This exhibition shows that basketball is more than a game — it's a cultural force

Sports often elicit feelings bigger than we can express with words. The love of the game can take shape in so many ways, and in the new Museum of Toronto exhibition, Home Game: Toronto Loves Basketball, the show explores how basketball is woven into the city through culture, fashion and art.

Located at the Harbourfront Centre, in its own glass-walled space outside of the main gallery, the exhibit shows how deeply ingrained basketball is to Toronto communities. From neighbourhood teams and key figures to the Raptors' 2019 championship win, Home Game establishes just how much basketball has transformed the city. The exhibit uses interview clips, memorabilia, artifacts and art to tell the story of the relationship Toronto has with the sport. 

In Home Game, the art on display reflects the accessibility and diversity of the sport. Curator Perry King shares that the demand for this kind of exhibit had been growing for a while. He wanted art to be included to share the larger intention of the exhibit. "Basketball has been able to capture so many people in different ways," he says. "It's not just a sport. It's a living, breathing organism. It's something that people want to take further into their own lives."

One focal point is an installation of six photos. The 2017 series entitled Jump Ball: Toronto by Jamaican Canadian photographer O'shane Howard was shot on the public basketball courts of Toronto's St. James Town neighbourhood. It features images of young Black men of Somalian, Ghanaian, Ethiopian, Nigerian, Congolese and Senegalese descent posing with basketballs and wearing traditional cultural attire as well as Western streetwear. Howard worked with Sunday School Creative founder Josef Adamu to create the shoot. 

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