ is ⁓ the important kind of innovation that I really feel we

we need to sort of embrace, not just for the particular artist or in particular project, but just to keep keeping pace with different advances in terms of ⁓ cultural advances, in terms of advances in accessibility, and ⁓ to really ⁓ be able to create environments where all members of our society can contribute.

And ⁓ I don't know, being somebody also who's interested in doing something about climate change and things like that. we, there are so many wonderful gifts that come when working in inclusive environments, in inclusive spaces, and with people of all abilities ⁓ that I think where we saw a little bit of that ⁓ during the pandemic in terms of ⁓

being in much more inclusive rooms, ⁓ you know, online or what have you, I think we really need to push to continue that because there's so many benefits and so much gain to be had ⁓ when we are ⁓ making accessible work and when we are inclusive as members of society.

And as a creator myself, I want to also add that on other projects, if I want to apply, it's a serpentine process and accessibility adds a huge layer of complexity on top of that. And so if you are a disabled artist, there's ⁓ all levels of government arts grants have a $500 allowance to, for me to pay an assistant to help me. And that is game changing, literally. So if you are a disabled artist,

Keep that in mind too. so taxpayers, municipally, provincially, federally, thank you from all of us.

Christine Malec (47:29)
I felt a real affinity with John in his quest to bring

more art into public spaces, so I asked him about the stage, and why art matters.

Christine Malec (47:40)
To me, ⁓ you get such great joy out of ⁓ two things. One is the whole artistic experience. I think it nourishes the soul. And secondly, something really special happens when you're doing that with other human beings. So to have people creating in a space


Christine Malec (48:10)
and then to have other people participating in that either as fellow creators or just as people who are enjoying it. ⁓ And to do that, to be out in a beautiful park, walking through on a nice day, like life doesn't get any better than that.

Christine Malec (48:37)
Check out the Common Ground Dance Theatre performances in the park on the weekend of September 18-20, and be sure, if you can, to come to the park on September 27 for the description-rich story hour. If you're unable to make it to the park on the day, the event will appear here as a podcast on this feed in early October.