Culture in Toronto

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Toronto, Canada, is a city of many museums, theatres, events and sports. It is also one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Canada and the world. This means that there are many cultures which bring along their traditions and music. It is also home to the Canadian National Exhibition, one of Canada's largest outdoor fairs.

Contents

[edit] Exhibits

Toronto has a world-renowned museum, the Royal Ontario Museum (frequently referred to as "the ROM"), and one of North America's largest art galleries, the Art Gallery of Ontario (also known as the "AGO"). Exhibition Place is the home of the Canadian National Exhibition (the CNE or "the Ex"), an annual event that takes place in August which also hosts the Canadian International Air Show. Nearby Ontario Place is a popular amusement park on the waterfront.

It has a vibrant visual arts scene, with artist-run venues such as Mercer Union and YYZ Artists' Outlet presenting important exhibitions of contemporary art from both the local area and abroad.

There is a group called artsScene in Toronto that holds monthly events behind the scenes at different arts organizations in Toronto. The group is hosted by Business for the Arts to encourage more young business professionals to engage with the Arts. They also throw BoardLink events to connect professionals looking for Board or Committee volunteer roles on Arts & Heritage organizations in Canada. There is an on-line version of BoardLink on their website, which connects potential volunteers on-line with arts organizations. [1]

[edit] Performing arts

Toronto is home to Canada's most active English language theatre scene, and is considered to be the third largest centre for English language theatre in the world, behind New York City and London, England. It is home to both acclaimed works by companies as the Soulpepper Theatre Company, the Canadian Stage, the Harold Green Jewish Theatre and Tarragon Theatre and large Broadway style musicals. Several Broadway theatrical hits originated in Toronto, such as the 1993 revival of Show Boat and Ragtime. Venues for theatre include the Canon Theatre (formerly Pantages Theatre and Pantages Cinema), the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, the Princess of Wales Theatre, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the Poor Alex Theatre, and the Harbourfront Centre. It is the mandate of Theatres such as The Factory Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille to produce distinctly Canadian Theatre and support local artists. Canadian artists that have started in these theatres include George F. Walker, Michael Healey and Ann-Marie MacDonald.

Musical venues in Toronto include Roy Thomson Hall, home to Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO); the Toronto Centre for the Arts in North York; the Hummingbird Centre and Massey Hall. The National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company are based in Toronto; they both moved into the purpose-built Four Seasons Centre in 2006. The city is also home to the renowned Toronto Children's Chorus.

As Canada's largest city and the main centre of its recording industry, Toronto is also home to many Canadian pop, rock, and hip hop artists. This includes both musicians native to Toronto and those who have moved to Toronto from other towns and cities. The live music scene in Toronto is centred primarily in the Queen Street West area, part of what is known as the Entertainment District, although not all of Toronto's music venues are in this neighbourhood. More established acts play at venues such as Lee's Palace, The Opera House, The Horseshoe Tavern, The Mod Club, The Phoenix Concert Theatre, The Guvernment, and Kool Haus (formerly known as the Warehouse). Major concert tours by stars are usually booked into larger venues such as Air Canada Centre, Sony Centre for the Arts, the Rogers Centre and the Molson Amphitheatre at Ontario Place.

[edit] Literature

The Greater Toronto Area is the centre of English Canadian literature and many of Canada's best known writers, such as Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, write and set their books in Toronto. Other prominent Toronto-based writers include Rohinton Mistry, Morley Callaghan, Michael Ignatieff, George Elliott Clarke and the late George Faludy and Jane Jacobs. Canada's English language publishing industry is mostly based in Toronto. It is home to major companies, such as McClelland and Stewart and smaller firms like House of Anansi Press, Key Porter Books and Coach House Books. The Toronto Book Awards honor authors of books of literary or artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto. Pen Canada, based in Toronto, was formed in 1926 to defend freedom of expression and is one of 141 centres of International PEN. North America's largest literary festival, the annual International Festival of Authors takes place each fall in Toronto. See a partial list of books set in Toronto.

Both of Canada's English language national newspapers (the National Post and the Globe and Mail) are based in Toronto, as is Canada's largest-circulating daily newspaper (The Toronto Star) and many other major magazines and periodicals. The city is thus home to a large number of Canada's journalists. As a nexus of multilingual activity, Toronto has 79 ethnic periodicals.

[edit] Events

See also: Annual events in Toronto

Toronto plays host to a variety of different events year-round. In September, Hollywood celebrities, actors, writers, directors, and producers from around the world descend on the city for the Toronto International Film Festival, which, according to a variety of sources, has surpassed Cannes as the number one film festival in the world. The Molson Indy is held in Toronto every year in July. The last week of June is Pride Week, where LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer) community members gather from national and international backgrounds to celebrate sexual diversity. The week is celebrated with both a Pride Parade and Dyke March along with various other pro-LGBTQ events. It is one of the largest Gay Pride celebrations in the world, together with Montreal, San Francisco, California, Sydney and Parada do Orgulho GLBT de São Paulo. Gay Pride Week is organized by Pride Toronto, a non-profit volunteer organization. In July, Caribana, the largest Caribbean festival in North America, attracts more than one million celebrants for the concerts, the food, the King and Queen of the Bands competition, and the very popular Caribana parade. The Ontario civic holiday which is called Colonel By Day in Ottawa, Peter Robinson Day in Peterborough and Simcoe Day in Toronto and in most of Ontario, named after the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe.

[edit] Tourism

Toronto has a thriving tourism industry as it has many landmarks and attractions, the most popular of which is the CN Tower. The city has largely recovered from the 2003 SARS outbreak; however, the tourism industry had to make certain cuts, with some elements not having yet returned to the status quo. The strong Canadian dollar and tighter border security have both resulted in a drop of US visitors, while tourists from overseas continue to increase.

One of Toronto's major annual attractions is the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), attendance to which is a family tradition for some. Regular sporting events, such as home games of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Blue Jays, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC, Toronto Marlies, Toronto Rock, and the Argonauts, also bring many tourists to the city every year.

[edit] Music

Perhaps the most notable band to emerge from Toronto is three-piece rock band Rush, which has been active since 1968. The band's bassist, keyboardist, and vocalist, Geddy Lee, was born in Toronto; bandmate Alex Lifeson grew up in the city. An instrumental named "YYZ" after the Toronto Pearson International Airport's IATA airport code was featured on the band's 1981 album Moving Pictures, and has been a fan favorite and mainstay of live shows ever since. Dance-Punk duo Death from Above 1979 originated from Toronto in 2002 and recorded 1 studio album; You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, until the band split in 2006.

[edit] Goth-Industrial

Main article: Toronto goth scene
  • Fans and devotees of Goth music and Industrial music in Toronto. Toronto's goth scene emerged from the punk and new romantic alternative music scene in the early 1980s. Originally called the "freaks", this subculture grew to become a major part of Toronto's fashion culture and night club culture in the late 1990s. After the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, the goth scene experienced a decline. The goth-industrial scene is largely situated in and around the neighborhood of West Queen West. A number of signed and independent goth and industrial bands are based in Toronto.

[edit] Indie

  • The legendary Horseshoe Tavern has been a live music venue for 52 years. Although its stage plays host to big name acts, the venue strives to be an artist- and industry-friendly venue, booking emerging Canadian and international artists.
  • Sneaky Dee's is another staple rock venue in the city. It boasts punk karaoke and is occasionally known as Sneaky Disease. The stage plays host to shows for Canadian Music Week and the Wavelength (Toronto Music Series), a weekly live music series started by independent musicians to foster the indie scene. Wavelength also creates a monthly online magazine called *Wavelength.
  • The Queen West Art and Design District offers the hip Gladstone Hotel with venues for a cross pollination of scenes. These stages are perfect for indie acts about to emerge from under the radar.
  • Torontomusicscene.ca Stillepost.ca Zoilus list indie bands, shows, reviews and events in the Toronto area.

Source: "Indie nation," Canadian Geographic Online

[edit] Sports

Further information: List of sports teams in Toronto

[edit] Current professional franchises

Club League Venue Established Championships
Toronto Argonauts Canadian Football League Rogers Centre 1873 15
Toronto Maple Leafs National Hockey League Air Canada Centre 1917 13
Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball Rogers Centre 1977 2
Toronto Raptors National Basketball Association Air Canada Centre 1995 0
Toronto Lynx USL First Division Centennial Park Stadium 1997 0
Toronto Rock National Lacrosse League Air Canada Centre 1999 5
Toronto Marlies American Hockey League Ricoh Coliseum 2005 0
Toronto FC Major League Soccer BMO Field 2006 0

[edit] Current semi-professional franchises

Club League 'Venue Established Championships
Toronto Maple Leafs (baseball) Intercounty Baseball League Christie Pits 1969 7
Toronto St. Michael's Majors Ontario Hockey League St. Michael's College School Arena 1996 4
Toronto Eagles Ontario Australian Football League Humber College Park 1989 9
Toronto Downtown Dingos Ontario Australian Football League Humber College Park 1996 3

[edit] Major sporting venues

[edit] Food

As a multicultural city, Toronto offers a variety of food options. The city celebrates this diversity via numerous food festivals:

See also:

[edit] Neighbourhoods

Toronto is a city of vibrant neighbourhoods. See also: List of neighbourhoods in Toronto.

[edit] Art

Toronto is home to the renowned Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Gardiner Museum, Bata Shoe Museum, Harbourfront Centre, Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, the Design Exchange, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the University of Toronto Art Centre, the Ontario College of Art & Design, the Art Gallery of York University, and many private galleries in Yorkville, the Distillery District, Queen Street West as well as other areas in the downtown core. Nuit Blanche Toronto is an all-night free celebration of contemporary art which features public art commissions, all-night exhibitions, live performances and programs throughout the city. During Doors Open Toronto, which takes place annually in May, over 140 buildings of architectural, historic or cultural significance open their doors to the public for a city-wide celebration. The annual Toronto International Art Fair showcases modern, multi-disciplined art with a focus on the latest developments in the international art scene. The Queen West Art Crawl, produced by Artscape is an annual weekend-long festival celebrating the arts on Queen Street West. The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition is another annual weekend event at nathan Phillips Square, gathering more than 500 visual artists and craftspeople mainly from Ontario and Quebec.

[edit] Art in Toronto's subway system

For art in Toronto's subway system, see:

[edit] Parks and gardens

One of the greatest strengths of the city is its beautiful parks and gardens.[2]

[edit] Nightlife

The city's art community attracts and has top theatre groups, galleries, and other high culture attractions.

The bar scene is housed in many different sections of the city, each with its own flavour and type of patrons. The "Entertainment District," however, has the highest concentration of nightclubs, bars, and restaurants in the city. There are approximately 90 nightclubs located in this one square kilometre area. The venues in this neighbourhood are collectively licensed for 56,000 nightclub patrons and 38,000 restaurant and bar goers. Interestingly in comparison, New York city's densest entertainment district, West Chelsea, allows for 10,000 patrons (TorontoLife, 46-7).

Toronto's entertainment district is roughly located south of Queen Street West, north of King Street West (Toronto's Theatre District), west of University Avenue, and east of Spadina Avenue. The main "entertainment" streets in this neighbourhood are Richmond Street, Adelaide Street, Peter Street, John Street, Duncan Street, Mercer Street, and Soho Street.

There have been recent condominium developments in the Entertainment District, and many condo tenants have made noise complaints coming from the nightclubs and its rowdy patrons. Even though the area is notorious for its nightlife, many nightclubs have been pressured to minimize the clamour. Although, it is difficult (and probably impossible) to stop the noise in this bustling area. The tension created between the condo tenants and nighclub owners may instigate the development of another Entertainment District, one that is away from residential areas. The (derelict) eastern portion of Toronto's downtown core, near the lakeshore, may be conducive to this type of development; or there may be smaller nightclub districts created throughout the city instead. Nevertheless, this neighbourhood is still vibrant and "loud," particularly on Fridays and Saturdays (and even Thursdays when the universities and colleges are in session); it is likely that this district will always be one of the city's main nightspot destinations. Torontonians who frequent the district usually nickname it "The Clubbing District."

There are other notable neighbourhoods that come alive at night: "The Annex" (serving the university student population), "Little Italy" on College Street, "Yonge and Eglinton" (aka Young and Eligible), "Church and Wellesley" (Gaybourhood), "Queen West" (between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street), "Greektown," and "The St. Lawrence Market" (the numerous bars and restaurants on Front Street East and The Esplanade).

The city's many dance and live music venues host a plethora of international and Canadian performers.

Toronto's comedy clubs are legendary. They have served as training grounds for stars such as Jim Carrey, The Kids in the Hall and SCTV.

[edit] External links

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