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Arts in the Parks Report

Since the first year, the Foundation’s Research and Impact team has put together an evaluation report that examines the experience of Arts in the Parks’ four key groups: attendees, artists, volunteers and community organizers. Click the following link to read our most recent report: Arts in Parks 2018 Evaluation Report.

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Supporting Arts

Concern about the scarcity and lack of affordability of arts space is almost universal across cities, towns, and rural communities across Canada. For many people, arts and culture venues are too far away from where they live or too expensive. Others haven’t felt welcome or represented. These dynamics create barriers to arts access. But equally universal is the abundance of artists and arts audiences in each and every community! By investing in arts programming in public spaces across the city, we can make more synergistic use of our public assets. Opening parks to arts programming allows municipalities to leverage new investment and increase arts access, and means every neighbourhood can experience the arts.

While the Arts in the Parks program invests funding and resources directly into artists and arts organizations all across the city of Toronto, we intentionally invest in those artists, organizations and communities who, despite a prolonged lack of resources due to historical and geographical barriers, have been developing cultural and social infrastructure in the inner suburbs. We recognize the value of Toronto’s inner suburbs (Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough) as centres of arts and cultural activity.

Arts access is at the core of Toronto Arts Council and Toronto Arts Foundation’s shared vision: Creative City Block-by-Block. TAC and TAF are redefining what creative cities can be by putting equitable access to the arts at the forefront of our mission, through programs that encourage local residents and artists to see their parks in new ways – as spaces of social and cultural interaction.

All AITP artists and organizations, funded by TAC, receive support to develop and plan arts programming and navigate permitting and partnerships. Through our new Animating Toronto Parks, both emerging and established artists develop their artistic practice and build valuable producing skills that serve to build sectoral capacity in public arts presentation. Through TAC and TAF’s partnership with the City of Toronto, we advocate for the benefits of local arts presentation in parks and public spaces, which helps the city to create more efficient and welcoming processes for park booking and permitting, removing barriers to access for artists and communities.

Increasing access to the arts at the neighbourhood level improves livability, health, wellness, safety and civic engagement. Created with the intention of increasing public use of Toronto parks, Arts in the Parks adds value to the social development of neighbourhoods. It creates opportunities to experience high quality arts programming in every city ward, not just downtown.