As part of Mount Pleasant Group’s 200th anniversary, visitors are invited to experience the Memory Gardens at York, Meadowvale and Thornton Funeral Centres. These beautiful art installations by Method Collective create space for reflection, remembrance and shared experiences of grief.
Each Memory Garden is designed as an immersive environment that acknowledges the weight of loss and invites connection. At the heart of the installation is a vintage birdcage reclaimed by nature, symbolizing memories released from silence into the open. Visitors are encouraged to leave messages of remembrance, advice or reflection, contributing to a growing tapestry of voices.
More installations will be popping up across the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries over the next few months including timeline installations and door portals that evoke the experience of crossing a threshold, inviting reflection on grief, transition and memory at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. At the Toronto Necropolis, visitors will find Space for Grief’s Monoliths, a sculptural projection installation exploring memory as layered, shifting and imperfect. The stacked forms suggest how moments are held, changed or fade over time, bringing contemporary interpretation into dialogue with history.
More information about the 200th anniversary installations can be found here.
And don’t forget to mark your calendars for our special Music at Mount Pleasant opening event on June 28. You can also watch for all of our community events here.
To mark the anniversary, visitors can also take part by collecting 200th anniversary items available at MPG sites:
- A collectable postcard series of six stunning designs. Visit each participating site to complete the set
- Lapel pins commemorating the milestone
- Seed pencils, each containing one of five flower or herb seeds: Basil, bee balm, marvel of Peru, daisy or hollyhock
Together, the installations and anniversary items offer meaningful ways to pause, participate and connect, honouring both personal memories and two centuries of shared history. Of course, don’t forget to read through our 200 stories, a growing collection that shares the people, places and moments that have shaped the city, region and nation over the last 200 years.
