A cultural art hub in the east-end has been a safe space for Toronto creatives for the past five years. But with closure looming, its owners are urging the community to help save it.
Riverdale-based studio ArtHouseTO has been a cozy headquarters for the hub for half a decade, offering the community all-things-art from scenic painting to making music. But due to heaping debts and delays in paying rent, the organization has been handed an eviction notice and have to leave their space by July 31, unless they can gather enough money to stay.
Business and life partners Geoff Doner and Andrea Battersby are the visionaries behind ArtHouseTO, which began through an Instagram account a mere two weeks after the world was paused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, the duo sought to connect and amplify artists throughout the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area who were faced with not only the inability to access safe spaces due to the global halt, but who were actively being displaced by demovictions and gentrification.
Opening the ArtHouseTO storefront in late 2020, the hub was referred to as “a place for the displaced,” one that urges anyone to ideate, create and manifest every kind of future in art.
“It’s just such an important space,” Battersby told Now Toronto on Tuesday.
“We get requests daily from people who just need a place to go. They want opportunities to be creative. Even people that are not career artists, they just want a place to have the opportunity for expression, for fellowship, to feel welcome.”
The studio has become a place for all mediums and for all ages, offering animating, song composing, live performances, podcasting, sewing, and many more community-centred workshops. Doner recalls producing an album with a child as young as six years old, and recently, two songs for an older resident named Gail Steckler, who had dreams of creating music but never had the resources to.
“We just released our second single just a few weeks back, and she left here in tears. And it’s because of the joy that it brings her, and of course, we are moved to tears as well that we’ve been able to offer this opportunity for her, and that’s just one of the many things that we do here,” he explained.
Steckler, 72, who became acquainted with ArtHouseTO in 2023, describes the potential closure as “heartbreaking.”
“It’s a place of warmth and a safe place,” Steckler said to Now Toronto, adding that working with the hub gave her validation. “It really is important, because especially in the world that we live in now, everybody seems slightly isolated and this is something that brings people together.”
ArtHouseTO Marketing and Communications Director Shon Williams echoed Steckler’s sentiment, sharing a similar grief as a creative within the hub. Williams is the co-founder of The Safe Room, a podcast born directly out of the space.
“There’s something to be said about ArtHouseTO… It’s about giving an inclusive space for people to share their voice, to find their stories, to create something special,” he shared.
“When it comes to a lot of pop-up studios, sometimes there is a barrier in terms of what artists, creators, and business owners, could even get access to. So being able to have something like our house to right at our disposal is absolutely perfect.”
But beyond the storefront itself, the organization is rooted in the community, offering mutual aid resources across the city, advocating for social justice in their backyards, and sometimes even hosting projects on a pay-what-you-can basis. For co-founders Doner and Battersby, being active members of the Riverdale community makes the threat of closure especially painful. They’re now calling on that same community for support.
The financial strain on ArtHouseTO has been building for months, with one hardship after the other. For instance, Battersby’s mother’s health took a turn for the worse, requiring intense care until her passing, which ultimately took a toll on both Battersby’s responsibilities and her wallet. Not long after, Doner’s elderly father suffered two serious falls, which only exacerbated his pre-existing health complications. Both situations only worsened when Doner was also let go from another job, yet another blow to finding stability and sustainability in the business.
Despite their adversity, the duo remains optimistic, and hopeful that things will turn around for ArtHouseTO in the days ahead. Launching a GoFundMe with a goal of $25,000, they’ve managed to raise more than $6,000 at time of publication.
“We’re so grateful and so thankful,” Doner said, in awe of the donations steadily rolling in. “We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for community support.”
“The messages of support and the testimonials that come in on the daily are just what we need. It really keeps us going,” Battersby added.
Doner also says if they were to secure funding it would not only keep ArtHouseTO’s doors open, it would allow them to continue offering vital space, support, and programming for Toronto’s creative community without interruption. With plans already underway, the duo hopes to upgrade studio equipment, develop an app for their platform, and expand into live performance video production.
“The thing about the cultural hub is that it is one of the last legitimate live work spaces in the city,” Battersby said. “We have been moved around and displaced multiple times.”
Despite the uncertainty, they remain committed to pushing forward.
“We have to put so much faith and dedication into prevailing over this situation,” she added.
