Hugh’s Room finally gets its revival
Music venue reopens with some behind-the-scenes tweaks
Lately, a number of Toronto venues have turned off the music, but in April, to buck the sad trend, one reopened. Hugh’s Room Live on Dundas St. W., just south of Bloor St. W., looks just like its predecessor Hugh’s Room, but with some important behind-thescenes tweaks.
Along with a new paint job inside, this 225-seat folk music venue is now a nonprofit run by a board of directors, with any profits going back into the venture. Efficiency, new income streams and community engagement are on the agenda with an eye to long-term viability.
Helping to direct things is the board’s spokesperson William Laskin, better known as Grit, a musician, folk record label founder, guitar maker and author. (He was named to the Order of the Canada in 2012 for his contributions to the Canadian music scene.)
Laskin’s wife, Judith, and a team that now stands at six in total are running the business interests of the new venture.
On Jan. 6, previous owner Richard Carson suddenly closed Hugh’s Room. “When Richard shut the doors it took us all by surprise,” Laskin says. He’d played in the space before and had gotten to know Carson and the staff over the years. He’d heard that things were tight, but had no idea it was bad enough for closure.
But the previous November, Brian Iler, a lawyer with nonprofit experience and a fan of the club, suggested a meeting to talk about forming a nonprofit structure to ensure its longevity.
That meeting never happened, but when the club closed, Iler’s idea was back on the table and a group of about 15 people with ties to Hugh’s Room met in January.
Carson supported the idea, and shared the financial struggles he’d been coping with on his own.
Launched in 2001in the name of Carson’s brother, a folk musician who died young of cancer, the venue had financial woes that led to it abruptly closing earlier this year.
But an assessment by an accountant revealed the club could be viable if it was mostly booked. “Once we saw that, we said, ‘OK, let’s do it,’ ” Laskin says.
So he, Iler and the rest of the team set up a nonprofit, started negotiating with the landlord and set plans in motion to reopen as soon as possible. The setbacks were myriad. The landlord sold the building amid rent negotiations (dashing hopes that the lease would include an option to buy). The IT person who controlled the passwords to the mailing lists and social media refused to hand them over. Inspections revealed a number of code violations that had to be resolved.
But a GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign yielded more than $125,000 (the final goal is $250,000).
In what Laskin calls a “bit of a miracle,” the board was able to pull it all together for a reopening date of April 22. Ninety per cent of the previous staff returned, including former general manager Anthony Ferrando.
Over time, the new business entity has plans to bring in more revenue. That will include booking not just folks acts, but small classical ensembles and other groups. The possibility of doing brunch events and opening the space to community and other groups during the day will expand the space’s revenue-generating hours.
Meanwhile, board members are talking to the city about ways it can support unique venues like Hugh’s Room Live, which is not quite a club and not quite a restaurant.
While the venue’s distinctive qualities has some downsides, it supports the live arts in a way that has no competition. “There’s no place like it in the city,” Laskin says.