Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre are building a new home and collaborative space for the performing arts at 877 Yonge Street.

Since August 2022, Tapestry Opera has been without a home office or venue, forced to rely on renting rehearsal and performance space and working remotely. Six months into our search for a new space, we discovered a City of Toronto-owned building run by St. Clare’s that had a viable space needing dramatic renovation.

In June of 2023, we shared with you that Tapestry and partner Nightwood Theatre had received special funding from the City of Toronto to develop a new facility at 877 Yonge Street.

The vision is to create a state-of-the-art venue with a 2600-square-foot performance hall and a 775-square-foot rehearsal and recording space, complemented by a green room and offices that support Tapestry Opera, Nightwood, artists and independent producers using the venues. The facility will be 6,500 square feet, over three times the space we previously ran in the Distillery Historic District Artscape spaces.

As of January 2024, the location has completed Asbestos remediation, and in early March, demolition was completed, setting up the runway for construction.

The new build and vision will encompass a performance space that features a fully equipped theatre for recitals with the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano, black box performances featuring lighting, audio and video systems, and a turn-key audio-video recording set-up. The rehearsal space will support multiple activities simultaneously and act as a dressing room during show runs.

877 YONGE STREET HISTORY

After being forced to leave a community built over 20 years from the ground up, the companies embark on the next chapter. As we did in the Distillery District, we are poised to create a new vibrant arts community and an innovative partnership with the affordable housing organization St. Clare’s. Just north of Yonge and Bloor, the new facility will be a bold step towards establishing the centre of Toronto as the next great destination for artists and audiences and as an inspired space designed by Hilditch Architects to create new, vital Canadian works.

While Toronto experiences a drought of arts venues, Tapestry and Nightwood are creating a stable and exciting new arts complex in the heart of Toronto, close to public transit access.

With the help of Councillor Dianne Saxe, the ABC Residents Association (ABCRA), and The Greater Yorkville Residents Association (GYRA), the City of Toronto has allocated $1.25 million in Section 37 funds from 1 Bloor West to build the dynamic arts facility by the 2024-2025 season. Additional funding has come from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, St. Clare’s, and our generous supporters. The ABCRA has also initiated a fundraising campaign to raise $250,000 for the project with a match of the first $25,000.

With these new investments, the vital first phase of construction at 877 Yonge Street can go ahead, and the project scope has expanded, increasing the total budget to $4 million.

As Canada’s foremost feminist theatre, Nightwood Theatre is driven by artistic excellence, advocacy, and the successful training and development of women and gender-expansive artists – this includes but is not limited to trans, cis, Two-Spirit and non-binary folks. Founded in 1979, Nightwood Theatre has created and produced award-winning plays, which have won Dora Mavor Moore, Chalmers, Trillium, and Governor General’s awards. To learn more about Nightwood Theatre, please visit nightwoodtheatre.net.

“Following years of Toronto losing vital arts spaces, we are proud to announce the creation of a new facility in the heart of Toronto that is also easily accessible by public transportation,” notes Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Tapestry Artistic and General Director. “This new space will provide affordable space not only for Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre,” says Executive Director Jaime Martino, “but, just like our Ernest Balmer Studio in the Distillery, it will create low-cost, accessible space for the greater performing arts community in Toronto.”

Nightwood’s co-executives Andrea Donaldson, Artistic Director, and Naz Afsahi, Managing Director, added: “The energy and generosity that this new venture has attracted has been astonishing. We are so grateful to St. Clare’s and to the numerous individuals and partners who are making this (necessary) dream a reality. We see great benefit in sharing resources with not only each other as arts organizations but with another non-profit as a creative and exciting way forward in addressing the social needs of our city. We are very close to our goal and welcome those who want to support growing culture in Toronto to reach out!”

BRIDGING THE GAP

We are in the closing stretch to create this beautiful, dynamic venue and help restore the sector and the city in the wake of the pandemic. Join us to raise our last $500,000!

With your support, we can bridge the gap.

To support 877 Yonge Street, visit tapestryopera.my.salesforce-sites.com.