On October 21, at the 51st Annual Heritage Toronto Awards held at The Carlu in downtown Toronto, the JCCC's temporary exhibit, Third Places: Japanese Canadian Sites of Gathering was declared the winner in the Small Project category. 47 different projects were nominated in the Public History category, which was then split into Small and Large Projects. Nominations were assessed on four criteria – Relationship to Toronto, Scholarship, Public Education and Production Value.
Accepting the award on behalf of the JCCC was Vidhya Elango, Heritage Manager; Research and Exhibition. Elango was the researcher and curator for the exhibit, conducting mini oral histories, choosing representative locations for Japanese Canadian Third Places, and overseeing the exhibition design and installation process.
Third Places are places that aren’t home and aren’t work, where people gather and find community. The exhibit featured a large, hand illustrated map of Toronto, highlighting the 12 representative locations, such as J-Town Shopping Centre, Momiji Healthcare Society and the Toronto Buddhist Church. The exhibit showed the diversity of the community and encouraged visitors to think about their own experience of place and community. Although the exhibit has ended, you can still see many of the places that were researched for the exhibit on our website.
The JCCC has previously been nominated for the Connections: Exploring Our Japanese Canadian Stories conference in 2025 and won the Community Heritage Award in 2021.
Congratulations Third Places!!
Photo Credit
1. Opening Reception at the Heritage Toronto Awards, October 21, 2026. Image by Hammad Khalil.
2. Vidhya Elango, Public History (Small Projects) Winner, Heritage Toronto Awards, October 21, 2026. Image by Hammad Khalil.