Take Your Seat, Canada at Nathan Phillips Square – Canada Day 2018

This Canada Day, Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto will serve as the backdrop to an adventurous and eye-opening photographic exhibition called Take Your Seat, Canada.

The outdoor exhibit will showcase thirteen images representing every province and territory, each captured over a 24-day cross-country expedition. The name, Take Your Seat, comes from the Director’s chair creatively placed in each shot as both an invitation and a challenge to appreciate our incredible country.

Madeline Ziniak, Chair of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association, and Dominic Campione, President of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, both lead sponsors of the national photographic journey, believe that a chair can get Canadians to appreciate this great country.”The natural beauty of Canada is something we all can agree on. What Take Your Seat, Canada does is draw our attention to the geographic diversity that makes this country the envy of the world while reminding us that the diversity of our people is equally worth celebrating’ says Ziniak.

‘A picture says a thousand words’ adds Campione. ‘In this case, those thousand words all speak with one unified voice. Canada, its cultural mosaic that we so often take for granted, is now celebrated through the parallel between our collective love of nature and our love of people all expressed through the photography of Take Your Seat, Canada.

‘What makes this exhibition compelling, is its use of a red and white Director’s chair as an inspirational thread of unity that weaves this remarkable country of ours together’ says Randy VanDerStarren, the expedition’s leader. “As Canadians, we readily embrace the natural and diverse beauty of this country but have yet to extend that embrace as freely to the diversity of our people.’

VanDerStarren believes that Canada Day is a rare opportunity to tap into a much needed wave of national pride and shared identity. “We tend to take this incredible country for granted. The photography of Take Your Seat, Canada draws attention to the awe-inspiring geography our country while inspiring Canadians to go out and explore it for themselves.”