One of the most disastrous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the closure of so many concert halls, bars, and other music venues for live performances across Canada. A 2023 study by the University of Toronto recognized that 13 percent of the city’s small venues closed permanently due to the crisis. While some “comeback” progress has been made, we’re still a long way from reversing the trend. Fortunately, there are still some organizations working diligently, in the face of long odds, to help rectify the situation.
Making an important first step is Toronto Ward 9’s Community and Cultural Spaces Trust (CCST). It’s a non-profit, volunteer-run organization that ensures stewardship of property for cultural purposes, by acquiring or managing it for local arts organizations. They acquire property through purchase or donation, then manage it to ensure long-term security of tenure.
CCST’s stated mandate is, “To create and facilitate sustainable processes for acquiring and maintaining real property for use by community, cultural, and arts organizations in the Bloor-Dufferin neighbourhood.” In February of 2025, CCST announced that they’d partnered with the Inspirit Foundation and the City of Toronto to secure the first community space acquisition by a cultural land trust in Canada. According to Board Chair Hannah Fleisher, there’s only one other CCST in Canada (in Vancouver), two in the U.S., and two in the U.K. Along with Fleisher and several others, the board was established in 2022, and includes longtime SOCAN member and community activist Erella Ganon.
Ganon had worked valiantly for seven years trying to save the legendary Matador Ballroom (which housed Toronto’s famous, longtime after-hours roots/country music venue, The Matador Club) from conversion to condos – to no avail. “According to a 2022 SOCAN-sponsored study, the Davenport riding’s [Ward 9], postal code had the biggest concentration of artists and musicians than any other postal code in Canada,” says Ganon. When Fleisher is asked if she was surprised that it took three years before the CCST would acquire their first properties, she replies, “I thought it would take six at least.”
Although these efforts seem to yield results at a glacial pace, they’re still eminently worthwhile and important. Those first two spaces, in a converted schoolhouse at 180 Shaw St., went to Paperhouse Studios and The Toronto Potters’ Guild, both of which had been established tenants there who were facing eviction. The address also houses Inspirit’s head office and Small World Music, whose mission is to support, “under-represented, marginalized, and newcomer professionals, onstage and behind the scenes, to encourage sustainable careers, and become a leader in the music industry.”
“The world of arts granting and patronage has to think of those little spaces where the work begins.” – Toronto Ward 9 CCST Board Chair Hannah Fleisher
CCST’s board is made up entirely of volunteers, who put in hours of personal time to find ways of increasing the non-profit’s holdings. The trust was launched with $2 million from a Section 37 settlement – which allowed the city of Toronto to negotiate contributions towards community benefits for developers that seek to increase a site’s density by 25 percent or more. Unfortunately, the current provincial government has since ended that program.
Fleisher says, “What we really want to do is make some kind of acquisition with the initial $2 million and, say, take on some debt, for example. Once we pay down some of that debt, and maybe the land appreciates a bit, we can leverage that investment and buy new property.
“The biggest challenge is the value of properties right now,” she continues. [We’re] asking ourselves what the best usage is. If we want to buy a building outright, and not take out a loan, and not take out a mortgage, then that property would have to be smaller. It might not be in amazing condition. Or we could leverage those funds towards something bigger, so that we have a budget of maybe $4 million. The question for us right now is, what’s better for the community? To have the cheapest arts and cultural space for community members to use, or to get the most property we can get our hands on, to hold in perpetuity?”
As Ganon says, the challenge becomes, “What’s the easy thing to do and what’s the right thing to do?”
“Arts and culture, for better or worse, are worlds driven by patronage, donations, philanthropy, grant writing, all that stuff,” says Fleisher. “I really hope that the philanthropy and patronage side of the arts and cultural world starts to understand the value of directing funds towards preserving space where people can actually do the work that they [aspire to].
“People who are in the universe of supporting arts and culture, shouldn’t just think about patronage being directed at the individual, or to buy work from an artist, or buy tickets for a concert, or provide a grant for a production. Those things matter, but the world of granting and patronage has to think of those little spaces where that work begins.”