The Storefront for Art and Architecture has selected The Portal — a proposed exhibition space, event venue, and platform for artistic and architectural discourse and collaboration — as one of ten international projects that will be part of their inaugural WorldWide Storefront initiative.

From September 19 to November 21, 2014, the 10 selected entries will simultaneously open and have a two-month program of exhibitions and events. All events will be recorded and broadcast through the WorldWide Storefront’s online platform, and presented at the Storefront for Art and Architecture Gallery in New York City.

Designed by the firm DTAH, The Portal will sit on the threshold of downtown Toronto and its 26,000 acre ravine system. The goal: to demonstrate how art and design can enrich our increasingly urbanized world. The Portal’s inaugural exhibition, RavinePortal, is being curated by Daniels Faculty Aluma Megan Torza, a partner at DTAH.

The Portal will transform the facade of 50 Park Road — a critically acclaimed landmark modernist building designed by John B. Parkin in 1954 — into a dynamic visual display using rear-projection technology that takes advantage of the building’s broad street frontage.

RavinePortal will showcase architectural, landscape architectural, and artistic investigations and interventions that address the disjunction between Toronto’s urban character and its vast network of ravines. The exhibition is intended to spark a dialogue about how to better connect Torontonians to their ravines in a way that is sustainable and mutually beneficial.
 
Particular focus will be given to initiatives that engage youth and new immigrant populations living in priority neighbourhoods adjacent to the ravines who do not take advantage of these natural resources.

RavinePortal will explore the past and present role that ravines have played in the life of the city, and the potential for the ravine system to be a defining, interconnected, and accessible open space and cultural network. The exhibition will include site-specific installations, tours, lectures, and collaborations between artists and the general public that demonstrate how the creative sector can inspire new populations to explore and enjoy the ravines.

Key participants in the RavinePortal include: artists Dan Bergeron, Aaron Vincent Elkaim and Michelle Gay; author and academic Amy Lavender Harris; local arts and environmental organizations Well and Good, No. 9 Contemporary Art and the Environment, and Evergreen; Public sector partners Toronto Region Conservation and the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry, and Recreation division; community outreach partners North York Arts and UforChange; and the Etobicoke School for the Arts and the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts.  
 
Curator Megan Torza is an architect whose professional development has been influenced by a strong personal interest in the topic of collective memory and its manifestation in the adaptive reuse of heritage structures and the integration of contemporary architectural expression into historic urban fabric. She joined DTAH in 2006 and became a partner in 2012. Key project experience includes the Artscape Wychwood Barns and the Evergreen Brick Works projects as well as numerous feasibility studies and built projects including urban infill housing, heritage restoration and reuse, and the design of environments for children.

Prior to completing her Master of Architecture degree at the University of Toronto, Megan studied the history of art in Toronto and at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, England, and has taught the history of Contemporary Architecture within the Bachelor of Architectural Studies program at the University of Toronto. She also participates annually in urban design studio reviews at the University of Waterloo.