Toronto taxpayers billed $21K on “English is a foreign language” City Hall banner
Toronto taxpayers were hit with a $21,000 bill for an artistic banner at City Hall proclaiming, “English is a foreign language.”
Toronto taxpayers were hit with a $21,000 bill for an artistic banner at City Hall proclaiming, “English is a foreign language.”
A representative for the city of Toronto, Imane Boussaid, told True North that the city spent approximately $21,000 of taxpayers’ funds on fees and expenses to install the piece of art as part of this weekend’s Nuit Blanche.
The banner, “Protect the Sacred Voice,” was curated by Charlene K. Lau as part of her “Poetic Justice” art series. It reads: “English is a foreign language. Maintaining beauty requires resistance! Love Revolution!”
It has gone viral online as Toronto residents were filmed reacting to it. One resident, who grew up in China, interviewed by X user Integrity Toronto, compared the message to the Marxist-Leninist propaganda he faced when growing up under communism. Both agreed that the taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for such an anti-West political message.
A bulletin in front of a banner called on viewers to “reflect on the realities” faced by Indigenous artists who are “under the ongoing attacks of settler colonialism” and the limitations of the “Arts Industrial Complex.”
True North reached out to Portland, Oregon-based artist Demian DinéYazhi for comment but did not receive a response.
When asked how much funding was allocated to the U.S. artist, Boussaid reiterated that a total of $21,000 went to fees and production costs.
“Nuit Blanche is an artistic event that brings together a wide range of contemporary works for Torontonians and visitors across the city. This year’s theme, Translating the City, invites audience members to consider how art can translate the complexities of cities and the role we all play within them,” the city representative said. “Some projects may challenge, provoke, or spark conversation, and that is part of what art does.”
Boussaid said the piece is meant to create “a space for people to engage with art, whether through reflection, dialogue or participation.” She defended the decision to use public funds, saying the city “encourages” audiences to experience and interpret the art in their own way.
DinéYazhi’s about page on the Art Matters Foundation website, where he sits on the board, states the artist “highlights the intersections of Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist identity and political ideology while challenging the white noise of contemporary art.”
He says his practice “contemplates societal, political, and environmental degradation, and calls into question the very colonial, capitalist foundations and structures that have reigned over art institutions that reside on stolen and colonized Indigenous Lands.”
A bulletin in front of city hall reads: “the works in this exhibition issue calls to action for continued advocacy and protest while celebrating voices of resistance from Indigenous pasts, presents and futures.”
Other slogans from art previously included in Toronto’s Nuit Blanche exhibits include DinéYazhi’s art, featuring sayings such as “Nurture resistance! Love revolution” and “Western art history is colonial propaganda.”
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