New ‘Bloor Street Culture Corridor’ features 12 main players

Heather Kelly —

Twelve Toronto arts and culture organizations have created the Bloor St. Culture Corridor, a uniquely Torontonian arts and culture destination.

Toronto’s Bloor Street is a vibrant corridor with a dozen permanent world-class arts organizations presenting professional arts and cultural events for the public year-round in destination venues – all in almost exactly one mile (1.6 kms) – between Bathurst and Bay Streets. These twelve arts and culture organizations have come together in a collaborative partnership, and created the Bloor St. Culture Corridor.

The Rival Queens with Isabel Bayrakdarian
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Chamber Choir

Arts and culture destinations on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor include the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, a historic century-old cinema and one of the world’s only documentary-focused theatres; Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir and The Toronto Consort, both located in the revitalized Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre with the newly renovated Jeanne Lamon Hall; the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre; the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto; Alliance Française de Toronto who will be launching their newly renovated building with theatre and gallery space this spring; the Istituto Italiano di Cultura; Koerner Hall, one of North America’s best concert halls, at The Royal Conservatory; three exceptional museums including the Royal Ontario Museum, the Gardiner Museum, and the Bata Shoe Museum; as well as the Japan Foundation.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor offers a wide variety of arts genres, from museum experiences to films, art exhibitions to music concerts, and it also offers opportunities to experience some of Toronto’s cultural diversity, including French, Jewish, Italian, Japanese and Aboriginal arts and culture.

Torontonians and visitors to the city can easily take public transit to get to the Bloor St. Culture Corridor (there are 5 major subway stations along the Corridor), and walk from a museum to an afternoon art talk or exhibition, shop, have lunch or dinner, and enjoy an inspiring concert or film —  all within just a few blocks.

The Lady in Number 2014′ Academy award winning documentary is currently showing at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor will help local residents and visitors to Toronto to enjoy the extraordinary wealth of cultural experiences that are so easily accessible on Bloor Street. By working collaboratively and cooperatively, the cultural organizations will increase awareness of the culture destinations and events happening on Bloor Street, as well as nearby restaurants, stores, and hotels. The Bloor St. Culture Corridor will help people to connect with what’s happening at the arts and culture destinations on Bloor Street more easily, more often, and plan to include multiple destinations in an afternoon or a day on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor is working with Tourism Toronto, the City of Toronto, the Bloor-Yorkville BIA, the Bloor Annex BIA, The Ontario Arts Council, local residents associations and others.

The Bloor St. Culture Corridor can be found online at www.bloorstculturecorridor.com, on Twitter @bloorstculture, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bloorstculturecorridor.