Artscape and Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance

Over the past five years, a building boom led by cultural institutions has been heralded as the beginning of Toronto’s cultural renaissance. Major galleries, museums, training institutions, and heritage sites have been reborn. The cultural life of the city has been further enlivened by the arrival of Nuit Blanche, Luminato, and the T.O. Live with Culture promotional campaign. Toronto’s creative city ambitions have never been higher and cities around the world have taken notice.

With this momentum clearly established, the time is right to engage artists, designers, developers, planners, community activists and city-builders in building the next wave of cultural projects. This new effort will harness the power of creativity to drive neighbourhood regeneration, build a solid foundation for creative economy growth, and help Toronto build the space for creativity with greater purpose and conviction than any other city in the world. If the first waves of Toronto’s cultural renaissance succeeded in putting creativity on display with greater panache than ever, the next ones will be about putting creativity to work in vibrant creative places and spaces across the city.

Artscape has demonstrated leadership in Toronto’s cultural renaissance through workshops, conferences and by playing a role in the revitalization of the Distillery District and Wychwood Barns. With more than a dozen transformational projects in its development pipeline, Artscape is poised to generate the next waves of the city’s cultural renaissance.