Creative Capital Gains
Creative Capital Gains
On the cover:
Breaking at Manifesto Festival of
Community & Culture 2010;
Photo courtesy Manifesto
Documentation Team
Creative Capital Gains
An Action Plan for Toronto
Table of Contents
Letter From the Co-Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Creative Capital Advisory Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Taking Stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Human Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Funding Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Toronto’s Cultural Policy Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Cultural Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Post-Cultural Renaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Next Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Affordable Spaces for Cultural Industries and Community Arts . . . . . . . . 16
Civic Theatres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Recommendation 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Access and Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Supporting Youth Engagement and Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Local Arts Service Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Cultural Hotspot of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Recommendation 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Cultural Scenes and Creative Clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Toronto’s Entertainment and Creative Cluster. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Digital Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Cultural Entrepreneurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Recommendation 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Positioning Toronto as a Creative Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Raising Our Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Major Cultural Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Sharing Our History, Building Our Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Events Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Toronto: City of Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Recommendation 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
The City’s Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Convening Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Cultural Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Recommendation 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Finance and Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Recommendation 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Table of Recommendations, Actions and Key Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Appendix 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Appendix 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Appendix 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Councillor Michael Thompson addresses the first industry focus group at St. Lawrence Hall,
February 3, 2011. Photo by Jose San Juan
There are three broad overarching themes that fit this framework:
1. Focusing on service
2. Using the City’s convening power
3. Making cultural investments where only the City can
Service
City on the Move: A Festival of Young Artists in
Transit; Photo by C. Jones In a great city, cultural “customers” are both consumers and producers. Every
consumer is a potential producer, and every producer is a potential consumer.
The city’s customers for cultural goods and services are varied and diverse. They
include tourists, residents, commuters and kids, as well as individual artists and
arts organizations. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to addressing the customer
service issues that were raised during the consultations and other research. However,
one consistent theme emerged: working with the City can be a real challenge. At
present, the City of Toronto’s enormous creative capital is constrained because
it necessarily forms part of different City departments, agencies, boards and
commissions. For example, art, heritage and public art are in the Culture Section;
tourism lives in Economic Development alongside fashion and design, while film is
separate again. Parks, planning, housing, transportation, public works, the TTC,
Convening Power
The City of Toronto is so alive with culture that organizations and institutions often
get focused solely on their own endeavours. Opportunities for coordination, which
could greatly magnify the impact of events and exhibitions, are frequently lost.
Further, the business community noted that greater awareness of the City’s plans
and priorities would help them with their funding decisions. With several major
events happening over the next five years—peaking with the Pan/Parapan American
Games in 2015—greater coordination would help to dramatically improve the city’s
competitiveness on the world stage. Awareness of opportunities and coordination of
efforts could be accomplished without requiring any additional funding.
We invite the Mayor to convene periodic Mayor’s Breakfasts for Toronto’s cultural
attraction and business leaders to discuss upcoming opportunities and events, to
support tourism and to facilitate greater information and knowledge exchange.
Executive summary
“Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than
stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the
phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel
together. The combination is not coincidental.”—Jane Jacobs
To realize its potential and position itself as a city where people want to live
and work, businesses want to invest, and to which visitors want to return
again and again, Toronto needs to act strategically and invest wisely in its
cultural sector. It needs resources to carry out these recommendations.
Meeting the goal of $25 per capita expenditures on culture, first approved in
the 2003 Culture Plan and reaffirmed by City Council in August of 2010, must
be a priority of this administration. This increased expenditure will have the
greatest impact if it takes the form of direct investment in artists and arts
organizations, which in turn leverage each municipal dollar into almost $20
of earned revenues and additional public and private sector investment.
This report of the Creative Capital Advisory Council is the first of many
necessary steps to ‘put creativity to work’ and to fulfil the potential of the city.
The benefits belong to all citizens. This will enhance the long-term prosperity Young students play sheep in the National
of our city and Toronto will truly be able to capitalize on its creative capital Ballet of Canada’s Nutcracker;
gains. Photo by C. Jones
15
Gene D. Cohen, The Creativity and Aging Study: The Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural
Programs on Older Adults, (The Center on Aging, Health & Humanities - George Washington University, and
National Endowment for the Arts: April 2006)
16
For a compendium of many research studies that confirm these and other positive effect of the arts, see
Creative City Network of Canada, Making the Case for Culture, Personal and Social Development of Children and
Youth, (2005).
17
Kelly Hill, Mapping Artists and Cultural workers in Canada’s Large Cities, (Hill Strategies Research: Oct. 2009)
p42.
18
Meric Gertler, Lori Tesolin, and Sara Weinstock, Imagine a Toronto...Strategies for a Creative City, (2006) p2.
19
Hill, Mapping Artists. p42.
Deborah Bowes instructs young ballet students; Photo courtesy Canada’s National Ballet School
$5.15
Other levels of government
$5.48
Other levels of government
Manifesto Festival of Community & Culture Private sector
2010; Photo courtesy Manifesto
Documentation Team $7.12
Earned revenues
(ticket sales, program fees, venue rentals, bar and gift shop sales, etc.)
$17.75 TOTAL
Since 1990, however, Toronto’s investment in culture has not kept pace
with other sources of funding, inflation and population growth. In fact,
the percentage of municipal funding received by City-funded cultural
organizations has dropped by half. Figure 1 below, illustrates how much
municipal investment lags behind growth in other sources of funding.
Figure 1
210%
Cumulative Growth Rate
160%
110%
60%
10%
1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
-40%
Summer camp at Scarborough Historical Source: City of Toronto; CADAC Audited Financial Statements
Museum; Photo courtesy City of Toronto
Toronto’s Cultural Policy Legacy
Toronto has a history of proactive cultural policy development dating back to
the establishment of the Toronto Arts Council in 1974. In 2003, City Council
adopted the 10-year Culture Plan for a Creative City, which recognized the
essential role of Toronto’s arts, culture and heritage assets in the city’s future,
and in the quality of life of its residents. The good news is that the City has
already implemented or is currently addressing more than 87% of the Culture
Plan’s 63 recommendations.
Source: aggregate 2009 annual audited financial statements, CADAC (Canadian Arts Data/ Don-
22
The Culture Plan showed that Toronto’s investment in culture—at that time,
$14 per capita—was 46% less than Montréal’s per capita investment of $26. Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010, Aurora by
The Plan called for the City to increase its per capita investment to $25 by Phillip Beesley; Photo courtesy City of Toronto
2008—by which time Montréal had increased to $33 per capita. By 2010,
Toronto’s investment in culture stood at $18 per capita, still well short of
the $25 goal originally set for 2008. In August 2010, City Council adopted “A healthy arts and cultural
the staff report Strategies for Arts and Culture Funding, and recommitted to the
community is vital to the overall
previously approved Culture Plan goal of $25 per capita by 2013.
economic climate in Chicago. Our
Toronto is currently part of a study with four other Canadian municipalities Department of Cultural Affairs
(Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, and Montréal) to ensure that common needs a renewed mission and new
elements are included in all per capita measures to enable valid comparison investment. As Mayor, my first
across jurisdictions. Results of this report are expected later in 2011, but action in this area will be to order
preliminary findings reveal that our competitors’ investments have continued
the creation of a new cultural plan
to grow since 2008. Looking to our US competitors, 2009 per capita figures
for Chicago . . . From this process the
show Chicago at $26,23 New York at $74,24 and San Francisco at $87.25
Department of Cultural
Now is not the time for Toronto to lose sight of its goal to be a Creative Affairs can create new strategies that
Capital; now is not the time for Toronto’s investment to stall: we risk lost promote vibrant arts and cultural
opportunities to capitalize on investments already made in the city. hubs in every community and help
to anchor economic growth on every
23
Figures expressed in Canadian dollars; data from Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Mayor’s
Office of Special Events and Chicago Park District. side of the city.”–Rahm Emanuel,
24
Figures expressed in Canadian dollars; data from NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. Mayor of Chicago
25
Figures expressed in Canadian dollars; data from City and County of San Francisco, Culture &
Recreation Department.
Post-Cultural Renaissance
Between 2003 and 2010 Toronto’s successful Cultural Renaissance saw our
city’s architectural portfolio enhanced with newly built or expanded iconic
cultural buildings, including the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery
of Ontario, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the Gardiner
Museum, the Royal Conservatory of Music with its stunning Koerner Hall,
Canada’s National Ballet School, and the Toronto International Film
Festival’s Bell Lightbox. The capital campaigns of these major cultural
organizations attracted $338 million in federal and provincial grants, and
more than $1 billion in matching funds and in-kind donations from the
Lining up for art; Photo courtesy Art Gallery of private sector.26
Ontario
However, the City now faces the challenge of enhancing the surrounding
public spaces to match the quality and significance of these cultural
attractions. Visitors and residents alike will benefit from an integrated way-
finding system.
Civic Theatres
The City owns a series of large-scale civic theatres in order to ensure ongoing
production rental opportunities for cultural producers. The Toronto Centre
for the Arts includes the Main Stage (1,727 seats); Weston Recital Hall (1,036
seats) and Studio Theatre (200 seats). The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
includes the Bluma Appel Theatre (876 seats) and the Jane Mallett Theatre
(496 seats). The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts has 3,167 seats and the
Queen Elizabeth Theatre at Exhibition Place has 1,370 seats. The assortment
of large theatres owned by the City provides producers and presenters with
an impressive choice of venue sizes. The City does not assume the risks
29
Ginder Consulting, Victoria Village Cultural Space Feasibility Study, (Commissioned by Toronto Arts
Foundation and Working Women Community Centre: April 2010) p6.
Recommendation
1. We recommend that the City ensure a supply of affordable,
sustainable cultural space.
ACTIONS
1.1 Reinstate the Culture Build program to address the state of good
repair in cultural facilities.
1.2 Integrate culture and Toronto’s cultural institutions into the City’s
Pedestrian Way-finding System strategy for both visitors and
residents.
1.3 Direct Cultural Services to work with other agencies (Libraries,
Parks, Forestry and Recreation, the Toronto District School Board,
etc.), and Toronto’s City-owned museums to create an inventory of
spaces across the city and promote the use of these existing spaces
for community cultural use.
1.4 Protect industrial and commercial space for cultural industries
by developing stronger policies during the review of the City’s
Official Plan as well as during the review of site-specific re-zoning
applications.
1.5 Provide City Councillors with a ward-by-ward community cultural
infrastructure priority list to guide their Section 37 funding
allocations. This will require updating the cultural spaces inventory
and collaboration with City Planning.
1.6 Find ways to increase efficiencies and make the Civic Theatres The Power Plant; Photo courtesy
Harbourfront Centre
affordable for community cultural use.
Recommendation
2. We recommend that the City ensure access and opportunity for
cultural participation to all citizens regardless of age, ethnicity,
ability, sexual orientation, geography, or socioeconomic status.
ACTIONS
2.1 Establish regular quarterly meetings with youth arts organizations
and City of Toronto divisions and agencies in each part of the city,
East, West, North, and South Toronto.
2.2 Review the existing permit process to explore ways to streamline
the process and make it more user-friendly for arts organizations,
notably those that are youth-led.
2.3 Establish Local Arts Services Organizations in North York and East York.
2.4 Establish a program to support mentorships and partnerships cross-
sectorally between established organizations and emerging cultural
organizations, especially youth-led organizations, all across the city.
2.5 Develop a rotating Cultural Hotspot of the Year program to celebrate
cultural activity in Toronto’s neighbourhoods.
34
Christopher Hume, “We define ourselves by our neighbourhoods”, Toronto Star, Sunday,
August 30, 2009.
The next time you see a movie shot in Toronto, a performance at Toronto
Dance Theatre or attend a concert at Massey Hall or Air Canada Centre,
Fashion Hsu; Photo courtesy Harbourfront stop to think about where the stage hands, set designers, lighting technicians
Centre and artists behind these productions learned their skills. Every professional
cultural venture depends on local arts organizations and arts educators
who engage talented youth and train professional performers. More than
any other, the cultural sector relies on a virtuous circle of interdependence
between the commercial and not-for-profit worlds. Creative clusters,
comprised of intellectual, creative and financial capital, emerge from this
sharing of resources and talent.
Successful city-regions understand and promote the industry clusters that
drive their prosperity. The City of Toronto’s Economic Development and
Culture Division has identified 11 key sectors for Toronto, of which three—
Film, Television and Digital Media, Fashion and Design, and Tourism—are
firmly rooted in the cultural economy. In addition, thousands of cultural
workers, such as graphic designers and webmasters, work in other key
industry clusters such as Business and Professional Services, which rely on
creative labour to invent new products and processes. For example, some of
the tools used today in visual effects, such as Maya and Houdini software,
Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010;
Photo courtesy City of Toronto were invented here. Now, we have become a hub for mobile applications and
increasingly, for innovative multi-platform productions.
To maximize the potential of the cultural economy, Toronto needs to nurture
grassroots cultural activity and pay special attention to areas where there
are particularly dense clusters of cultural workers and businesses residing
in the downtown core. Work has already begun in this area. With funding
from the Government of Ontario’s Creative Communities Prosperity Fund,
the City has undertaken a project to create a new visualization model to
map and study areas where cultural workers live and work. With the findings
of this report, the City will have evidence-based data to craft policies and
by-laws that protect and cultivate existing scenes, and identify and highlight
emerging scenes, while maximizing their potential for growth, neighbourhood
regeneration and economic return. There are also many areas of cultural activity
outside the downtown core. The proposed Weston Mount Dennis Cultural/
Creative Hub has great potential to revitalize the surrounding neighbourhood
and to house community cultural programs like the York Museum.35
Artscape, A Cultural/Creative Hub in Weston Mount Dennis, (Toronto Artscape Inc.: December, 2010).
35
Digital Media
The digital media and gaming sector is expanding, raising venture capital and
creating new companies. These activities are fluid and will continue to take place in
Toronto only if conditions are right. Our consultations highlighted that Toronto’s
venture capital community is timid and slow to respond to the needs of this
segment of the screen-based cluster—a potentially serious threat to retaining the
most promising talent and businesses in our increasingly digital world.
Toronto has world-class post-secondary programs where young people
learn and develop skills and incubate new companies and products, such as
Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone, OCAD University’s Mobile Experience
Innovation Centre, York University’s new $1.4 million academic-industry joint
venture to fund 3D Film Innovation, and Sheridan College’s Oscar-winning
animation program. With these post-secondary institutions and professional
training centres such as the Canadian Film Centre, Toronto is ideally
positioned to become a global hub of this emerging industry, particularly for
developers of mobile applications. The Creative Capital Initiative has opened
an opportunity for ongoing engagement with the sector that should be pursued.
36
Invest Toronto, Economic Overview – Film and Television. < http://www.investtoronto.ca/Business-Toronto/
Business-Environment/Economic-Overview.aspx>
37
City of Toronto, Sector Growth and Strategic Development, Economic Development.
38
Brian J. Hracs, “Building Ontario’s Music Economies”, MPI Working Paper Series: Ontario in the Creative Age,
(February 2009).
39
Mirjam Gollmitzer and Dr. Catherine Murray, From Economy to Ecology: A Policy Framework for Creative
Labour, (Canadian Conference of the Arts. March, 2008).
40
Artscape, Advancing Toronto’s Centre for Creative Sector Entrepreneurship, (Toronto Artscape Inc: 2011).
ACTIONS
3.1 Continue to study and map the cultural districts in Toronto and
recommend policy tools to foster and protect the existing cultural
clusters.
3.2 Support the development of the Cultural/Creative Hub in Weston
Mount Dennis and use it to showcase the community’s history.
3.3 Promote and foster Toronto’s screen-based cluster by:
a. Reinstating the Toronto Film, Television and Commercial
Inside the TIFF Bell Lightbox; Photo courtesy
Production Industry Committee;
Toronto International Film Festival
b. Working with the Ontario Media Development Corporation, the
Government of Ontario and the production community to develop
a mechanism to support the creation of more sustainable spaces
for small and medium-sized productions, which would otherwise
go to competing jurisdictions;
c. Directing the City’s Film and Television Office and Strategic Growth
and Sector Development units to devise a strategy to expand the
availability of capital for domestic production;
d. Taking a more active role in policy discussions to proactively and
consistently defend the interests of Toronto-based artists and
companies in provincial and national funding and tax policies.
3.4 Promote and foster Toronto’s digital media cluster by:
a. Branding Toronto as a global hub of digital media;
b. Working with OCAD University’s Digital Media Lab, Ryerson
University’s Digital Media Zone, and the Canadian Film Centre’s
Habitat New Media Lab, and others to connect emerging digital/
mobile media artists and businesses and to create opportunities for
showcasing their accomplishments.
c. Working with the Public Realm Office and Tourism Toronto to
incorporate Toronto culture in strategies for mobile apps and
digital way-finding.
3.5 Conduct a study to investigate Toronto’s music industry and its
economic impact, and develop a strategy to promote and foster
Toronto’s music cluster.
3.6 Support the development of Artscape’s proposed Creative
Entrepreneurship Centre.
3,000 2.9M
2,500
Thousands
2,000
1,500
1.12M
1,000
685K
540K
500 421K 341K
0
Cultural Nat'l, Prov. or Sports Event Zoo, Theme or Casino
Activity Nature Park Aquarium, or Amusement
Botanical Park
Garden
Source: Tourism Toronto; Statistics Canada, International Travel Survey and Travel Survey of Residents of
Canada
Tourists are increasingly drawn to Toronto’s cultural attractions, iconic
architecture, and the unique cultural scenes that define our neighbourhoods.
Cultural tourism generates jobs in paid accommodation, meals, and
transportation. Visitors bring hard currency, perspective and buzz. Through
the eyes of visitors, Toronto transforms the way it sees itself.
As home to Canada’s largest population of artists, Toronto can define itself
through creativity and offer its varied experiences to the world. Cultural Capoeira Camar; Photo courtesy
festivals like Caribana, Masala Mehndi Masti, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Harbourfront Centre
Toronto Ukrainian Festival, and Hispanic Fiesta contribute to Toronto’s
worldwide reputation as a vibrant and diverse destination.
Canada, (2009).
Recommendation
Toronto must do more to retain and enhance its competitive position, but
the responsibility does not rest solely with the City. The business community,
not-for-profit foundations and organizations, individuals and the cultural
community must all play their role if Toronto is truly to become one of the Manifesto Festival; Photo courtesy Manifesto
world’s Creative Capitals. Documentation Team
Service
The City’s varied and diverse customers for cultural goods and services
include tourists, residents, commuters and youth, as well as individual artists
and arts organizations. During our consultations a consistent theme emerged:
working with the City can be a real challenge. Toronto’s enormous creative
capital is constrained because responsibility and decision-making reside in so
many different areas. The lack of a coordinated approach results in delays,
lost opportunities, inefficiencies and wasted efforts. By establishing a working
group and applying a cultural lens to all City services, the City can make it
easier for culture producers, consumers, and the public at large to work with Teaching the steel pans at Harbourfront;
Photo by Carlos Ferguson
their local government.
Convening Power
Greater collaboration and communication was another theme that resonated
across our consultations. The business community has also noted that
greater awareness of the City’s plans and priorities would help with its
funding decisions. With several major events happening over the next five
years, peaking with the Pan/Parapan American Games in 2015, greater
coordination would help dramatically improve the city’s competitiveness on
the world stage. The City can be a broker, convenor and facilitator among
different sectors, both public and private, and between larger and smaller
institutions. Increasing awareness of opportunities and coordinating efforts is
not a matter of additional funding.
Cultural Investments
The City’s investment achieves greater leverage when the City provides
support that would otherwise go wanting. The City is in the best position
to understand, evaluate, and facilitate support for a myriad of events and
organizations across the entire city. The City’s investment can also trigger
a whole stream of additional funding from a wide variety of other sources.
Recommendation
ACTIONS
5.1 Convene City staff to form a Mayor’s Creative Capital Working
Group to coordinate the City’s activities and resources in a way that
Watertable, public art installation by Lisa
Steele and Kim Tomczak; Photo courtesy City benefits the cultural community and all Torontonians. The Working
of Toronto Group would include staff from all the arts, cultural and creative
disciplines in the City’s administrations, as well as city entities and
enterprises that would benefit from the application of a coordinated
creative lens.
5.2 Convene periodic Mayor’s Breakfasts for Toronto’s cultural attraction
and business leaders to discuss upcoming opportunities and
events, to support tourism and to facilitate greater information and
knowledge exchange.
In June 2003, Council approved the Culture Plan for the Creative City, which
projected that Toronto would reach its target for cultural investment of
$25 per capita by 2008. The per capita benchmark provides a consolidated
measure of Toronto’s investment in culture through operating, capital and
grants, and allows us to compare this investment to other Canadian and
US cities of varying sizes. In August 2010, Council reiterated its support and
committed to increase investment to the cultural sector to reach the $25 per
capital goal by 2013. We fully support Council’s reiterated goal.
46
Environics Research Group, The Arts and the Quality of Life- The attitudes of Ontarians, (March 2010) p28.
47
Ibid
48
EKOS Research, December 2009 Billboard Tax: Survey of GTA, City of Toronto Results, (November 2009).
Recommendation
6. We recommend that the City keep pace with international Toronto Music Garden; Photo by Gera Dillon
competitors by making a firm commitment to sustain Toronto’s
cultural sector and position Toronto as a leading, globally
competitive Creative Capital.
ACTIONS
6.1 Follow through on Council’s previously committed goal of achieving
$25 per capita in expenditures on culture by providing ongoing
support to City-funded cultural organizations and implementing the
recommendations of this report.
6.2 Challenge the private sector to match increased municipal cultural
funding and work with Foundations to secure a pool of funds for
creative capital initiatives.
6.3 Reinstate the Mayor’s Ball for the Arts with funds directed to the
Toronto Arts Foundation.
6.4 Advocate to the Province for the inclusion of growth-related cultural
facilities as eligible recipients of funding from development charges
under the Development Charges Act.
6.5 Leverage the City’s ability to serve as a guarantor to enable cultural
organizations to take advantage of community bond/social financing
models for cultural infrastructure.
6.6 Expand awareness and understanding about existing City financing
tools (Section 37, TIEGs, etc.) to the cultural community.
1.2 Integrate culture and Toronto’s cultural institutions into Annual state of good repair backlog in City
the City’s Pedestrian Way-finding System strategy for both and non-City owned cultural facilities
visitors and residents.
1.3 Direct Cultural Services to work with other agencies Total square footage of affordable,
(Libraries, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, the Toronto sustainable, cultural space
District School Board, etc.), and Toronto’s City-owned
museums to create an inventory of spaces across the city
for community cultural use.
2. We recommend the City ensure access and opportunity for cultural participation to all
citizens regardless of age, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientatiom, geography, or
socioeconomic status.
2.2 Review the existing permit process to explore ways to City-funded cultural events: number of
streamline the process and make it more user-friendly for events and attendance
arts organizations, notably those that are youth-led.
2.3 Establish Local Arts Services Organizations in North York Number of audience members attending
and East York. through discounted ticketing programs
3. We recommend that the City support the development of creative clusters and emerging
cultural scenes to capitalize on their potential as generators of jobs and economic growth.
3.2 Support the development of the Cultural/Creative Hub The number of cultural businesses and
in Weston Mount Dennis and use it to showcase the enterprises in Toronto
community’s history.
3.3 Promote and foster Toronto’s screen-based cluster by: The total number of businesses and
enterprises in Toronto
a. Reinstating the Toronto Film, Television and
Commercial Production Industry Committee;
b. Working with the Ontario Media Development The number of location permits issued for
Corporation, the Government of Ontario and the film and television productions in Toronto
production community to develop a mechanism to
support the creation of more sustainable spaces for
small and medium-sized productions, which would
otherwise go to competing jurisdictions; The annual production spends of GTA
c. Directing the City’s Film and Television Office and screen-based industries
Strategic Growth and Sector Development units to
devise a strategy to expand the availability of capital for
domestic film production;
d. Taking a more active role in policy discussions to
proactively and consistently defend the interests of
Toronto-based artists and companies in provincial and
national funding and tax policies.
4. We recommend that the City promote its cultural institutions, festivals and other assets
to enhance its position as a Creative City regionally, nationally, and internationally.
5. We recommend that the Mayor take a leadership role in Toronto’s creative capital
strategy.
6. We recommend that the City keep pace with international competitors by making a firm
commitment to sustain Toronto’s cultural sector and position Toronto as a leading,
globally competitive Creative Capital.
6.2 Challenge the private sector to match increased municipal Funds leveraged by increased City
cultural funding and work with Foundations to secure a investment in arts and culture grants
pool of funds for creative capital initiatives.
6.3 Reinstate the Mayor’s Ball for the Arts with funds directed Percentage growth of private funding vs.
to the Toronto Arts Foundation.. municipal funding
Architects
Landscape Architects
Industrial Designers
Writers
Editors
Producers, Directors, Choreographer and Related Occupations
Conductors, Composers and Arrangers
Musicians and Singers
Dancers
Actors
Painters, Sculptors and Other Visual Artists
Photographers
Announcers and Other Broadcasters
Other Performers
Graphic Designers and Illustrating Artists
Interior Designers
Theatre, Fashion, Exhibition and Other Creative Designers
Artisans and Craftpersons
Patternmakers – Textile, Leather and Fur Product
• families
The Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s Cultural Access Program (CAP) provides new citizens and their
with access to a wide range of cultural institutions for one year after they obtain their citizenship.
Participating institutions in Toronto include the AGO, the Bata Shoe Museum, Fort York, the Gardiner
Museum, the ROM, Colborne Lodge, Spadina House, Mackenzie House, Gibson House and many smaller
museums and galleries.
• guest
TSOundcheck offers $14 Toronto Symphony Orchestra tickets in best-available seats to 15-35-year-olds and a
of any age.
• DanceBreak members (ages 16 to 29) can purchase $30 tickets to the National Ballet or name their price by
bidding on tickets the day of the performance.
• Youth 15-29 can buy $5 HipTIX theatre tickets online or at the T.O.Tix booth at Dundas Square.
• Canadian
The T.Dot Project for Youth (Toronto - Dance, Opera, Theatre), a partnership among Ballet Creole,
Opera Company, Canadian Stage, The National Ballet of Canada, Soulpepper Theatre Company,
Danceworks, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, Native Earth Performing Arts, The Sprockets
Toronto International Film Festival and Tarragon Theatre, gives 25 young people in grades 10-12 the
opportunity to attend six contrasting performing arts productions in Toronto and engage in hands-on
workshops and discussions.
• The AGO offers free admission to the general public every Wednesday from 6-8:30 p.m.; to Ontario teachers
with valid ID; and to Ontario high school students with ID Tuesday-Friday from 3-5:30 p.m. When it finds
sponsors (as it has for the Maharajah Exhibit) the AGO also admits all those 25 and under free.
• The Gardiner Museum offers half-price admission to the general public on Fridays after 4 p.m.
• admission
The ROM provides free admission to the general public Wednesdays after 3:30 p.m. and half-price general
on Fridays starting at 4:30 p.m.