Toronto Reference Library joins Bloor Street culture marketing group

Heather Kelly —

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor, Toronto’s most diverse arts and culture district, celebrates its one year anniversary in April 2015 and is pleased to announce the 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media + Education and the Toronto Reference Library as new Bloor St. Culture Corridor Associates.

The 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media + Education presents a variety of visual art exhibitions, music concerts and other performing arts programming, as well as educational programs. The Toronto Reference Library presents a wide array of literary and cultural experiences for Torontonians, including art and cultural exhibitions at its TD Gallery, showcasing the library’s vast special collections; and lectures, talks and readings from national and international authors, thinkers and newsmakers at its Appel Salon. Bloor St. Culture Corridor Associates are located slightly beyond the geography of the 1 mile / 1.5 km Bathurst to Bay range of the Corridor’s core, but are within an easily walkable few blocks and present a wonderful variety of professional arts and culture events for the public.

Uniquely Torontonian in cultural richness and diversity, the Bloor St. Culture Corridor proudly launched with 12 partnering organizations representing Bloor St. W.’s most celebrated arts and culture venues: the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, The Toronto Consort, the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, Alliance Française de Toronto, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Bata Shoe Museum , The Royal Conservatory of Music/Koerner Hall, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), the Gardiner Museum, and the Japan Foundation, Toronto. In July 2014, the University of Toronto Faculty of Music was announced as a new partner in the arts and culture district, and in November 2014, the Bloor St. Culture Corridor announced the addition of the Talisker Players as the fourteenth partner. All Bloor St. Culture Corridor partners present professional arts and culture, for the public, in a year-round destination venue that is located on or within 1 block of Bloor St W between Bathurst and Bay Streets. 

Each year, more than two million members of the public go to Bloor St. Culture Corridor arts and culture destinations, and more than 1.5 million people attend the partner destinations’ exhibitions, performances, and events. Together, the Bloor St. Culture Corridor partners generate approximately $440,000,000 in economic impact each year. (Based on the Ontario Ministry of Tourism & Culture’s TREIM model.) The Bloor St. Culture Corridor encompasses three major neighbourhoods of Toronto; the Annex, University of Toronto, and Yorkville, and includes five major Toronto Transit (TTC) subway stations. The Bloor St. Culture Corridor has, so far, been featured in more than 50 articles and media stories around the world.