WANDERINGS AND TRACES

Works by Amanda McCavour

Curated by Karly Boileau

cai@toque.ltd ideaexchange.org/art

Experience free installations at Hespeler, Preston, and Queen’s Square. Visit our website for location, date, and event details.

Wanderings and Traces is supported by The Musagetes Fund held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation chris@toque.ltd

We want to use this space to give a 'shout out' to all the fantastic advertising partners who have supported TOQUE through the years. These days, when it's tempting to dump an entire marketing budget into social channels and online ad spots, it takes a discerning mind (along with imagination and courage) to invest in the community-minded stories and images TOQUE offers. Like so many of you, we continue to believe in the unique tactility and compelling impact of the kind of print medium we strive to be. So to all of our incredible advertisers who continue to believe with us and in us: the love is mutual.

WHEN WE FIRST STARTED PUBLISHING TOQUE IN SPRING 2017, THE MAGAZINE HAD A SUCCINCT (THOUGH SOMEWHAT ELUSIVE) TAGLINE: ‘BROOKLYN TO BERLIN’. AND WHAT DID IT MEAN? IN A NUTSHELL, ‘BROOKLYN’ REPRESENTED GUELPH (WHOSE NEIGHBOURHOOD JUST SOUTH OF THE CONFLUENCE OF ITS TWO RIVERS WAS KNOWN, DURING THE ROYAL CITY’S EARLIEST DAYS, AS ‘BROOKLYN’ OR ‘BROOKLYN HILL’), WHILE ‘BERLIN’ STOOD FOR KITCHENER (WHICH WAS, OF COURSE, CALLED BERLIN UNTIL THE FIRST WORLD WAR CHANGED ALL THAT).

‘BROOKLYN TO BERLIN’, THEN, WAS A WAY OF ENCAPSULATING WHAT WE WERE AIMING TO ACHIEVE: TO CREATE A MAGAZINE THAT COULD HELP DEFINE AND ENLIVEN A REGION – FROM GUELPH TO KITCHENER, OR ‘BROOKLYN TO BERLIN’. IT WAS ABOUT BRINGING CLOSER TOGETHER ONCE-DISPARATE COMMUNITIES BY UNDERSCORING HOW NAVIGABLE AND COMPATIBLE (AND INVITING) – AS WELL AS SCINTILLATINGLY DIFFERENT AND DISTINCTIVE – THEY REALLY ARE. AND, PERHAPS MOST OF ALL, IT WAS ABOUT ATTEMPTING TO DEFINE ‘HOME’ FOR OURSELVES AND OUR READERS ALIKE: A TERRIFIC REGION WEST OF THE BIG SMOKE THAT OFFERED EVERYTHING FOLKS MIGHT LOOK FOR IN MUCH LARGER METROPOLES.

SINCE THOSE EARLY DAYS, TOQUE, TO BE SURE, HAS CONTINUED TO TRY TO (RE-)INTRODUCE A REGION TO ITSELF – A REGION THAT HAS EXPANDED AS THE MAGAZINE ITSELF EXPANDED. NOWADAYS, TOQUE REPORTS ON FOOD, DRINK, BUSINESS, ARTS AND CRAFTS, AND ADVENTURE NOT ONLY FROM KITCHENER (AND, BY EXTENSION, WATERLOO) TO GUELPH, BUT ALSO FROM CAMBRIDGE TO WELLINGTON COUNTY, STRATFORD TO LONDON, HAMILTON TO AYR. THE TAGLINE ‘BROOKLYN TO BERLIN', THEN, NO LONGER CAPTURES THE ENTIRETY OF THE REGION WE EXPLORE AND WRITE ABOUT. AS A RESULT, WE’VE RETIRED THAT INITIAL MONIKER.

AT THE SAME TIME, WE'VE INTENSIFIED OUR INITIAL INTENTION: TO HELP IDENTIFY, INVOKE, AND EXPRESS ‘HOME’ FOR OUR READERS. OVER THE PAST SIX YEARS WE’VE ATTEMPTED TO ACCOMPLISH THIS PRIMARILY BY INTRODUCING EVERYONE TO THOSE DESTINATIONS WE HAVE DEEMED WORTHY TO BE IDENTIFIED AS OUR COMMUNITIES’ GEMS: RESTAURANTS, TRAIL SYSTEMS, BREWERIES, WATERWAYS, BOUTIQUES, GROCERS, AND PERSONALITIES WHO STRIVE TO CREATE SOMETHING UNIQUELY ‘REGIONAL’ – UNIQUELY FROM ‘HERE’. UNIQUELY ‘HOME’.

THIS TIME AROUND WE HAVE FOCUSED A BIT MORE INTENTLY ON HOMES IN A MORE LITERAL SENSE; THAT IS, THOSE DWELLING PLACES WHERE WE LAY OUR HEADS MOST NIGHTS. NET ZERO HOMES. PASSIVE HOMES. COHOUSING UNITS. CONDOMINIUMS. ALONG THE WAY WE ARE, OF COURSE, NOT FORGETTING TO FEATURE ALSO A HANDFUL OF THE EXTRAORDINARY DESTINATIONS THAT COMPELLED SO MANY OF US TO CHOOSE THIS REGION AS ‘HOME’ IN THE FIRST PLACE.

SO GET COZY. POUR A COLD DRINK. AND TAKE AN IMAGINATIVE STROLL THROUGH THIS HEFTY ISSUE. WELCOME HOME.

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