A new free multi-genre exhibit of women musicians who have blazed a trail in the Toronto music scene is on display at a downtown museum.
Shaking The Foundations: Women Trailblazers in Toronto Music is located at Friar’s Music Museum, on the second floor of the Yonge-Dundas Shopper’s Drug Mart, where the Hard Rock Café occupied the space for close to 40 years, until 2017, and prior to that the legendary music venue Friar’s Tavern.
The display, curated by long-time music and arts journalist Mary Dickie and scheduled to run until March, 2026, begins as early as the 40s with Portia White and includes artifacts on White, Michie Mee, Jully Black, Carole Pope, Maureen Forrester, Peaches, Jane Siberry, Sylvia Tyson, the Sorority, Haviah Mighty, Jane Bunnett, Salome Bey, Kiran Ahluwalia, ShoShona Kish, Amanda Rheaume, Salome Bey, SATE, Lori Yates, Kat Rocket, Ansley Simpson, the Curse, Ainsley Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Cris Derksen.
Friar’s Music Museum is a partnership with The Toronto Music Experience and the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area (DYBIA).
“I want to thank the lenders, the people who dug through their attics and their offices and their closets and lent us stuff,” Dickie told Now Toronto, at a private event at Friar’s Music Museum, earlier this week.
“People told me it was crazy, and they were right, to try and do something on all women in Toronto in all eras and all genres. It’s crazy. There are so many who could have been included. It’s really a snapshot or a taste of the cultural riches that we have in this city. Thanks to all these women.
“When we were putting it together, things emerged like threads or elements. One of them was queer identity, which seems to be so strong through all these different displayed cases. That was an interesting thing,” she continued. “And, also, the waves of immigration of people that came here from the southern U.S., from the U.K., from the West Indies, from Asia, and have enriched the culture of this city so much.
“The other thing I wanted to say was that this whole exhibit is about women who are underappreciated and undervalued, didn’t get the attention,” she said, addressing some of the artists in attendance, such as Mickey Skin of Canada’s first female punk band The Curse, and Siberry, a poetic new music innovator, who will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame later this month. “This is a small gesture towards that.”
The eventual hope is for Toronto to have a permanent and larger, multi-pronged music museum and educational facility celebrating its rich and influential history and future, called Toronto Music Experience (TME). A sizzle reel, narrated by radio and television host George Stroumboulopoulos, and created by Zulu Alpha Kilo advertising, will be released in the coming months.
“It’s a big idea and it’s exactly what the city needs,” Lorna Day said, chair of the Toronto Music Experience, at the event. “It’s an ambitious project, because music in this city is extraordinary. TME aims to preserve our massive music legacy. We need to celebrate what’s happening right now around the city. We want to educate Torontonians and anybody who comes to visit the city. And, most of all, inspire future generations of musicians and people in the city.
“We aim to build a permanent home, where people can listen to stories about Toronto’s music legacy, and participate in state-of-the-art, interactive experiences that animate the music timeline of this great city. TME recently completed a feasibility study, and we have our CRA Charitable Status. So, we are full steam ahead, and we have great ambitions for Toronto’s extraordinary music scene.”
Shaking The Foundations: Women Trailblazers in Toronto Music is the third exhibit at Friar’s Music Museum, since it opened in 2018, following Sounds & Pressure: Reggae in a Foreign Land, and Toronto Sound: The Yonge Street Scene.
“If you missed them, we’ll have to relaunch them,” Day said.
Cheryll Diego, the public realm experience manager for the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area, also spoke at the event.
“Arts and culture is one of the major pillars for community building for our organization,” she said. “In the summer, we actually do have a concert series called Play the Parks. And this year we did feature a lot of women artists, up-and-coming artists in Toronto. We did a recording, and we will create a playlist featuring those women artists who played our season this year.
“We strongly believe as an organization that music, arts, and culture should be an economic driver for our city. So, all the artists who perform at Play the Parks are all paid fair wages. And this is a commitment that we have as an organization to continue to do. We have some exciting things that we are also planning for this museum as we celebrate the exhibit.”
