Most lectures that take place in Toronto involve grades, exams and thousands of dollars in tuition. But according to Benjamin Parry, founder of the Toronto Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, there’s an appetite for learning outside of the university bubble.
That’s why Parry created The Viaduct, a series of five lectures open to the public on topics such as housing, technology and Toronto history set to run between January 8 and February 13.
The lecturers slated to speak include community organizer Eric Lombardi of More Neighbours Toronto, Stanford professor and musician Michelle Jia and TikTok-famous walking tour operator Matthew Jordan.
Though we live in a world where ideas can travel rapidly across the globe via the Internet, Parry said there’s something to be said for education and discussion in an in-person setting.
“The really special thing about a lecture is that it creates a shared idea space. You have 200 people in a room all zeroed in on this one lecturer who grips you with these compelling ideas,” Parry told TorontoToday.
“Then you can spend the next couple hours talking about those ideas together and building these connections.”
A scheduled question-and-answer period, and a social hour for the audience to discuss amongst themselves will follow each of the lectures. The events will open with a live-music performance from Kubla, a Toronto-based soul and jazz act.
Before starting The Viaduct series, Parry delivered his own miniseries of lectures about progress.
“I sold all of them out. I got a great response,” he said. “I think that this kind of public lecture format is something that is in high demand.”
Parry hopes there will be enough interest to make The Viaduct a permanent fixture that can run year-round. In doing so, he hopes to play a “long-term structural role in building intellectual community in Toronto.”
The Viaduct series comes as community engagement in Toronto appears to be on the decline. A Toronto Foundation survey of about 4,000 Torontonians in 2022 revealed residents participated in one community group on average, down from an average of 1.6 in 2018.
Community participation decreased the most in sports and recreation and hobby, educational and cultural organizations, the report found.
Toronto is no stranger to exclusive, Paris-style salons and lecture series through universities and the Toronto Public Library, but Parry promises an entertaining and open-access format.
Tickets for his events cost $22.60, though 20 free seats are set aside for students. Parry encourages prospective attendees to reach out to him if cost presents a barrier.
The lecture series gets its name from the Prince Edward Viaduct, better known as the Bloor Viaduct, which spans the Don River Valley connecting Bloor Street East with Danforth Avenue. The bridge was developed in the 1910s with a growing city in mind, and included a lower deck for future public transportation — something that wasn’t needed then, but proved useful when the Line 2 subway system was developed 50 years later.
“There was this idea of building for what the future of Toronto could look like 100 years into the future,” Parry said.
He hopes his series will have a similar impact, and that the ideas shared and generated through The Viaduct series can ripple into the future.
