Innovative collaboration model to serve as catalyst for East Bayfront revitalization
Toronto, October 14, 2015— Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts today took another significant step forward as a hub for creative innovation, collaboration and artistic expression in Toronto.
Tom Dutton,Senior Vice-President of The Daniels Corporation, announced an ambitious $3 million public art contribution to Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts, the city’s newest live-work-play-learn-create neighbourhood. He was joined by Artscape CEO Tim Jones, who unveiled plans for Artscape Launchpad, a dynamic creative incubator space within the community.
OCAD University President Dr. Sara Diamond announced plans for the school to occupy academic space also within the community.
As Dutton said, “Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts is a neighbourhood in which the arts play a central role as a social, cultural and economic driver. It has been proven that art has a positive effect on our lives, well-being and even economic development, which is why we include arts components in every single community we build,” he said.
Two-thirds of that $3 million will be put into public art within Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts, with one-third contributed to help fund the broader East Bayfront Public Art Master Plan managed by Waterfront Toronto as part of the City of Toronto’s Public Art Program. The City of Toronto’s Public Art Committee approved the public art plan, and subject to City Council’s final approval, Daniels will move forward with an invitational competition. Internationally acclaimed artists invited to compete will include Ned Kahn who is based in California, and Public Studio – a Canadian team led by Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky. Two additional artists will be invited to compete and they will be announced at a later date. The winning submission will be selected with the help of an esteemed panel of judges from the arts and design community.
Rebecca Carbin, Public Art Program Manager for Waterfront Toronto, explained why art is so critical to the successful revitalization of the East Bayfront. “Public art plays an essential role in defining our waterfront neighbourhoods’ character,” says Carbin. “This is an exciting step in bringing to life a bold shared vision for art in the East Bayfront.”
As a dynamic new space for the community, Artscape Launchpad is poised to drive the ongoing evolution of art, culture and innovation on the waterfront.
As Jones said, Artscape Launchpad is a new model of creative space: part incubator, part co-working facility and part entrepreneurship centre. It has been designed to provide art and design professionals with the tools, resources, training and mentorship to build successful careers rooted in sustainable businesses. Launchpad members will gain access to a 30,000 square-foot, multi-disciplinary co-working environment full of equipment and technology as well as a suite of programs and services to help them grow their incomes and launch new businesses.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering again with The Daniels Corporation on this project – our third together,” said Artscape CEO Tim Jones. “Launchpad has grown out of nearly a decade of collaboration and research with colleges, universities and trade organizations focusing on how we can help individuals and small businesses in the art and design communities to thrive. The combination of programs, services and facilities Launchpad will bring together is unprecedented. It will be a game changer for artists and designers, a major boost for Ontario’s $23 billion creative economy and a jolt of urban acupuncture that will help bring Toronto’s waterfront to life.”
The future presence of two of Canada’s most dynamic post-secondary institutions will help fuel a continual pipeline of new creative talent that can leverage Launchpad’s services.
By establishing a satellite campus presence at Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts, OCAD University will help foster the next generation of artists and creative professionals, all while benefiting from creative synergies with Artscape, along with youth-focused arts organizations such as The Remix Project and Manifesto. The latter two organizations will also be taking up residence in the community.
“OCAD University brings our history of leadership in the fields of digital media, electronic visual art and industrial design,” Dr. Sara Diamond said. “Our collaboration with Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts advances that legacy, provides tremendous synergies for our students, faculty, industry and not-for-profit collaborators through learning, creation and research, and provides an injection of youthful energy and imagination to the project.”
The Waterfront is fast becoming a hub for creative digital industries and for design innovation for the connected world of global culture. OCAD University will contribute its decades of experimentation and leadership in electronic, visual and digital arts, maker culture, design incubation and vivid imagination to this energetic collaboration. In time, OCAD University will also open a Campus for the Connected World as a home for learning and research in the digital present and future at Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts.
In addition to the OCAD University announcement, Dutton revealed that officials are currently discussing a potential home for a state-of-the-art School of Design for George Brown College at Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts.
“George Brown College is excited to be well down the road with plans to join the Daniels Waterfront – City of the Arts community,” said Anne Sado, President of George Brown College. “This expansion will increase our presence on the Toronto Waterfront with a new state-of-the-art home for our School of Design and leverage our significant investment in the community. But most important, it will serve the needs of the design, arts and digital media sectors that are emerging as key drivers of Ontario’s economy.”
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About The Daniels Corporation
The Daniels Corporation (www.danielshomes.ca) is one of Canada’s pre-eminent builder/developers, building more than 25,000 new homes across the Greater Toronto Area for over 33 years. Daniels has been named Tarion Warranty Corporation’s ‘Ontario High Rise Builder of the Year’, and is a recipient of the Toronto Arts and Business Award presented by the Toronto Arts Foundation. Among its many initiatives, Daniels was chosen to partner with Toronto Community Housing to revitalize Regent Park – 69 acres in the heart of Toronto’s Downtown East. Committed to community, Daniels offers innovative programs that help people achieve homeownership, champion’s neighbourhood initiatives that enhance resident’s quality of life, and supports numerous charities and non-profit organizations.
About Artscape
Artscape (www.artscape.ca) is a not-for-profit urban development organization that makes space for creativity and transforms communities. Artscape’s work involves clustering creative people together in real estate projects that serve the needs of the arts and cultural community and advance multiple public policy objectives, private development interests, community and neighbourhood aspirations and philanthropic missions. Since its beginning in 1986, Artscape has become recognized as an international leader in creative placemaking, a practice that leverages the power of art, culture and creativity to catalyze change, growth and transformation in communities. The organization achieves its mission through developing and managing unique cultural facilities—including community cultural hubs, multi-purpose creative spaces and artist live/work projects—and delivering programs and services that promote creativity and cultural space development.
About OCAD University
OCAD University (www.ocadu.ca) is Canada’s university of the imagination. The University, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines.
About Waterfront Toronto
The Governments of Canada and Ontario and the City of Toronto created Waterfront Toronto to oversee and lead the renewal of Toronto’s waterfront. Public accessibility, design excellence, sustainable development, economic development and fiscal sustainability are the key drivers of waterfront revitalization.
Public Art Jury Members

• Tom Dutton: Senior Vice President, The Daniels Corporation
• Luigi Ferrara: Dean, Centre for Arts, Design and Information Technology and Director of the Institute without Boundaries, George Brown College
• David Liss: Artistic Director & Curator, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
• Gaetane Verna: Director, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
• Tim Jones: CEO Artscape
• Dr. Sara Diamond: President of OCAD University
• Claude Cormier: Landscape Architect, and
• Rebecca Carbin: Public Art Program Manager for Waterfront Toronto