Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has announced details of a new plan by the city to make major investments in arts and culture over the next 10 years.
At a news conference on Thursday, Chow said the plan aims to bring cultural events to all corners of the city. These include areas under-represented in the past. It commits the city to a “future where culture is accessible to all,” Chow added.
The mayor said city staff developed the plan with the help of “creativity, insights and expertise” from a wide range of people, including community members, artists and representatives of cultural organizations.
“Art and culture makes our city more livable,” Chow told a news conference at 401 Richmond St. W. “They help increase our quality of life and drive our economy. They even help define who we are to the world.”
The plan would: increase the budget of the Toronto Arts Council by $2 million annually over the next five years, starting in 2025; double the budgets of local arts service organizations from 2024 levels over the next five years, starting in 2025; index all cultural grants to inflation; and increase investment in creative industries, and to support festivals and special events.
Chow said Toronto needs arts and culture, and artists need to be able to make their home in Toronto.
Under the plan, the city said it addresses such “critical challenges” as the loss of cultural venues, rising operational costs and the need for programming that reflects the city’s diverse communities.
Details of the plan are contained in a city staff report entitled “Culture Connects: An Action Plan for Culture in Toronto.”
Plan is ‘ambitious roadmap,’ city says
In a news release on Thursday, the city said: “Culture Connects sets an ambitious roadmap to invest in artists, cultural organizations and creative industries, expand cultural spaces, improve experiences for audiences and elevate Toronto as a global cultural hub.”
The city said in the release that key themes of the plan include:
- Culture everywhere — that means support for the development of one million square feet of new cultural space across Toronto over the next ten years.
- Culture for all — that means that every resident will have access to at least one free cultural experience in their neighborhood each month.
- Culture for the future — that means an increase in the city’s investment in culture by $35 million over the next decade to support diverse cultural initiatives.
- Culture beyond our borders — that means enabling 1,000 new creative export and artist exchange projects.
The plan will go to the city’s economic and community development committee later this month, before it heads to city council for approval in November.