Arts & Letters Club Dinner and Talk: SOCA's Montague House

The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto invites members of the Toronto Society of Architects to join for Club Night where the Studio for Contemporary Architecture (SOCA) will speak about the Montague House, a house that brings together architecture, art and design.  The evening will include a dinner followed by a presentation. Those looking to attend are asked to call the club to make their reservation: 416-597-0223, ext. 2, and make sure you mention you are a TSA member.

About the Montague House and SOCA

Located within Toronto’s Wychwood Park neighborhood, this project transformed a 1919 Eden Smith house into the home of Dr. Kenneth Montague and Sarah Aranha, artist and educator, with a emphasis in housing their extensive art, object and design collection including artworks from the Wedge Collection, one of the world’s most important privately owned collections committed to championing Black artists. The house also strongly features Montague’s own family heritage, with much of the furniture being designed by Montague’s father—an industrial arts teacher who completed his graduate work in Detroit with some of the masters of mid-century modern design As Cousins Wilson explains: “The architecture was really just a backdrop for all of this.”

Studio for Contemporary Architecture (SOCA) is an award-winning Toronto-based architecture practice crafting beautiful spaces rooted in culture and community.  The studio is led by Shane Laptiste and Tura Cousins Wilson, who have experience in residential, institutional, and civic architecture.  A Black-owned architecture practice, SOCA was the recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts’ 2023 Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture, a travelling grant allowing the studio to explore sites of Black joy and community globally. SOCA was also a contributor representing Canada at the 2023 Venice Biennale of Architecture and had been awarded the 2023 Emerging Architectural Practice Award from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Both Shane and Tura are founding members of BAIDA, supporting the future of Black architecture and design.