Friends of Allan Gardens

Nominated for the Margaret and Nicholas Hill Cultural Heritage Landscape Award

The Friends of Allan Gardens is a volunteer-based, registered charitable organization working to imagine and lead the revitalization of Allan Gardens, a significant, complex, and dynamic cultural landscape in downtown Toronto. Facing many opportunities and challenges, Allan Gardens must adapt to meet the needs of a 21st-century city. Growing with the City is an initiative to cultivate continued engagement, fundraising, and stewardship, to seize opportunities and address challenges by implementing an ecosystem of initiatives in the cultural landscape. These include expanding the historic greenhouse conservatory, reinvesting in the park’s landscape, supporting Indigenous place-keeping, and enhancing horticultural and cultural programming.  

The Friends work draws upon the local neighbourhood knowledge and deep community connections of many respected collaborators, to help inform park programs and initiatives for the benefit of the diverse public they serve. Used by a wealth of different communities who have varied needs, strong and distinct connections to the Allan Gardens, including children and families, under-housed people, local residents, and regional conservatory visitors, the Friends of Allan Gardens think of their efforts to harmonise and coordinate the many interacting forces in the park as mirroring connections within a healthy, complex ecosystem.

The Friends are a model for cultural landscape conservation and stewardship achieved through community-based initiatives built through cross disciplinary collaboration and partnerships, all of which have been recognized and deeply appreciated by the park’s community.

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