Mike Wilson with the art installation of the Maple Leafs Garden door at the Hearn as part of Luminato. The door itself now resides in his basement. (Pic courtesy of Mike Wilson)
Thousands of kids dreamed of walking through it, while some others, older and bitter, were glad to have it close behind them.
But none likely envisioned the original door to the Maple Leafs’ dressing room at the Gardens in a virtual art gallery, sharing space with a Rubens painting and Martian meteorites. Yet when the Luminato Festival’s artistic team began working on Trove, assembling 50 ‘fascinating, precious, storied objects and artworks’ rarely seen in T.O., they came to the basement museum of ‘Ultimate Leaf Fan’ Mike Wilson.
The door is part of his largest private collection of the team’s memorabilia, one of the most popular conversation pieces among an estimated 2,000 Leaf-related items. Its enhanced 3-D image is part of Luminato’s free 10th anniversary display in the Jackman Gallery of the Hearn Generating Station from June 10 to June 26.
Wilson and partner Debra Thuet attended Luminato for the first time in 2015, but had no idea a prized piece in their collection was being scouted for this year. It was Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chairman Larry Tanenbaum who directed the festival folks to Wilson when they sought a meaningful Leaf item for Trove. The franchise marks its 100th anniversary in 2016-17.
Wilson has original 1931 rinkside red seats, the first Gardens turnstiles, plus many sweaters, sticks and blue and white bric-a-brac back. But the door was most desirable, covered in Leaf autographs by club celebs who’ve been invited to his downtown residence.
“About eight months ago we got the call our door had made the final cut,” said Wilson, a retired Toronto financial broker. “They wanted something that held the secrets of Toronto. You can just imagine all the great hockey players, athletes, rocks stars, singers and politicians who’ve been through that door and in the Leaf room,”
The door, which has been painted over, kicked open and slammed shut many, many times since the Gardens opened on Nov. 12, 1931, was spirited away by a construction worker in its last days as an NHL rink in 1999. But weighing a solid 150 pounds of wood and a couple of feet taller than a conventional door, it proved too hard to mount in anything other than a custom built room. It was moved through a sports antique dealer to Wilson who paid an unspecified price. The 62-year-old gave it a place of honour when he dug out his basement to accommodate all his treasures. It functions as the entrance to a storage area.
The door is one of two Toronto sports’ themed objects celebrated at the Hearn during Luminato. Wilson, who is writing a book on his collection later this year, offered the festival original Blue Jay Bob Bailor’s sweater, but two Toronto World Series rings from 1992 and ‘93, purchased by Rush frontman Geddy Lee and photographed on his fingers were picked for a baseball link to the city.
An Andy Warhol painting and a tiny cigarette paper umbrella made by a Japanese prisoner in an internment camp are also among the 50 items, as well as the first map of the North Pole and a pice of the tree that inspired the song The Maple Leaf Forever.
“A physical exhibition like this would probably be impossible to put together as the objects are too diverse, too widespread,” said Jorn Weisbrodt, Luminato Festival Artistic Director, in a release. “But as photographic images in the public space, it becomes possible to bring all of these together. It is this idea of freeing ourselves from institutional walls, of being outside the institutions and buildings that house our possessions and not inside them, of using the city as an art gallery that make this a project for our 10th anniversary.”
Thousands of kids dreamed of walking through it, while some others, older and bitter, were glad to have it close behind them.
But none likely envisioned the original door to the Maple Leafs’ dressing room at the Gardens in a virtual art gallery, sharing space with a Rubens painting and Martian meteorites. Yet when the Luminato Festival’s artistic team began working on Trove, assembling 50 ‘fascinating, precious, storied objects and artworks’ rarely seen in T.O., they came to the basement museum of ‘Ultimate Leaf Fan’ Mike Wilson.
The door is part of his largest private collection of the team’s memorabilia, one of the most popular conversation pieces among an estimated 2,000 Leaf-related items. Its enhanced 3-D image is part of Luminato’s free 10th anniversary display in the Jackman Gallery of the Hearn Generating Station from June 10 to June 26.
