SOLUTIONS: TIM JONES,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF ARTSCAPE
Artscape is a non-profit enterprise that builds creative
communities and expands knowledge about the dynamics of
creative places. Now in its 20th year of operation, Artscape
began as an initiative of the Toronto Arts Council at a
time when the real estate market was booming and artists
and small arts organizations were being priced-out of Toronto’s
central core.
Artscape is celebrating its 20th anniversary. How
has Toronto changed since Artscape's inception? How have
public attitudes changed?
When Artscape was formed in the mid-eighties, the real
estate market was booming and artists and small and mid-sized
arts organizations were being priced out of Toronto’s
downtown core. Twenty years later, despite the ups and downs
of the commercial real estate market, the space challenges
of the arts and creative sector are as acute as ever. Warehouse
buildings that were once the preferred habitat of artists
and industry alone are now prized locations for swanky office
and condo developments. While zoning liberalization has
been great for the revitalization of the Kings, the creative
community has been largely displaced from these areas. And,
the ownership of commercial real estate has shifted from
family-owned to more profit-driven pension funds. The combination
of these factors is creating a quadruple whammy when it
comes to affordable space for the creative community.
While markets forces may not be conducive to creative community
development, there is growing awareness internationally
about the need to foster an overall environment in cities
and communities that supports creativity and innovation.
The rise of the creativity agenda has generated an explosion
of interest in Artscape’s work among players involved
in economic development, community building, urban planning,
creative sector development, innovation and commercialization,
intelligent community design and real estate development.
City-builders everywhere now recognize the strategic importance
of a vibrant arts and creative sector to economic competitiveness,
quality of life and cultural vitality and there is a new
willingness for people and organizations to collaborate
across sectors to build creative communities.
You grew out of the Toronto Arts Council. Why the
split? And what is your relationship with them today?
Artscape was incubated first as an idea then as an organization
by the Toronto Arts Council. When the City began cracking
down on illegal artist live/work spaces in warehouse buildings,
the TAC then led by Rita Davies helped establish Artscape.
From the beginning, the founders recognized that Artscape
would need its own mission, board and staff to succeed.
The Arts Council helped pull those pieces together. Today,
Artscape and the TAC enjoy a great working relationship.
TAC’s Executive Director Claire Hopkinson is a past
Artscape tenant and board member and Susan Wright is a former
Artscape General Manager.
Artscape is involved in projects, programs and services,
ranging from buildings to the Queen West Art Crawl, and
the Creative Places + Spaces Conference. How do they all
fit together?
All of Artscape’s projects, programs, and services
are about creative community building. From its humble beginning
as a provider of “safe, affordable, and secure”
artist studios in warehouse buildings, Artscape now aspires
to be a global leader in developing, connecting, sustaining
and understanding creative communities within buildings,
districts, and cities. Its work has evolved from very utilitarian,
needs-driven capital projects in the arts to multi-dimensional
developments that often simultaneously promote: sustainability
of the arts, creative sector and the environment, heritage
preservation, neighbourhood revitalization, job creation,
affordable housing, and cultural tourism.
Artscape works as a practitioner in the Toronto market
and acts as a consultant to projects and communities nationally
and internationally. Areas of specialized expertise include:
partnership-building, master planning, multi-tenant, arts
district, and creative cluster development, brownfield remediation,
property management, community economic development, cultural
mapping, community engagement, program development, and
impact analysis research.
In Toronto, Artscape has developed 7 multi-tenant arts
facilities (179,000 square feet). Its property portfolio
includes more than 200 studios that serve a variety of uses
including: individual artist studios, galleries, rehearsal
and performance venues, designer/maker retail units, live/work
spaces, offices and a retreat centre. Artscape has been
a player in a wide range of major revitalization projects
including: Queen Street West (Toronto), Liberty Village
(Toronto), The Distillery Historic District (Toronto), Governors
Island (New York), and Salford (Manchester).
Has, or did, Richard Florida's book on creative classes
and creative cities do anything to boost Artscape's profile?
There is no question Richard’s book has had an enormous
impact on conventional thinking about economic development
and the importance of creativity to the new economy. He
was the keynote speaker at our 2003 Creative Places + Spaces
conference and he blew people away. You could also say that
his work was heavily influenced by what Jane Jacobs and
others were saying 20 years earlier. The fact is that in
a very short time frame, the creative city movement has
become an international phenomenon and even UNESCO and the
World Economic Forum are issuing statements about creativity
and innovation.
The real challenge is how to turn all these theories and
strategies about creativity into practical support that
improves the conditions for artists and other creative people.
As both a practitioner and a learning organization, Artscape
has been able to marry its street level awareness of the
arts community with ground-breaking research and international
connections to create a unique blend of knowledge and experience
about building and sustaining creativity. We feel we are
now in a unique position to make a practical difference.
What new projects is Artscape working on, whether
it be in Toronto, Canada, or in the international scene?
In 2006, Artscape will work on more than 25 new projects
programs and services. In Toronto, Artscape has 7 capital
projects in development including: the Green/Arts Barns
Project at the Wychwood Barns site, new affordable artist
housing within a high rise tower above the Hummingbird Centre,
a new creative sector convergence centre in Liberty Village,
a home for a hip hop cultural centre, a cultural centre
for Regent Park, a cultural precinct for the Guild Inn in
Scarborough, and projects on the waterfront. We are consulting
at the moment in Kingston, St. Catharines, Kitchener, Sudbury,
and Haliburton and we are about to launch a national version
of our very successful Creative Clusters Development Program.
On the international front, we will soon meet with colleagues
in the UK to exchange ideas on creative community building
and will be speaking at the World Summit on Arts and Culture
in Gateshead, England and the Global Creative Economy Convergence
Summit in Philadelphia.
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