Arts group, city put feud on hold
TMAC’s in- limbo space gets deadline extension to find positive solution
In the deep tunnel of the city’s intractable- seeming dispute with the Toronto Media Arts Centre over the group’s in- limbo space on Lisgar Street, there appeared on Wednesday an improbable glimmer of light: For those keeping score, Tuesday, June 5, was the make- orbreak deadline for the city to either finally approve TMAC’s agreement of purchase and sale on the space — locked in a legal dispute since 2015 — or send them packing ( in February, when the city agreed to allow TMAC interim occupancy, it specified in its terms that the sheriff would be dispatched, if necessary).
Instead, something remarkable happened: In a joint statement, both the city and TMAC announced that they had extended the hard deadline with a mind, in the words of TMAC board chair Henry Faber, “to work together to ensure things will move forward as positively as possible.”
Positive, of course, has until now been largely dependent on which side of the divide you sit. In the long haul of the space’s checkered history — it was first negotiated for in 2011 — TMAC’s goal has always been clear: to finally take legal possession of the 38,000- sq.- ft. space, which was purpose- built for it as a novel Section 37 development charge initiative by Urbancorp, a condominium developer ( Section 37 trades additional density for a “community benefit,” typically public art or a park).
For the city, the end goal has never been quite so clear: When Urbancorp declared bankruptcy in 2015 within days of TMAC’s take- possession date, the city invoked a clause in the agreement to bar TMAC’s occupancy. TMAC took the city to court, and the pair have been deliberating ever since.
In February, TMAC was allowed to move in while negotiations continued, but under an onerous set of conditions — which, to be fair to the city, is exactly as it should be. The space was negotiated as a community benefit by the city, and its duty to the community is to ensure that it becomes exactly that.
To this point, the city’s stance toward TMAC has been dubious, to put it kindly: In an affidavit filed in February in response to TMAC’s motion for occupancy, Sally Han, the city’s manager of cultural partnerships was quite clear: “My colleagues and I were, and still are, of the view that TMAC is still not a viable group to operate the Combined Arts and Culture Space successfully.”
Based on its history, the concerns were valid. Over the protracted history of the project, six of the original eight nonprofit arts groups had withdrawn, and only two new ones, including Faber’s Gamma Space, a new media and gaming incubator, had been added ( among many other concerns, Han said in the affidavit that the “financial, resources and staff of the two new members were substantially smaller than that of the six TMAC members who abandoned the project.”)
Still, after a judge ruled in its favour, TMAC took occupancy in February, with a number of high bars to meet by June 5 to make it permanent. Between then and now, TMAC started hosting arts events, such as the Images Festival and the Regent Park Festival. The long- fallow space at 36 Lisgar had people in it, making things, day in, day out. A dead space, on however thin ice, came alive. A community, tentatively, began to make ahome of it.
In late May, the city shifted. “We had the most positive interactions with them that we’ve ever had,” Faber confirmed. “I think they started to see the reaction and engagement from the community, and that really changed the tone of our conversations.”
Not to get too far ahead of things — several concerns remain, and all reasonable due diligence on the city’s part is valid — but for the first time you can be optimistic that both parties are pulling in the same direction to steer this thing home.
“This is a very complex project and it’s going to require the city and TMAC working closely together to see it through,” Faber said. Working closely together, just a few months ago, seemed a monumental impossibility. That it’s on the table at all is reason to hope on its own.