Toronto cemeteries become a free outdoor museum for Mount Pleasant Group's 200th anniversary

Mount Pleasant Group and Space for Grief have turned 10 Greater Toronto Area cemeteries into a free outdoor museum with site-specific art, sound and archival storytelling. The project, open through 2026 with some elements into 2027, marks Mount Pleasant Group’s 200th anniversary and reframes cemeteries as civic spaces for memory, history and reflection.

Why it matters: - The project brings public art, local history and grief-centered design into 10 active cemeteries across the Greater Toronto Area. - The installations are meant to change how visitors experience cemeteries, presenting them as places for remembrance, community history and shared storytelling. - The bicentennial project reaches people in Toronto, North York, Scarborough, Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Pickering and Oshawa.

What happened: - Mount Pleasant Group and Space for Grief created Yesterday. Today. Forever., a free outdoor museum spread across 10 cemeteries. - The project was created for Mount Pleasant Group’s 200th anniversary. - Site-specific installations run throughout 2026, with select components continuing into 2027. - The experience includes Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Toronto Necropolis as flagship sites. - The project uses archives, architecture, landscapes and community histories to build the installations.

The details: - Reclaimed doors from buildings across the GTA form walk-through sculptures at Mount Pleasant and Prospect cemeteries. - We Remembered the Monoliths at Toronto Necropolis combines stacked white forms, moving images of forests, oceans and cityscapes, and an original soundscape led by Ziyan Hossain. - The Toronto Necropolis work includes footage by BBC Planet Earth III contributor Justin Blake and music collaborations with guitarist Plini, engineer and producer Henry Reinach, and writer and activist Sandy Hudson. - Memory Gardens at York, Meadowvale and Thornton cemeteries let visitors write messages to someone, or something, they have lost. - Those messages appear on translucent bird-shaped cards that gather into a collective artwork in multiple voices and languages. - Murmuration at Pine Hills Cemetery uses translucent birds that shift in color with daylight and the viewer’s position. - Museum-style outdoor signage at all 10 locations creates a self-guided history trail with timelines, archival photographs and reflective prompts. - The interpretive research includes Indigenous consultation. - The historical material spans Indigenous histories and enduring relationships with the land, Toronto’s growth, successive migrations and contemporary diaspora traditions. - The project links personal memory with public history, ecology, architecture, migration and public health. - Visitors can add remembrances, leave reflections in a public guestbook and explore how individual lives shaped the region. - Daily hours are 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. from August 18 to October 31, and 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. from November 1 to March 31. - Details, maps and visitor information are available at installation information. - Additional project information is available at the project website and visitor details. - Media assets and a backgrounder are available at media assets and backgrounder.

Between the lines: - The project uses cemeteries as civic landscapes rather than isolated burial grounds. - The installations try to make history tactile and participatory instead of static and archival. - The focus on remembrance, migration and Indigenous consultation reflects a broader effort to connect institutional memory with lived community experience. - The format also broadens access by making the museum free and spread across multiple neighborhoods.

What's next: - The installations remain open through 2026, with selected elements extending into 2027. - Visitors can continue contributing messages, reflections and remembrances during the run of the project. - Mount Pleasant Group will continue commemorating its bicentennial through the end of the exhibition period.

The bottom line: - Mount Pleasant Group’s 200th anniversary has become a citywide public art project that turns cemeteries into a living archive of Toronto-area memory and history.