Curating Diasporas

This article examines how cultural institutions in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and nearby regions engage with themes of migration and diaspora through curated exhibitions. Drawing on nine case studies analyzed as part of the Curating Diasporas Initiative (2024), the study explores how community museums, heritage centres, and faith-based archives construct narratives of displacement, adaptation, and identity. While these exhibitions foreground resilience, collective memory, and community building, the article argues that they often follow a linear trajectory (departure, arrival, and integration) that anchors migration and diasporic identities within the boundaries of the Canadian nation-state. Using theoretical frameworks from migration studies, diaspora studies, and memory studies, the analysis is organized around four thematic clusters: Displacement and Migration, Refugees and Religion, Trauma and Belonging, and Architecture and Heritage Building as Migration Narratives. Through these categories, the article identifies shared curatorial strategies, such as the use of personal artifacts, oral histories, and architectural space, while also noting divergences in how trauma, faith, and transnational memory are framed. The conclusion calls for an increased attention toward dynamic, multidirectional curatorial approaches that reflect the ongoing and relational nature of diasporic experience. By examining how institutions both shape and are shaped by multiculturalism in Ontario, this study contributes to critical museology and diaspora scholarship, urging institutions to engage more deeply with the fluid and contested terrain of diasporic identities.