Block by Block Reports

These reports relate to consultations with community-engaged artists in Toronto.

A study to determine the viability of integrating community arts programming into the Victoria Village Neighbourhood Hub.The Hub, set to open in Fall 2010, will be the home for a cluster of social service agencies providing programs and services to the residents of Victoria Village, one of the City’s designated priority neighbourhoods. The study was also tasked with recommending best practices for integrating arts programming into future Hub development projects.

An overview of 26 in-depth interviews and 5 design meetings with community-engaged artists in Toronto on their challenges, successes, and the potential of a Neighbourhood Arts Network.

Best Buzz: Passion, Patience and Commitment, Advice from the Field. Executive Summary of an exploration of good practices in Neighbourhood Arts Hubs in Toronto. Commissioned in the Fall or 2009 as part of the Block by Block Program of the Toronto Arts Foundation as a resource for the Neighbourhood Arts Network. Click here to view the Best Buzz audio slide shows.

This report examines the possibilities for Neighbourhood Arts Hubs and how they might fit into the vision of Toronto as a Creative City. This report outlines discussions from the Foundation and Art Starts Neighbourhood Cultural Centre, describes Neighbourhood Arts Hubs and the values on which they will be built, and highlights the benefits and challenges in moving forward with Neighbourhood Arts Hubs. Included is an addendum by Claire Hopkinson on the role of the Toronto Arts Foundation in the advancement of the neighbourhood arts hub initiative.

In March 2008, TAF and Art Starts Neighbourhood Cultural Centre, with support from Ontario Trillium Foundation and others, presented Art at the Hub: A symposium on making art locally, to examine the idea of art-making at a neighbourhood level and how art creates hubs. The symposium brought together international, national and local presenters and participants whose work relates to community-engaged art practices and associated issues of cultural development. At the symposium, presenters and participants reflected on their work as community artists, place-makers and hub-builders. Their experiences shed light on some of the fundamental principles and practices to consider in building Neighbourhood Arts Hubs.

As part of the preparation for 2008 Art at the Hub: A Symposium on Making Art Locally, Toronto Arts Foundation and Art Starts Neighbourhood Cultural Centre interviewed individuals working in community arts organizations to get a sense of how they are faring in their quest to make the arts part of neighbourhood-based cultural life. In particular, we were interested in how artists and community arts animators work with other organizations in the community to build partnerships, share resources, recruit participants, develop and sustain exciting programs. We found that these partnerships are key to successful community arts programming.

This report provides an overview of what happened at the 2007 The Creative City: Block by Block - Creators and Communities symposium. Presentations and discussions provided a sense of the current challenges facing the field of community arts and can be viewed as a slice of the existing discourse around community arts practice in Canada.