Category Archives: Facilities

by Jini Stolk Art needs space and space needs art. Duncan Webb, ex-Torontonian, threw down the gauntlet a few years back in a blog post titled Message to Cultural Groups: Rent, Don’t Buy!  His arguments were as expected, and they’re not wrong: real estate is not a liquid asset; arts groups have trouble servicing debt; […]

by Jini Stolk Matera is a beautiful city in southern Italy, whose Romanesque cathedral overlooks a deep ravine lined with ancient cave dwellings, which may have been human settlements from as long ago as 7,000 B.C. These sassi were inhabited until the 1960’s when their unhealthy living conditions and poverty became known as “the shame […]

by Jini Stolk “Under threat of possible city punishment, landlords of no-frills Class B buildings step up their game.” So goes the subtitle of a piece, reprinted in the Globe and Mail, about a rash of energy efficiency initiatives in New York’s old commercial buildings. Owners are saving significantly on energy, although they haven’t yet […]

by Jini Stolk The lack of reliable support for arts venues (and for those running, renting, maintaining, upgrading and renovating them) often feels like the elephant in the cultural policy room. Two recent meetings, one convened by the Toronto Arts Council and one by the Metcalf Foundation, acknowledged the additional pressures (including but not exclusively […]

by Jini Stolk From the moment I heard about SpaceFinder, Fractured Atlas’ online venue database and rental system, I hoped someone would find a way to bring it to Toronto. I’m incredibly pleased that TAPA, ArtsBuild Ontario and WorkInCulture, with the support of the Metcalf Foundation, are launching SpaceFinder Toronto this fall. Once it’s fully […]

by Jini Stolk I was delighted to see the announcement  of the rebirth of a much needed Culture Build Investment Program at the City of Toronto. As you know, I also hope that over time we can begin to create a stronger connection between the arts and the heritage preservation objectives at the City. But […]

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 […]

by Jini Stolk In response to my recent post on TO’s mid-size theatres sitch a number of people have asked what kind of support I’d like to see the arts community giving to Toronto’s new theatre renovation projects. It doesn’t have to be financial, but money never hurts and you don’t have to be rich […]