S2:E6 Playful public spaces – Ilana Altman in conversation with Stephanie Fortunato

The Three Bells

Summary:

In this episode, our host Stephanie Fortunato speaks with Ilana Altman, Co-Executive Director, about The Bentway’s artful and playful approach to activating public spaces – as illustrated by their 2021 Playing in Public season and accompanying Play Provocations resource that encourages cities to become more play-friendly. They discuss the evolution of The Bentway as a platform for connected urban life, and the importance of programming public spaces to be not only responsive to the needs of communities, but to also encourage creative practice. Ilana also shares the plans for The Bentway's STREET season, which promises a summer of public art to help their audience see the streets of Toronto anew.

After, Stephanie is joined by fellow host Criena Gehrke to discuss key takeaways. They reflect on how dynamic public spaces allow users to respond to the sites in a plethora of imaginative ways. They highlight the importance of this open approach to public spaces for progressive and inclusive urban planning.

References:

• The Bentway is a public space under The Gardiner Expressway, which The Bentway Conservancy operates, maintains, and programmes as a platform for creative practice, public art, and connected urban life.
• The Artful City, a platform to explore, debate and contemplate public art in Toronto.
• Play Provocations, a resource published by The Bentway together with Daily Tous Les Jours, a Montreal-based art and design studio. The resource synthesises the major insights they gleaned from The Bentway’s Summer 2021 Season, Playing in Public. It expands the definition of play, explores why play is important for both children and adults, and how we can make our cities more play-friendly. A downloadable copy of their resource can be accessed here.
• Playing in Public, The Bentway’s Summer 2021 Season, is a neighbourhood-based exhibition consisting of 16 artist projects that explored different facets of play. The projects ranged from installations, to connective and roaming projects, and pop-up events. Importantly, the installations were not just situated at The Bentway but also at other properties within the vicinity, encouraging audiences to explore and navigate the neighbourhood.
• Walk Walk Dance, a work by Daily Tous Les Jours, was installed at The Bentway in 2020. The project is highly touch-based, consisting of music-making lines that allow audiences to “play” music when stepped, jumped or danced on.
• The Under-Gardiner Public Realm Plan has recently been unveiled by The Bentway in partnership with The City of Toronto.
• STREET is The Bentway's Summer 2022 Season, which promises a summer of public art to help their audience see the streets of Toronto anew.

Guest bio:

Ilana Altman is Co-Executive Director of The Bentway. She is a cultural planner and designer who has a background in art and architecture. Prior to joining The Bentway, she has worked with notable design firms and led the curation and design of exhibitions and installations at the SFMOMA, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2014, Ilana founded the Artful City, a Toronto collective that aims to advance public art research, policies, and imaginations.