(Toronto, Canada)...Perhaps of any city in the world, currently there are more construction cranes in Toronto that any other—and I have recently been to China and Central America. There is a boom going on in Canada’s business city, and money—a lot of it Asian—is being invested in condos and other real estate, even in formerly run-down, ignored districts such as Ossington and West Queen West, a mile and two miles, respectively, west of Downtown. These areas also are known for being artistic hubs, too, and the question on everyone’s lips is how Art can sit pretty with Commerce.
Artists traditionally survive in gritty neighborhoods, but today, that does not mean Ossington and West Queen West are areas to be avoided. Trips to Toronto’s burgeoning arts scene will richly reward you.
Both are safe, along the lines, say, of New York City’s Alphabet City and London’s Hoxton Square and Clerkenwell. The catalyst for the areas’ development was the 2004 appearance of two hotels—The Drake and, very shortly afterwards, the Gladstone—both in West Queen West. Both have art at their core. The Gladstone (www.gladstone.com), with 37 different, artist-designed rooms, and in a building dating to 1889, has a bar with a sound stage, a room off that with weekly arts classes, changing gallery exhibitions on the 3rd floor, an events ballroom, a delightful, sunny coffee and dining room and a stand-alone gallery space on the 2nd floor. One accommodations room—by far its most popular—has neon covering its window, and an inside wall and outdoor roof are covered in living grass. Staying at this hotel makes you feel your inner artist.
The 19-room Drake (www.thedrakehotel.ca) is equally celebrated and slightly better known. It has a club called Drake Underground, which as its name suggests puts on up-and-coming acts, and the Hey Loft and Sky Yard, an exciting bar connected to an outdoor space featuring art and a movie screen. Art dots the hotel, and the owners, like those of the Gladstone, rehabilitated a Victorian building whose best days were far behind it.
To get an insider’s view of the Ossington and West Queen West areas, book an individual or small group walking tour with the wonderful, informative Betty Ann Jordan of Art Insite (www.artinsite.com). Jordan is an arts journalist and artist who knows the players and can explain the art on show—occasionally the artists on show, too—in the areas’ more than 200 galleries. My favorite stops were the art galleries of Katharine Mulherin (www.katharinemulherin.com) and the photography gallery of Stephen Bulger (www.bulgergallery.com), who represents, among others, Larry Towell, Canada’s only member of the exclusive Magnum group of photographers and some of whose images, collected in his book The World From My Front Porch, I could have stared at all afternoon.
Of course, what is on view changes all the time, which is just more of an excuse to keep returning. One gallery displayed an array of small robots that only moved into action when the sun heated their solar panels; parts of this show were sped-up film of the robots (showing when they did finally spring into action) and hefty black books containing the coding information required for it all to happen and make sense. It was art in 3D, perhaps an analysis of Plato’s notion of forms, although a philosopher—which I am not—might be better suited to comment on this.
West Queen West and Ossington also are great shopping streets—culturally so: Clothing, books, art, of course, and even a store selling only punk-rock records, that is, vinyl, not compact discs.
A grand park, Trinity Bellwoods, sort of separates the two areas and is well worth a walk. Surrounding it are Portuguese and Chinese communities, and tucked behind a park building, seemingly forgotten, is a statue commemorating Simón Bolívar, the liberator of South America. When waking through parks or shops gets too tiring, a great coffee shop to spend half an hour is El Almacen (1078 Queen St. W.), a welcoming Argentine spot that features yerba maté, a popular South American tea-like infusion.
And, if you walk all the way down Queen St. W. through West Queen West and Ossington, you will reach the more familiar Toronto of the CN Tower and the Hockey Hall of Fame; but apart from the Carousel Bakery, for peameal-bacon sand­wiches in the St. Lawrence Market, and a quick sortie around the new Santiago Calatrava-designed Allen Lambert Galleria building for its light-infused, arched spaces, I think I will stay in the grittier neighborhoods, with the proviso that I could leave again to eat at the splendid Ame restaurant (19 Mercer St.; www.ame.com), where chef Guy Rubino makes some of the best sushi on earth.
Yes, other than those reasons, I’ll stay to the west of downtown. After all, something artistic is currently going on.