Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre are building a new home and collaborative space for the performing arts at 877 Yonge Street.
After being forced to leave a community built over 20 years from the ground up, the companies embark on the next chapter. We are poised to create a new vibrant arts community and an innovative partnership with the affordable housing organization St. Clare’s. Just north of Yonge and Bloor, the new facility will be a bold step towards establishing the centre of Toronto as the next great destination for artists and audiences and as an inspired space designed by Hilditch Architects to create new, vital Canadian works.
While Toronto experiences a drought of arts venues, Tapestry and Nightwood are creating a stable and exciting new arts complex in the heart of Toronto, close to public transit access. The new space includes a 6,500 square foot facility including a 2700 sq foot performance hall, rehearsal studio, greenroom and shared office spaces. The new facility will provide nearly three times the rehearsal and performance space than their former studio in the Distillery District.
With the help of Councillor Dianne Saxe, the ABC Residents Association (ABCRA), and The Greater Yorkville Residents Association (GYRA), the City of Toronto has allocated $1.25 million in Section 37 funds from 1 Bloor West to build the dynamic arts facility by the 2024-2025 season. The ABCRA has also initiated a fundraising campaign to raise $250,000 for the project with a match of the first $25,000.
With these new investments, the vital first phase of construction at 877 Yonge Street will be fully funded, and the project scope has increased from $1.4 million to $3 million.
We are launching a campaign to raise $400k over the next three years to equip and furnish this facility and performing arts resource for Toronto’s artists and the public.
With your support, we know we can bridge the gap.
877 Younge Street – Office and Performance Spaces
Photo by Eden Graham.
CONTINUED PARTNERSHIP WITH NIGHTWOOD THEATRE
As Canada’s foremost feminist theatre, Nightwood Theatre is driven by artistic excellence, advocacy, and the successful training and development of women and gender-expansive artists – this includes but is not limited to trans, cis, Two-Spirit and non-binary folks. Founded in 1979, Nightwood Theatre has created and produced award-winning plays, which have won Dora Mavor Moore, Chalmers, Trillium, and Governor General’s awards. To learn more about Nightwood Theatre, please visit nightwoodtheatre.net
“Following years of Toronto losing vital arts spaces, we are proud to announce the creation of a new facility in the heart of Toronto that is also easily accessible by public transportation,” notes Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Artistic and General Director. “This new space will provide affordable space not only for Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre,” says Executive Director Jaime Martino, “but, just like our Ernest Balmer Studio in the Distillery, it will create low-cost, accessible space for the greater performing arts community in Toronto.”
Nightwood’s co-executives Andrea Donaldson, Artistic Director, and Naz Afsahi, Managing Director, added: “The energy and generosity that this new venture has attracted has been astonishing. We are so grateful to St. Clare’s and to the numerous individuals and partners who are making this (necessary) dream a reality. We see great benefit in sharing resources with not only each other as arts organizations but with another non-profit as a creative and exciting way forward in addressing the social needs of our city. We are very close to our goal and welcome those who want to support growing culture in Toronto to reach out!”
