Toronto has theatre festivals, art festivals, music festivals, food festivals, comedy festivals, vegetarian food festivals--festivals for just about every cultural interest, it seems. But we don't have a science festival, or at least we didn't until now. That will change next month, when the University of Toronto launches what it hopes will become an annual event: the
Toronto Science Festival.
Just like all the other festivals we're familiar with, the goal in large part is to demystify, to attract curious members of the public who aren't experts or deeply involved in a certain community, but want to learn more.
"The idea," says Michael Reid, public outreach coordinator for UofT's Dunlap Institute, "was to try and engage people in science in a new way. We run a lot of events that attract a sort of standard audiences--public lectures, tours of our observatory--those tend to attract a crowd of people who are already quite scientifically literate."
The intention with the Toronto Science Festival is to help the public engage with science in some nontraditional ways, to offer scientific programming in new formats, and to use those unexpected formats to help people understand some of the latest innovations and research developments coming out of UofT and other key institutions. (Reid describes it as being something like Luminato, but for all kinds of scientific engagement.)
"Very generally, I don't see a lot of science on the broader cultural landscape," Reid goes on. "There isn't to my knowledge any kind of major science knowledge event that's directed at everybody." Which is why, perhaps, TSF's first year will include such unconventional events as a jazz performance by a climate scientist whose lyrics discuss physics, and a biologically-inspired dance performance by a classical Indian company.
The festival is co-sponsored by the Dunlap Institute and by UofT Science Engagement, a new office created in the past year by the university to try to foster public engagement with science and innovation.
The 2013 Toronto Science Festival will run from September 27–29 at locations across the St. George campus.
Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Michael Reid, Public Outreach Co-ordinator, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics