Resisting the creation of forgotten places: artistic production in Toronto neighbourhoods

Abstract

This article analyzes semi‐structured interviews with contemporary visual artists from Toronto, Canada, to explore the relationship between artists, memory, and place. The focus of the article is on three neighbourhoods in downtown Toronto that have the potential to become forgotten places of artistic production: Yorkville, King Street West and The Junction. Through an analysis of artists' spatially grounded narratives about these three neighbourhoods, I reveal how the intense emotional and material connections that artists have to places have the potential to challenge the loss of collective urban memory. This article contributes to intersecting literatures on neighbourhood change, artistic production and the importance of vernacular memory in urban cultural geography.