Condos Are Destroying Art Galleries on Queen West

[M II A II R II K]

Condos Are Destroying Art Galleries on Queen West


February 7th, 2013

By Benjamin Boles

Read More: http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/condos-are-destroying-art-galleries-on-queen-west


Toronto is about to lose several respected galleries so that yet another big shiny condo can be built. The Queen West buildings that currently house the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA), the Edward Day Gallery, the Clint Roesnisch Gallery, and the Mutt Animation Studio are slated to be torn down over the next year to make room for a new development. It's a depressingly familiar story in Toronto, but also throughout most major cities in the world (like Vancouver).

- Thanks to a perfect storm of falling crime rates, flocks of boomers and their children fleeing the suburbs for the glamour of the big city, and the popularity of real estate speculation, major metropolitan centres all over the world are booming. Like many North American cities, Toronto is fairly low density, so housing prices have skyrocketed due to lack of supply. This has encouraged a massive increase in the number of new condos going up over the past decade. These new developments tend to pop up in whatever neighbourhood has been recently declared trendy, and that pushes us cool kids away to the next area with cheap enough rent to suit the terminally unemployable. It also drives away the poorer immigrant communities that usually predate the art school kids, and that helps make us feel guilty about our own role in the process of gentrification.

- Some people are angry about this process, though. Very angry, actually. Specifically, the Ossington Community Association, who also have some problems with most of the other developments in the area. They're worried that the condo is replacing nice cultural stuff like art galleries, and that it will be too tall, resulting in shadows and lack of privacy for houses around the proposed building. They also don't like that it's not designed to be family friendly, since most of the units are only 700 square feet. Other problems include the lack of green space, no cross-ventilation in the units, and that there will be a driveway. Some of these complaints are obviously less convincing than others (they didn't respond to requests for further comment). What really comes through on the OCA blog post though, is the sense of frustration that they're not going to be able to stop any of this.

- You'd think the gallery owners themselves would share the outrage, but Clint Roesnisch doesn't seem nearly as riled up about losing the gallery space he's had for the past nine years. “Personally, I'm not against the development. I don't think a six storey (or whatever it is) condo building is evil like the OCA might think it is. I just don't think more condos are interesting. Certainly if the MOCCA were an amazing, historically important building then I would be upset and vocal, but it's not: it's a generic bullshit building from the 1970s.†He's also not so worried about the changing character of West Queen West. “Queen St West is done. It's unfortunate but it's also the same story of gentrification that has unfolded hundreds of times before. You already know that. My gallery has been here for nine years and this development is an opportunity for the gallery to change as the tenth anniversary approaches.â€

- “We can actually get good things out of higher density. It just has to be done right,†explains Councillor Mike Layton, whose ward the contested development falls in. As he explains to me, there is a process to help make sure that new buildings aren't going to ruin the neighbourhood around it, but there's not a lot that can be done about gentrification pushing the artists out of the areas they made trendy. "Much of that is just a matter of capitalism. This is one of the big reasons that when the city owns sites, we don't want to sell them. Now the current administration, on the other hand..."

.....

 

[M II A II R II K]

Perhaps the galleries can lease out space at the bottom of these new highrise condos, and as suggested the buildings they're in now aren't all that great to begin with.

 

[calimehtar]

That cluster of galleries had a huge part in making that neighborhood interesting, I wonder where they will move. Mocca is more than a little commercial gallery, if there was any justice in the world a wealthy donor would help fund a new building exclusively for them, maybe designed by Frank Gehry.

 

[TrickyRicky]

I think it false to assert that artists create urban renewal. Rather, they should be viewed as one force at play within a cyclical process of urban regeneration and decline. There are galleries and art spaces popping up like mushrooms in other areas of the city.

 

[innsertnamehere]

yep, art spaces are always on the cutting edge of urban renewal. I would be concerned if they stayed in one spot. many people lament change, and claim that condos are killing Toronto's art scene. rather, condos are just moving it.

 

[Hipster Duck]

yep, art spaces are always on the cutting edge of urban renewal. I would be concerned if they stayed in one spot. many people lament change, and claim that condos are killing Toronto's art scene. rather, condos are just moving it.

That's a good way of putting it. My only concern - a long time ago - was that eventually all the pre-war, urban parts of the city would be gentrified and that artists would have to settle in postwar suburban areas to affordably practice their trade. I thought this would be next to impossible because bungalows don't make good studio space and the need for an automobile to do everything and go everywhere stifles the social networks and connections that artists rely on.

Then I moved to a sunbelt city that had almost zero urban fabric but a thriving arts scene. I found that bungalows and old garages/industrial parks were ideal for artists and that they could creatively repurpose these spaces in ways that were unimaginable to me. Artists are resilient. If they get pushed out to the wilds of Etobicoke or Scarborough they'll find a way to make it work.

As for the headline: "condos are destroying art galleries" is about as predictable as "earth revolves around sun".

 

[M.R.Victor]

Then I moved to a sunbelt city that had almost zero urban fabric but a thriving arts scene. I found that bungalows and old garages/industrial parks were ideal for artists and that they could creatively repurpose these spaces in ways that were unimaginable to me. Artists are resilient. If they get pushed out to the wilds of Etobicoke or Scarborough they'll find a way to make it work.

I for one would love it if the arts scene moved out to York or East York, there would be something completley exotic and yet strangely nostalgic about the whole thing. Despite being a hard-core urbanist, I've always had a soft spot for Toronto's inner suburbs and I think bungalows, garages, art galleries and hip parties would totally mix. Toronto has reasonably good transit in those areas already, and the added creative activity would perhaps act as a catalyst for further popularity and development.

Hipster Duck, if you don't mind me asking, and without the intention of derailing this thread, to what sunbelt city did you move, and how does that which you experienced there relate to the shift we're seeing here in Toronto?

 

[Hipster Duck]

I for one would love it if the arts scene moved out to York or East York, there would be something completley exotic and yet strangely nostalgic about the whole thing. Despite being a hard-core urbanist, I've always had a soft spot for Toronto's inner suburbs and I think bungalows, garages, art galleries and hip parties would totally mix. Toronto has reasonably good transit in those areas already, and the added creative activity would perhaps act as a catalyst for further popularity and development.

Hipster Duck, if you don't mind me asking, and without the intention of derailing this thread, to what sunbelt city did you move, and how does that which you experienced there relate to the shift we're seeing here in Toronto?

Hey M.R.,

About 5 years ago I moved to Phoenix (I've since moved to Vancouver). While Phoenix feels much smaller than its size in almost all respects, it has a respectable visual arts scene. I think the reason for this might be that it always was so cheap (even moreso after the financial crisis hit that area especially hard), Arizona has a terrific climate and is stunningly beautiful, property laws are very lax in terms of what you can do on land you already own, and an economy that revolves around suburban homebuilding means that you can find plenty of suppliers of materials that you can turn into visual art. The downtown was always pretty feeble and undervalued, even by US standards, and it was possible to buy property for as little as $20,000. A lot of artists became owners and, unencumbered by rents or mortgages or regulation, set about reclaiming entire neighbourhoods and holding art installations for one another. Despite being downtown neighbourhoods these are still very suburban in nature: Craftsman bungalows and one-storey strip retail. Because of the low cost and sprawling nature of the properties as well as the access to building materials, a lot of the art I saw was of a DIY large, performance art nature. It was all very cool.

Toronto and Phoenix couldn't be more different places. Actually, other than Phoenix-Vancouver, I can't think of 2 North American cities that could be more different. What's interesting is that so much of both city's economies revolve[d] around speculative real estate booms and construction, but the outcomes are so different. One is the bastion of vertical living, high prices, upper middle class liberal sophistication, global capital and immigration and the other is a bastion of horizontal living, low prices, lower middle class white conservative values, domestic capital and internal migration. One won and the other lost. You'd think that Toronto would be the better place for artists, being so much more worldly and the home of a social safety net, but artists I know of in Toronto seem to be working hard and struggling while artists in Phoenix seem to be leading lives of leisure and being in control of their own fortunes. I much prefer Toronto, but I have a soft spot for Phoenix.

 

[yin_yang]

i've known the owner of edward day gallery since the mid-1990s, really nice woman, a real shame that this is going down. i should go visit her.

 

[nrb]

If you read what Clint Roenisch said he's right.. this isn't really a big deal. Queen west as the "arts district" has been done for several years and these are a few of the handful of galleries that have hung on there. Most have already moved north to dundas and further. I don't really lament the loss of something that's already gone, and frankly the mocca building sucks anyway and I'm happy to see it go, hopefully they'll get a nice, new bigger space that is more suitable to their gallery.

What I find interesting is the tension between the new residents of these areas and the galleries that are leaving them. Lots of people wanted to move to queen west because it was seen as the cool area.. but what kind of artists want to hangout with yuppie assholes in their crappy condos, and the starbucks and crate and barrel stores they bring with them? Not many. And as the galleries go, so will the resale value of their homes and their cache, so I don't blame the residents associations getting pissed off about it.