The stretch between Bathurst and Bay Street houses twelve of the most well-known arts organisations in the city, and to classical music lovers, the street is home to many of the best year-round concert venues.
It’s funny it’s taken so long really, but it now has its own name: The Bloor Street Culture Corridor.
Over a one mile stretch, Bloor is home to the Royal Conservatory of Music, (Koerner Hall), the Royal Ontario Museum, the Gardiner and the Bata Shoe Museum, the *University of Toronto – Faculty of Music with Walter Hall (just down Philosopher’s Walk), Trinity St. Paul’s (Tafelmusik, The Toronto Consort), Alliance Francaise, Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, the Japan Foundation, Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, and the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto.
The notion of uniting them came from the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Director of Marketing, Performing Arts, Heather Kelly, who works first hand with many of the street’s arts organisations.
In an article from the Toronto Star, Kelly explains:
“We’re already working together on a one-on-one basis… I just came up with the idea that we create this multi-organization partnership to draw people to the neighbourhood and help people realize how easy it is to go from one of our organizations to the other. We’re part of an ecosystem; we’re part of a neighbourhood.”
Each of the institutions have committed to work collaboratively to help attract more visitors to the area. By formalizing the group, they can better help visitors navigate the vibrant area, and increase awareness of how accessible these arts and entertainment establishments are. The idea is to entice people to stay in the area longer, and ultimately make it a central destination point for the arts.
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The Bloor Street Culture Corridor can be found on Twitter and Facebook, and will officially launch www.bloorstculturecorridor.com in early April 2014.
*Note: Though they are an important part of the Bloor St. arts community, the University of Toronto – Faculty of Music is not an official destination partner.
Michael Vincent