SpaceFinder makes artists’ lives a bit easier
Website arrives in Toronto following complaints city was lacking a central venue database
Toronto choreographer Patricia Allison used to spend days cycling around the city, searching in vain for studios to accommodate her hectic dance schedule.
But now, Allison can sit at a computer, search, click, pay and boom: she’s done.
The streamlined process is thanks to SpaceFinder — a so-called Airbnb for artists — that launched recently in Toronto. The web service helps artists find a workspace to accommodate their budget, schedule and space requirements, and aims to maximize rental bookings for business owners.
“What people were doing before was spinning their wheels and wasting a lot of time, making a lot of phone calls and a lot of emails, just to find out a space isn’t available or that they can’t afford it,” said Lisa Niedermeyer, program director of SpaceFinder, run by Fractured Atlas, a New York organization supporting artists.
The service is already available in11locations in the United States — New York City was the first to adopt the service in 2011 — but Toronto marks SpaceFinder’s first foray into the Canadian market. A Hamilton launch is set for fall.
In Toronto, three arts-affiliated groups collaborated to bring the site to the city after hearing complaints from artists about the lack of a central venue-booking database.
“Artists (didn’t) have one go-to place for looking for spaces,” says Lindsay MacDonald with ArtsBuild Ontario. “They returned to the same spaces over and over regardless of whether they’re adequate because that’s all they know or that’s all they can afford.”
ArtsBuild Ontario, along with the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts and WorkInCuture, helped facilitate the service’s soft launch in November.
With 381 spaces now available on the Toronto site — ranging from churches to pirate ships — MacDonald said SpaceFinder is not only helping artists find the right venue, it’s maximizing bookings for owners.
“We’ve just seen an incredible increase since January,” said Kate Nankervis, artistic director for Hub14, an artist-run art and performance venue, which has seen a 35-per-cent increase in rentals since joining SpaceFinder.
Nankervis says the service helped speed up bookings for clients and eased the process on her end; she just has to approve the booking request and the site processes the payment.
The service is open to people outside the artist community — it could be used to book meetings or even weddings — and it’s also presenting artists with more creative options for performances, said Niedermeyer.
“Are you going to remember the small literary reading you saw at the bookstore in the garden or are you going to remember the one in the classroom with the overhead fluorescent lights?” Niedermeyer asked.
For vendors, it’s free to list a space on the site. For prospective renters, it’s free to search.
But there are a few glaring gaps that remain on the Toronto site: only 23 spaces use the online calendar feature, only 21 spaces use the booking-request feature and only three spaces use the online payment feature. To book other spaces, a call or an email might be required.
ArtsBuild hopes more owners adopt these features as the service grows.
As for Allison, the bike-riding, rental-searching, freelance choreographer, she thinks her work might improve, thanks to the site.
“Getting venues and figuring out schedules, that is the biggest challenge of creating independent work,” she said, recalling times when she ended up rehearsing with dancers in her living room because no studios were available. “This just helps to make that process a lot easier. And then you can focus on the art and not the logistics.”
Spaces for rent 1. You’re a high-powered Hollywood director and you need a massive space to shoot a zombie blockbuster. You have an unlimited budget, hundreds of actors to accommodate and aren’t limited by location. SpaceFinder listing: Ontario Science Centre, Procter & Gamble Great Hall, 770 Don Mills Rd., 10,000 square feet. Rates not listed 2. You’re an artist with 50 life-size sculptures of your friends that you want to unveil at a big party. You’re looking for a venue in a hip part of town and you want to serve alcohol. SpaceFinder listing: Milk Glass Co., 1247 Dundas St. W., 900 square feet, $100/hour 3. You’re a yoga teacher looking to hold your first Baby and Me class. You want a small studio with bright walls and you are on a very tight budget. SpaceFinder listing: The Blake Thorne Studio, 720 Bathurst St., 500 square feet, $9/hour 4. You’re a teenage art prodigy with wealthy parents. You want a space for your performance art piece about the emotional capacity of fish. Your venue needs to suit the subject matter. SpaceFinder listing: A Pirate’s Life, a 45-foot pirate ship moored on the Toronto Islands, 1,000 square feet, $1,000/hour