As the Lockdown Continues, Residences of Toronto Island have Created a Unique Outdoor Gallery

Miniature art galleries have started popping up throughout Toronto Island, so that the artists who live there can display work in their own front yard.

Just a short ferry ride from downtown Toronto, this vehicle-free island has become the perfect location for Torontonians to spend an afternoon, walking through the Island’s quaint streets and looking at art. These display cases showcase one work at a time and are open as long as the ferry is running.

Image courtesy of The Globe and Mail

Mitchell Fenton built the first art box after lockdowns initially forced galleries to close in the spring. It was a concept he had been thinking about for years, and the pandemic proved to be the final push.

Slowly more artists on the island began putting up boxes of their own, creating what Christian Mittelstaedt of The Globe and Mail describes as, “an expansive open-air gallery.” There are currently 34 art boxes on the Island, with more on the way. A map of all the art boxes can be found on the Island’s website: www.torontoisland.org.

Most boxes follow the same design as Fenton’s, but there are some that reflect the art that they display, such as Alastair Dickson’s box which he named “Brutish Museum.”

“The best part is that people getting involved,” explained Fenton in an interview with Hasta Magazine. For Fenton, this was never meant to be a solo project, but a way to enrich his community.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Chris Foster, who has a studio on the island, stated, “As an artist getting your work displayed can be difficult at the best of times.” These boxes give artists a space of their own to display their work for any passer-byer to see. Artists change the work as frequently as they like, for Fenton that means a new painting everyday. Several of the artists have been able to sell the work in their art box, either by people messaging them or simply knocking on their front door.

Fenton believes that these boxes will continue after the pandemic is over, and that Toronto Island will become a destination for gallery goers. Fenton concluded his interview by stating, “We’re just getting started.”

Bibliography

Interview with Mitchell Fenton.

Mittelstaedt, Christian “Mini Art Galleries Around Toronto Island Could be the New Physically Distanced Art Crawl,” The Globe and Mail, 2 December 2020.