Toronto: Kensington Market, Spadina Avenue, 401 Richmond St.
Kensington Market, Spadina Avenue, and 401 Richmond Street are historic, culturally rich, lively areas of Toronto. The area is home to numerous artist-run centres and contemporary art galleries. This is a 2-day self-guided tour depending on your pace. Be sure to check venue hours and programming in advance — venues are sometimes closed to install exhibitions or may have screening times for media-based exhibitions. Use the toggle in the upper right-hand corner of the map for a ‘fullscreen view’, or tap here to open the map in a new window: Kensington Market, Spadina Avenue, and 401 Richmond Street.
1. The Architecture and Design Gallery, is a unique space dedicated to showcasing the important ways that design shapes our cities, landscapes and daily lives. The exhibitions and installations explore and promote experimental and prescient forms of contemporary architecture and urbanism in all their artistic, scientific and cultural dimensions.
2. Whippersnapper Gallery is an artist-run centre committed to the cultivation of inclusive spaces for emerging visual and media arts, community arts, and experimental forms of exhibition making.
3. YYZ Artists’ Outlet nurtures and supports contemporary art practices in Toronto and makes a recognized contribution to the Canadian cultural scene. YYZ supports three areas of programming: visual art, artists’ film and video and writing and publishing on Canadian art and culture. YYZ Books was founded in 1988; it is the only publishing house dedicated to Canadian artists and writers.
4. Abbozzo Gallery was established in 1993 to represent regional, Canadian and International artists. The gallery exhibits Modern and Contemporary paintings, prints, works on paper, and sculptures in a warm and inviting setting in the heart of Toronto.
5. A Space Gallery is one of the oldest artist-run centres in Canada, and has played a significant role in the evolution of contemporary art in Canada. A Space Gallery is committed to critical engagement through the presentation of interdisciplinary programs including exhibitions, performances, screenings, collaborations, and discussions.
6. Vtape engages audiences through a diverse array of video-art-related exhibitions and events featuring challenging works by both emerging and senior artists, in solo exhibitions and curated group screenings. Exhibitions and events take place on-site in the Bachir/Yerex Presentation Space, shared with our partners in The Commons @ 401, as well as off-site.
7. Open Studio, Canada’s leading printmaking centre, is a charitable, non-profit, artist-run centre dedicated to the production, preservation and promotion of contemporary original fine art prints. Through our public programming, we aim to encourage audience connection to the evolving medium of print as it relates to contemporary culture and to foster a diverse and expansive view of what printmaking can be.
8. Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art is a public art gallery and arts publishing house based in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 1999 by Scott McLeod in consultation with a national advisory council, the institution fosters the appreciation and understanding of contemporary photographic, media and digital arts through exhibitions, publications, public programmes, and related activities.
9. Images Festival is a leading presenter of independent film and media culture in dialogue with contemporary art. The festival aspires to elevate conversations between artists, scholars, and the public about the politics of the moving image. Images Festival takes place at venues around the city of Toronto and online. Visit our Venues page to find out more.
10. FADO Performance Inc. (Performance Art Centre) is a non-profit artist-run centre for performance art based in Toronto, Canada. FADO was established in 1993 to provide a stable, ongoing, supportive forum for creating and presenting performance art. Currently, we are the only artist-run centre in English Canada devoted specifically to this form. We recognize that performance art as a practice has multiple histories and encompasses various regional, cultural, political, and aesthetic differences.
11. The Red Head Gallery is a professional artists’ collective committed to exhibiting the work of established and emerging artists and to encourage work that is critically engaged within a wide range of contemporary discourse. Red Head artists create images and objects, manipulate spaces both theoretical and physical, participate in and organize events, and seek out opportunities to interact with other arts organizations locally, nationally, and internationally.
12. ImagineNATIVE is the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content. The organization is recognized locally, nationally, and internationally for excellence and innovation in programming and as the global centre for Indigenous media arts. imagineNATIVE (legal entity: The Centre for Aboriginal Media) is a registered charity committed to creating a greater understanding of Indigenous peoples and cultures through the presentation of contemporary Indigenous-made media art including film, video, audio and digital media.
13. Le Labo, is a center for francophone media arts that supports and disseminates the work of artists in Toronto. As a member of the artistic community and the French-speaking community, the objectives of Le Labo are to support incubation, innovation, creation, and production in media arts, and to promote collaboration and dissemination. Le Labo is an incorporated, non-profit organization.
14. SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) is a non-profit, artist-run centre dedicated to increasing the visibility of culturally diverse artists by curating and exhibiting their work, providing mentorship, facilitating professional development and creating a community for our artists. SAVAC was founded to be an organization staffed by people of colour, committed to support the work of artists of colour. We promote self-representation by developing artistic practice that is often informed by cultural identity through a range of mediums, aesthetics, forms, and techniques.
15. Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography is an artist-run centre committed to supporting diverse approaches to photographic and image-based practices through exhibitions, education programs and facilitating artistic production. Gallery 44 provides space and context for meaningful dialogue between artists and publics. Together, we offer an entry point to explore the artistic, cultural, historic, social and political implications of the image in our ever-expanding visual world.
16. Trinity Square Video is one of Canada’s first artist-run centres and its oldest media arts centre. We are a not-for-profit, charitable organization. For 50 years, Trinity Square has been a champion of media arts practices. Trinity Square strives to create supportive environments, encouraging artistic and curatorial experimentation that challenge medium specificity through education, production and presentation supports.
17. Tangled Art + Disability is dedicated to connecting professional and emerging artists, the arts community, and a diverse public through creative passion and artistic excellence. Our mission is to support Disabled, d/Deaf, chronically ill, neurodiverse, k/crip, Mad, sick & spoonie artists; to cultivate Disability Arts in Canada; and to increase opportunities for everyone to participate in the arts. We do this by: developing, showcasing, promoting, and employing Disabled artists; creating partnerships and collaborations that increase opportunities for Disabled artists; empowering Deaf, Mad, and Disability-identified people to embrace and explore their own creativity; publicly showcasing the rich diversity of talent from the Disability Arts community.
18. Simon Bentley Fine Art is devoted to seeking out artworks of quality and aesthetic interest, with a primary focus on Post-Modern Canadian Abstraction. The gallery is committed to the promotion of Canadian Art both in Canada and abroad, as well as protecting and nurturing Canadian Heritage and Cultural Sovereignty.
19. CONTACT is a not-for-profit organization celebrating the art and profession of photography. CONTACT builds community by providing a platform for dynamic collaborations and productive engagement between Canadian and international photographers, curators, partner organizations, and audiences, locally and globally. In both its annual Festival and in its year-round programming, CONTACT recognizes the significance of photography within all aspects of contemporary life, and the creative possibilities it envisions.
Use the toggle in the upper right-hand corner of the map for a ‘fullscreen view’, or tap here to open the map in a new window: Kensington Market, Spadina Avenue, and 401 Richmond Street.