Drop-in, all welcome. Rain or shine.
Join us for our annual Corn Roast with artist, writer, and gardener Ron Benner, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his outdoor photographic and garden installation, As the Crow Flies. The event will feature Benner’s remarkable roving corn-roasting wagon, Maiz Barbacoa, which showcases images of corn roasters from around the world alongside the names of corn in over 50 languages. Enjoy delicious roasted corn on the cob served with butter, salt, Mexican chili powder, and fresh lime juice.
About As the Crow Flies
Installed in 2005, As the Crow Flies is a site-specific garden artwork nestled in what was once an elliptical reflecting pool on Museum London’s grounds. Over the past 20 years, it has been transformed by Benner into a thriving water garden, home to native plants and symbolic crops carefully cultivated to grow along the 81.14th meridian—a longitudinal path that connects London, Ontario, to sites such as Cape Sable, Florida, and the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. This symbolic alignment draws attention to global patterns of colonization, migration, and resistance through agriculture.
Set against the natural beauty of the Deshkan Ziibi/Thames River, the garden has evolved into a living ecosystem, supporting birds, amphibians, insects, and aquatic life. It stands not only as a striking visual installation but as an environmental sanctuary and ongoing act of ecological stewardship.
About the Corn Roast
Benner’s annual Corn Roast offers a relaxed and welcoming space to gather with the community, enjoy the landscape, and reflect on the garden’s lasting impact over the past two decades. It’s an opportunity to celebrate Ron Benner’s unique approach to artmaking; one that fuses horticulture, activism, and storytelling into a singular, powerful experience.
Guests will have the chance to meet the artist, learn more about the installation’s history and significance, and share in the simple joy of roasted corn, a food that carries deep cultural and historical resonance across the Americas.
This community event is presented as part of London Heritage Council’s 24th annual Doors Open London, celebrating the Sights, Sounds, and Stories in our City.
