AWW Free School Final: 6/4/89

Co-presented with Ken Moffatt, The Jack Layton Chair and Melanie Panitch, The Director of The Office of Social Innovation, Ryerson University; PEN Canada

FREE REGISTRATION

Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the student protests at Tiananmen Square, this culmination of the AWW Free School will feature an onstage conversation with journalists and activists reflecting on its impact. The panel will be introduced by Olivia Chow, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson and core member of the Toronto Association of Democracy in China, founded in May 1989 to support the student protest in Tiananmen Square and the movement for democratic reform in China. Joining Chow will be labour activist Winnie Ng alongside journalists Doug Saunders and Jan Wong, who covered the Tiananmen Massacre as a foreign correspondent in China for The Globe and Mail.

About the exhibition

Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s most influential artists and human rights activists, as well as one of China’s most formidable critics. Known for smashing conventions—and ceramics—with iconic works like Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, he upends the cultural traditions and materials of his native China.

This highly-anticipated and timely exhibition explores the breaking of boundaries, both physical and symbolic, and considers how the artist’s ceramic works form a basis for his ongoing exploration of urgent social justice themes, including immigration, freedom of speech, and the repression of dissent. Learn more

Presenting Sponsor

Exhibition Partners

PHIL LIND & ELLEN ROLAND

THE ROONEY FAMILY FOUNDATION

Media Partner

Programs Sponsor

ELEANOR & FRANCIS SHEN

AWW Free School Partners

AWW Free School Keynote Partner

Ai Weiwei – Study of Perspective, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, 1995, gelatin silver photograph