May 10th, 2007
Missing Plaque Project: Postering as a historical proclamation
By Sarah Magwood // 2 Comments
Inasmuch as history is supposed to be rooted in objectively recorded facts, such accounts often overlook the multi-layered texture of people's lives and, at times, have even ignored entire events and viewpoints. As a local response to such oversights, members of the Missing Plaque Project have spent the past four years wheat-pasting these unacknowledged histories all over the city.
Focusing on subjects that have been largely discounted by the official history books, posters cover a range of events — from neighbourhood demolitions to unrecorded riots and protests — and are being put up in the areas where they took place. According to founder Tim Groves, "The strength of the Missing Plaque Project is that I am independent from the government and, therefore, don't have bureaucrats censoring and editing the histories to make sure they portray Toronto in a favourable way." In doing so, this initiative is reinforcing a dialogic approach to history that allows for a multiplicity of local, untold histories to emerge.
On May 12 at 2 pm, the Missing Plaque Project will unveil fifteen new posters at the 519 Community Centre; afterwards, everyone will be invited to hit the streets and start postering. The following evening at 8 pm, the Missing Plaque Project will also host a campfire in Dufferin Grove Park and attendees will be encouraged to tell stories about Toronto.
The recently revamped project also includes a new website www.missingplaque.tao.ca.
• The poster's potential [Spacing]
• Do you ever feel like nothing really ever happened in Toronto? There's a reason [Eye Weekly]
• Missing Plaque Project Poster Archive
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Neither the author nor Spacing necessarily agree with the comments posted below. Spacing reserves the right to edit or delete comments entirely. See our Comment Policy.
This is one of the best Toronto projects, the quiet kind that you see out of the corner of your eye, or while standing in the shade, that make me happy to live here.
How about a plaque on the steps of the Provincial Legislature to commerate Rush's "Moving Pictures" album?
Comment by Michael
May 10, 2007 | 8:10 pm