How museums, writers and urban commentators use historic events and people to connect with their audiences

Speakers: Maureen Jennings, creator, Murdoch Mysteries; Shawn Micallef, co-owner of the magazine Spacing and Janet Schwartz, Museum Coordinator, Mackenzie House.

Maureen Jennings is the creator of CBC's hit TV show Murdoch Mysteries. The Canadian drama takes place in Toronto in the 1890s and follows Detective William Murdoch of the Toronto Constabulary, who solves many of his cases using methods of detection that were unusual at the time. How does this television show and pop culture connect audiences to the past?

Shawn Micallef is the author of Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto and Full Frontal TO, a columnist at the Toronto Star, and co-owner of the Jane Jacobs prize-winning magazine Spacing. Micallef assumed the role of William Lyon Mackenzie as his alter ego "Rebel Mayor" on Twitter during the last municipal election. Why did he think that Mackenzie could help him connect with the public as he commented on urban and civic issues? How did an historical figure help him communicate his ideas?

Janet Schwartz is Museum Coordinator at Mackenzie House, an historic house museum operated by the City of Toronto. After graduating from York University as a history major, Schwartz started working at Mackenzie House as an historical interpreter, and in 1995 became the Museum Coordinator. Over the past few years, she has been given the opportunity to program two other City Museums, spending a year at Gibson House and two years at Fort York National Historic Site. She returned to her position as Museum Coordinator at Mackenzie House in 2008. In her presentation, she will address how this historic house museum engages the public in Toronto's past and makes the issues and events of Mackenzie's time relevant to today's visitors.

Admission is free.