Museum of Toronto is pleased to announce the opening of its momentous exhibition, The 52: Stories of Women Who Transformed Toronto on April 9th. This multidisciplinary exhibition and live theatrical experience took three years to develop and is unlike any other historical presentation. For the first time in Toronto, a museum exhibition celebrates the lives of 52 women who have inspired and transformed Toronto. The exhibit is organized into themes of science, arts and culture, politics, sports, and civic life. The exhibition will run until December 19, 2025 and will be accompanied by a live theatrical experience June 4-8th, presented in association with Luminato Festival Toronto.
The 52 Project
The project was inspired by the fact that women currently make up 52% of the population in Toronto. That statistic was then translated into the number of iconic women celebrated in this exhibition and informed the name.
These women were firsts in their fields, their pursuits or the trails they blazed. We learn of the first female-owned Chinese restaurant, the first woman to practice law, the first female mayor, the first woman elected to the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the first female war correspondent, and the female founder of the first Indian dance company, and the author of the first Indigenous work published in Canada.
Highlighted women in the exhibition:
Adrienne Louise Clarkson (1939- ) The 26th governor general of Canada as well as the first racialized person appointed to the vice-regal position.
Emily Stowe (1831-1903) The first female physician to publicly practise in Ontario and founder of the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association.
Jackie Shane (1940-2019) Pioneering transgender performer who was a prominent figure in Toronto’s R&B scene in the 1960s.
Josephine Mandamin (1942-2019) Anishinaabe elder, water-rights advocate, and Anishinabek Nation Chief Water Commissioner.
Margaret Atwood (1939- ) Novelist, poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor.
Penny Oleksiak (2000- ) Olympic swimmer and Canada’s most decorated Olympian, with seven medals overall.
Exhibition at Museum of Toronto
This is no traditional exhibition. To tell these important stories, this project has commissioned 24 exemplary playwrights to write 52 monologues – one for each transformational woman on the list. The award-winning Canadian playwrights include: Aida Jordao, Alex Cameron, Ali Joy Richardson, Anna Chatterton, Cheri Maracle, Coleen MacPherson, Diane Flacks, Erin Shields, Falen Johnson, Jo SiMalaya Alcampo, Jordi Mand, Julia Hune-Brown, Julie Tepperman, Kanika Ambrose, Keira Loughran, Lisa Ryder, Marcia Johnson, Marjorie Chan, Meghan Swaby, Ophira Calof, Sarena Parmar, Sedina Fiati, Shandra Spears and Sharada Eswar. The filmed monologues feature actors from across the country.
The films will be showcased at the exhibition as they tell the stories, both personal and factual, about each of the iconic 52 women. The exhibition highlights the harrowing, exhilarating, heartbreaking and courageous actions and lives of each of the 52 women. And each has a filmed monologue dedicated to them and their stories.
The exhibition will also feature personal objects, photographs, letters, and mementos of the women, as well as material culture from our city, displayed throughout the space, drawn from the City of Toronto Archives, Toronto History Museums Fine Art and Artifact Collection and personal collections.
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