In 2025, Public Art at Evergreen published its first book, Temporary Acts: Public Art in Toronto’s Don River Valley, which documents the first 10 years of its commissioning program. Since 2015, artists have created site responsive temporary public art projects in that explore the Indigenous, cultural, ecological, and industrial histories of the Evergreen Brick Works site and surrounding ravine system.
Purchase the book online at Art Metropole or at Evergreen Garden Market.
Except below from “On Curating a Public Art Program for the Don River” by Kari Cwynar:
In 1969, the Don River was declared dead. That year, the environmental group Pollution Probe held a funeral procession to mourn the state of the Don, leading participants to the provincial government offices at Queen’s Park. Not long before, the river had earned the dubious title of “most polluted river in Ontario.” At various moments in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, it even caught fire. And when Princess Margaret came to visit Toronto in 1958, officials dumped perfume in the river to mask its stench. 01 As one of the three main waterways running through Toronto—along with the Humber and the Rouge—the Don’s strategic placement on the eastern edge of the city centre drew early colonialists and industrialists to the river valley. They extracted clay and timber and tucked undesirable enterprises out of sight in the valley, such as the growing city’s dump, jail, isolation hospital, paper mill, quarry, and brick works. Many cities organize their industrial activities in relation to rivers, yet the Don, unlike the Hudson or the Thames, is relatively small—hardly larger than a creek in places. However, the five-kilometre stretch of the Don River, running south from Pottery Road down to Lake Ontario in particular, has borne the brunt of Toronto’s city-building process.
But before all of this, the waterway was home and fishing grounds for the Mississaugas and the Haudenosaunee, and the site of Wendat longhouses, built in proximity to the rich clay deposits in the valley. And even long after colonial industrialization, as today’s river limps along, hemmed in by rail lines and highways, you can still find salmon making their way upstream in the fall and wildflowers poking up along the pathways. The Don is still polluted, but it is recovering. 02 It is prone to serious flooding, as the paved roadways and pathways tucked into the valley have reduced the land’s ability to soak up excess water. It can be difficult to access, cut off from the many surrounding neighbourhoods, but it is nonetheless beloved by locals. With all of its complexities, the river valley is a cherished spot for walking, cycling, and birdwatching. It is a rare respite from the noise of Toronto, and a quiet home to many living on the city’s margins.
In 2014, the environmental non-profit Evergreen, headquartered in the old Brick Works factory in the heart of the Lower Don Valley, formed an Art Advisory Committee with the idea to launch a new public art program along the Don River. I came on board as the inaugural curator in early 2015, and together with many partners and collaborators, we began to build a framework for contemporary art in dialogue with the river valley. At the time, Toronto didn’t have an ongoing, year-round program for major temporary public art commissions, let alone one situated in such a storied landscape. We started with many questions: What can artists bring to a site like the Lower Don Valley, with its complex Indigenous, colonial, industrial, and ecological histories, and at times conflicting users? How can public art engage respectfully with environmentally sensitive and flood-prone lands? Can we do this work without leaving a permanent mark on a recovering landscape? What new pathways and protocols might there be for public art in Toronto?
