Artscape and the Theatre Centre

All year I’ve been shaking my head as I walk past the condo sales rooms on Queen West hawking boxes to people wanting to be near the action on the now über trendy strip. When I heard that Active 18, a citizen’s lobby group, had been largely unsuccessful with their efforts to tone down the expansion I felt gloomy. What would become of my charming mixed neighbourhood full of artists studios and galleries? I felt even gloomier when eviction notices were served to the residents of 48 Abell, a rambling old building just off Queen West and a home and workspace for many visual artists.

But some good news broke forth at the end of October. Artscape, a not-for-profit enterprise engaged in culture-led regeneration, Active 18, and Theatre Centre representatives managed to help broker a deal between the City of Toronto and several developers. The deal includes 70 affordable work and live spaces for artists to own or rent in the West Side Lofts, $1.25M for a performing arts centre in the old Carnegie Library on Queen St. W., and an urban park in the area.

Carnegie Library, 1115 Queen St West.

 

Artscape has played an important role in the regeneration of creative communities in other locations in Toronto including: The Distillery District, Liberty Village and Toronto Island. Where many see two solitudes - artists and developers - Artscape sees an opportunity for an integrated place-based approach to urban development. They understand the force and importance of the creative sector to the city’s economy and see cultural activity as an asset to community development.

Theatre Centre has been a very active member of the Queen W. for 16 years and for the past two years has advocated adapting the Carnegie Library into a public culture space. In 2004, they undertook significant renovations to their space at the corner of Queen and Dovercourt but two years later the building was sold and it was unclear if the theatre would be able to stay. Their own tenuous predicament coupled with the closing of small-scale performance spaces, such as the Poor Alex and Artword Theatre, propelled them to launch a feasibility study to articulate the need for more creative space. Small, well-equipped, flexible performance spaces are essential for the health of the independent theatre and interdisciplinary arts groups and the feasibility study was welcomed and supported by the arts community and the Toronto Arts Council.

City of Toronto Public Health currently occupies the Carnegie Library and as part of the deal they will move to new space in the neighbourhood. Franco Boni, Artistic Director of the Theatre Centre and recent recipient of a Toronto Arts Council Foundation award for cultural leadership, acknowledged the work of Councilor Adam Giambrone and others at the City whose efforts helped make this arrangement possible, illustrating the City’s belief in the importance of the arts to healthy neighbourhoods.

It is fitting that the old library should be considered as a new public arts space. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, donations from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie built Libraries throughout the world, including 124 in Canada. Carnegie Libraries were built as impressive structures and fueled by Carnegie’s belief that access to knowledge was an important way to support community members. Carnegie believed in giving to the “industrious and ambitious, and those able to “help themselves.” The activity along Queen West today would surely surprise and perplex the straight-laced Scottish immigrant but citizens, artists, arts organizations and cultural lobbying groups have proven themselves to be determined and diligent in putting forward their needs in the face of development. Next time I walk past the Carnegie Library I will think about the arts centre that will sprout in the imposing structure. I think Carnegie would approve.

 

Margo Charlton
Theatre Officer at Toronto Arts Council
Resident of Queen West neighbourhood

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