On November 23, 2024, more than 150 people gathered together to confront the affordability crisis in Toronto when it comes to creative spaces.
When Toronto Artscape went into receivership in 2023, it shook up an already fragile ecosystem of creative spaces in the city. Economic pressures from gentrification result in the displacement of artists from places where they formerly found the kind of relatively affordable spaces they could create.
What’s the potential when artists and communities confront gentrification together? Because, of course, artists are hardly the only people who are impacted when real estate rises rapidly to way beyond what the existing community members can afford.
Artists in Flux: Community, Space, Gentrification is the report that documents that meeting, including stories and innovative ideas to protect the spaces where the city’s artists work, and in many cases, live.
The event was held at the Epiphany & St. Mark Anglican Church, with panelists Ric Amis, Chair of Parkdale Residents Association (PRA), Lilian Radovac, independent scholar, artist and activist as moderator, and the event sponsor was Urbanspace Property Group/401 Richmond Inc.
The panels discussed lived experiences with speakers from tenants associations and collectives, and solutions with General Manager, Economic Dev. & Cultural Services, City of Toronto Pat Tobin and others. Special audience guests represented a wide swath of artists and community members, including other representatives from the city, and Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust.
Parkdale was an appropriate area for the discussion. Formerly a cheap, if t some points somewhat rundown, side of downtown in decades past, the neighbourhood was at the vanguard of Toronto gentrification in the early 2000s. In Parkdale, the median income falls below the city average. Yet, expenses have risen exponentially.
The struggles of Toronto Artscape and others underscore the problematic issue of maintaining creative spaces, which can be sizable depending on the specific use.
Community land trusts, co-op housing and affordable home ownership are all ways to combat real estate speculation and its effects on pricing. Akin Collective is a successful model for providing and sharing art spaces.
Recent government initiatives give reason for hope, including the City of Toronto’s commitment to adding 1 million square feet of creative space as part of the Culture Connects report, and the Federal Co-op Housing Development Program.
The report recognizes that working together is essential in order to enact change, including ongoing dialogue between community members, artists and other stakeholders, organizing efforts among artists, and communication with policymakers.
As such, several action items emerged from the meeting;
A new petition is being circulated (here) to acknowledge PACC, now at 1313 Queen St. W., as part of the City’s proposed Parkdale Hub project, which they foresee at the intersection of Queen St. W. and Cowan Ave.
The petition includes measures such as expanding the live-work spaces for artists to 10% of the proposed new units, and enhancing the facilities for Gallery 1313, among other details.
Those were just a few of the specific points that were offered by various participants.
Collaboration by different parties, including intergenerational and diverse efforts at working together, are the way forward towards a more equitable means of living and working in the city.
The issues are not easy to over come, and require a sustained and organized effort that includes all the stakeholders and government agencies.
Can Toronto be a more affordable city? It will depend on the work that gets done now.
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