by Jini Stolk
I often go to churches – and street railway stables and literary clubs and factories and warehouses, and I look forward to spending a lot more time in a beautiful old library on Queen Street West. In fact, I used to run a dance company housed in a grand former Presbyterian church in the heart of Cabbagetown. Toronto Dance Theatre is one of many arts organizations that have taken on the special privilege and responsibilities of caring for a heritage building in Toronto: preserving some of our City’s loveliest architectural history, and maintaining important community gathering places for continuing public use.
Heritage preservation is an often ignored underlying theme of cultural renovations in Toronto. I’m glad to see  that the Toronto Heritage Grant Program, is continuing to provide up to 50% of the cost of conservation work such as repairing the stunning stained glass windows at TDT. The Cabbagetown Heritage Group were also stalwart supporters of the work we started back then, and it was always good to know that they felt as passionately about the care and well-being of our building as I did.
I’m looking forward to meeting soon with staff of Toronto’s Heritage Grant Program to talk about how we might highlight the important intersection of heritage preservation and the arts.
