During this in-person installation, the Department of Imaginary Affairs is asking the question “What if parks were safe for everyone?”

This question grew from witnessing public health units promote the safety and use of public spaces and parks as vital to the city’s mental and physical wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, while simultaneously seeing an increased policing of how those spaces are used, violence towards people who are unhoused, and acts of hate and racism.

Through the summer and fall of 2021, our ‘A Tale of Two Parks’ team worked to seek, collect and share stories about how people have been experiencing parks before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and looking towards how those relationships might have shifted.

This installation captures written and audio stories, photographs, artwork and videos from ‘A Tale of Two Parks’ to elevate and amplify the stories we had the privilege of hearing and seeing as well as reflections from our team about how this project shifted their own relationships with parks.

This project has given us the opportunity to reflect on the tension of who are parks designed to be safe for and what can we do to make them safer for ourselves and future generations.

This installation is an invitation to share in someone else’s story, to reflect on your own story and the story of others, and to share your own if you’d like.

Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 10am–5pm
Saturday: 8am–1pm