TORONTO can take great pride in Artscape YoungPlace, 180 Shaw Street – a massive school building converted into a 3-storey arts complex.

       Home to the Koffler Gallery, artists’ workplaces, a happening cafe, a dance company, yoga, piano and paper-making studios, and offices for the Luminato Festival, the structure contains 75,000 square feet entirely devoted to artistic expression.  <PHOTO ABOVE – Andrew Williamson>

The building was purchased in 2010 from the Toronto District School Board after it had been vacant for over a decade. Artscape’s continuing goal is to find studio space in the city centre for thousands of artists displaced by rampant development. 180 Shaw Street fit perfectly into that plan.  Following a $17-million rebuild, the century-old former Shaw Street School re-emerged as a vibrant hub for the arts and a proud member of the community.

Artspace Youngplace takes its name from the Michael Young Family Foundation, and joins other artist-friendly centres across TORONTO – the Distillery District, Regent Park, 401 Richmond, the Gladstone and Drake hotels, and the Wychwood Barns.

The building at 180 Shaw Street, between Queen and Dundas, is open to the public daily from 8am to 5pm. Website: http://www.artscapeyoungplace.ca

<PHOTO ABOVE – ‘No Walls Between Us’ by Pablo Munoz, digital artwork on the theme ‘Solidarity in Canada’, erected outside Artscape Youngplace for World Pride/2014.  It remains in place.>