The MHSO was an active partner, with the City of Toronto Culture Division and several other organizations and institutes, in the planning for, and implementation of, the Humanitas Festival. Held in Toronto from May 26 to June 25, 2006, Humanitas was a month-long festival of heritage events, cultural performances, urban forums, outdoor art installations, and story-telling addressing themes often associated with Toronto’s history and diversity, and its creative energy – gathering place, global village, and city soul. The festival was billed as an exploration of “what was, is, and could be Toronto”, and it generated discussion and debate about the realities, challenges, and pleasures of urban experience and about Torontonians’ aspirations for the future of their city. The objective was to promote creative, inclusive, and active citizenship. The MHSO was a key participant in the forum, ‘Pluralism to Cosmopolitanism: Identity and Belonging in 21st Century Cities’, and in the ‘Toronto Story’, a major feature of Humanitas whereby the festival roamed the neighourhoods of the city, in an Airstream trailer/recording studio, compiling a MemoryArchive of people’s personal histories and their ideas on/for the city. Humanitas emerged out of long-standing efforts to establish a civic museum in Toronto, and it was designed to serve as an innovative mechanism for developing content for this museum.
