Akin Launches New East End Location (Logan/Queen St.E)

Akin is thrilled to announce a unique partnership with Percy Ellis which will provide studio space to a dozen local visual artists and cultural practitioners at 'Akin Logan' (153 Logan Avenue) beginning on March 1, 2021. This exciting project will increase Akin’s ability to support artists city-wide and continue addressing the ever-increasing scarcity of affordable workspace in our city.

Akin's new studios are easily accessible by subway, streetcar, bus, bike, or car. Studio rentals are month-to-month and include 24/7 access to the studios, taxes, insurance, wifi, access to communal working areas as well as storage, kitchen, and bathroom.

Akin would like to thank Percy Ellis for their leadership in supporting the cultural sector in these uniquely challenging times, and we look forward to collaborating on special programming, projects and events throughout 2021 (hopefully in person soon!). A special thank you to Katie Schimke, Associate Development Manager & Community Engagement Team and to Peter Venetas for bringing this project to life.

Due to overwhelming need, we have offered the first studio spaces to folks from our East End waiting list, including those from Akin River and Akin Sunrise - two East End Akin locations that had to close in 2020. For now, this space is already full!

Are you an artist, arts organization or small arts group or not-for-profit in need of space?

Click HERE to view available space across all Akin locations

Studio tours are currently virtual and by appointment only. For more information, pricing inquiries, to be added to an east end waitlist, or to share ideas, please get in touch:

CONTACT:
Jen Pilles, Studio Operations Manager
info@akincollective.com

Remembering Akin Lansdowne - a personal memorial by Jen Pilles

I moved to Toronto fresh out of art school. I had a degree in Illustration, a tiny bit of savings, and no knowledge whatsoever about the city or how to live in it. Navigating the art world was overwhelming - and living in Toronto was thrilling, but alien. I had trouble knowing how or where to meet new friends, not to mention colleagues and clients. I was unsure how my art fit in, which opportunities to engage with, or what resources were available. I did not feel sure of myself, and I did not feel at home.

It wasn’t until I found Akin Lansdowne that I started to thrive as an artist and feel like I was part of a real arts community. From when I joined Akin Lansdowne in 2013 until I left in 2018 I found myself connected to a group of artists and peers in ways I never expected. I not only made new friends but I also developed professional relationships - finding mentors, clients, and professional development opportunities.

Tucked away at the quiet intersection of Wade Ave and Paton Road right beside the train tracks ,I fell in love with 87 Wade Ave the first day I visited. It is an unassuming building full of character. I loved the creak of the floorboards, the smell of the wood and the coffee roasting downstairs at Alternative Grounds (another tenant that had to leave the building due to an unmanageable rent increase). I found the meandering corridors and the soaring ceilings romantic and inspiring. Within the studio space itself I felt cozy, comfortable and inspired. My studio was small, but it was all I needed to create.

My first studio space at Akin Lansdowne in 2013 - it was 36sf

I expanded my studio in 2017 to 80sf

Over time I started developing a studio practice and meeting my studio mates and getting involved with Akin events and programming. We saw so many incredible events come through our space. From intimate gatherings for artists to show and share their work, to large public parties, fun creative crafting workshops and more. Some of my favorites were the Earth Day Community Cleanup where a bunch of us gathered at the studio and then cleaned up the neighborhood, and the Akin Skillshare Series of workshops where artists and creative business owners met in the studio space to share skills and resources. I also loved it when some of us got together to paint the Akin Lansdowne Art Library and fill it with donated books.

Here are some photos I have collected over the years:

Before and after: painting the Akin Lansdowne Art Library together!

The studio all decked out for a celebration

My studio mate and friend Samar Hejazi explaining her work in her studio at an Akin Show and Tell event

One of the many wonderful pot luck feasts we hosted in the studio kitchen

The first big open studio event at Akin Lansdowne

The crowd gathering outside the studio for our Earth Day Community Clean Up

Unfortunately, like so many other creative spaces in Toronto, Akin Lansdowne will be closing it’s doors in January 2020. Gentrification has set in and the rent prices in the building have sky-rocketed. Akin cannot afford to keep renting space in the building, so Akin Lansdowne will be no more. I will forever be grateful for my time spent in that space - creating, thinking, mingling, learning, eating, laughing, listening and playing.

Thankfully Akin has worked closely with the artists to relocate them to other Akin studios - so the community has not dissolved but just dispersed to other Akin locations. Akin has many amazing locations - each with their own charm, but Akin Lansdowne will forever be my favourite and hold a special place in my heart. It was my home away from home, my workshop, my office, my peaceful place. I want to thank everyone who made Akin Lansdowne a magic place: the Akin staff, the studio mates who came and went over the years, the studio dogs who kept us company, the neighbours in the building who shared space with us, and the residents and businesses in the neighbourhood who were a part of our larger community. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

There will be an Akin Lansdowne Farewell Party on January 31, 2020 at from 8PM until late for those who wish to honour Akin Lansdowne’s legacy by celebrating together. Stay tuned to Akin (social media, newsletter, this blog) for more information!

About the author:
Jen Pilles is a freelance illustrator, graphic designer, plein-air painter, self-publisher, and emerging comic artist. After joining Akin in 2013 as a member she began working for them in 2015. After 3 years of experience as a studio manager at 5 of Akin’s locations (Lansdowne, King, Ossington, Richmond and MOCA) she now serves the Akin community as the Studio Operations Manager. www.jenpilles.com

End of Year Round Up & Happy New Year!

There are only a few hours left ‘til 2020 and we can’t wait to ring in the new year! This past decade, Akin’s first, has brought endless joy and creative challenges and our community has embraced them all with ease. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome the next decade and see what opportunities it brings.

2019 has been an exciting year for Akin, with many changes, new initiatives and partnerships. Over the course of the last 12 months we have welcomed many changes with open arms…

We expanded Akin Ossington twice with huge thanks to our friends at TAS Design Build, making it our largest location as of June 2019 and home to over 40 artists, from ceramicists and prop makers to painters and photographers.

We said goodbye to our King Street location at 511 King Street West and expanded one of our east end locations, Akin River, with thanks again to our friends at TAS Design Build, now home to over 25 artists, from sculptors and textile artists to designers and print makers.

We opened a new studio location just around the corner from our old King Street location, Akin Richmond, with thanks to our friends at the Toronto Arts Council now home to a small community of mixed media artists and digital creators.

We also celebrated the opening of Akin’s first event rental space, REMOTE Gallery (located next door to Akin’s Richmond studios at 568 Richmond Street West) dedicated primarily to local programming initiatives and creative exhibitions, among other projects. Our inaugural group show at REMOTE, ‘Movement’ opened in March 2019 and featured new works from 7 Akin artists. You can expect a full calendar of events at REMOTE Gallery in 2020 including exhibitions, pop-up shops, workshops and more!

Akin staff and studio members presenting at Art Chats, 2019

We were over the moon to participate in the 2019 edition of the Artist Project as the non profit partner for this year. This unique opportunity provided 10 selected Akin artists with the opportunity to present new works to the public, 3 of which also joined us in a thought provoking discussion on the role of studio spaces in the artistic community. You can catch us again in the new year at the Artist Project 2020.

We began raising money for Akin’s Rent Relief Fund in collaboration with our friend Rania El Mugammar and a number of generous individuals. This unique fund has been launched as part of our ongoing Equity and Inclusion work at Akin, including our recent demographics survey report - which highlighted the needs and experiences of our community. We intend for the Akin Studio Rent Relief Fund to reduce barriers for Akin studio members and create opportunities for marginalized communities. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing, as needed, basis when funds are available. The fund will officially launch once we have raised $3,000.

Guests busy crafting at the Akin Turns 10 Party & Fundraiser, 2019

We had a wonderful time providing our community and members with free and low-cost programming throughout the year including but not limited to: our Winter Art Crawl at 401 Richmond, Life Drawing at Allen Gardens and Earth Hour Show & Tell at Akin St. Clair.

The Akin team expanded in May of 2019 to help serve our community better. We welcomed new staff, Ozge Aytekin, Laura Kay Keeling, Soroush Dabiri, and Hana Elmasry as other roles changed and developed within the organization.

We celebrated the opening of our first Etobicoke location, Akin Lakeshore, in August 2019, now home to a number of artists and designers from the community. There are still a few studios available at this location - get in touch with us if you are interested in a tour!

We continued working with our community partners and also welcomed new partnerships with collaborators including our friends at the Gardiner Museum and MOCA Toronto to the Ontario Arts Council, OCAD and Art Books and more!

Akin celebrated our 11th birthday in November 2019, jump starting our second decade ahead of the new year.

We watched and cheered as artists from our community championed their practices, creating programming and exhibiting works for local, national and international institutions from public libraries and schools to art galleries and museums, including but not limited to: the Toronto Public Library, MOCA Toronto, the MacLaren Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario Science Centre, Dutch Design Week, SCI-Arc and more! Many members of our community also created works and programming for local events like the Gladstone Hotel’s annual event Grow Op, CONTACT, and the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair. Click here to see what the Akin members have been up to lately.

We welcomed the 2nd cohort of our Studio Program at MOCA Toronto. The studios at MOCA are now home to over 25 practicing artists working in a multitude of medias. We also celebrated the end of the 1st cohort’s residency during their group show ‘An Index’ on MOCA Toronto’s 4th floor.

Akin is thrilled to welcome Wyandot multimedia artist and Tradition Keeper Catherine Tammaro (Taǫmęˀšreˀ) to our organization as our inaugural Indigenous Elder Artist in Residence, 2019

We sought out new training opportunities for our staff, working with local experts and organizations like the Dandelion Initiative, Rania El Mugammar, Tanya Neumeyer, Catherine Tammaro and more! This cumulative training has provided Akin and it’s staff with the opportunity to develop new protocols and processes for embracing our community and it’s ever changing needs.

We launched the call for our new Studio Residency at Collision Gallery - Commerce Court. The call for applications is open until January 10th 2020, with the studio space planned to launch in March 2020.

And finally, we rang in the holidays with our annual holiday market + party, this year at MOCA Toronto with over 20 current Akin artists and our friends at Art Metropole and Forno Cultura.

10 of the 11 Akin staff, members, 2019

From our family to yours, happy new year! May the next decade bring you many exciting opportunities and inspiration for new projects.

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To inquire about studio space at any of our 10 locations please visit us here or email us at info@akincollective.com.

To inquire about REMOTE Gallery rentals please visit us here for more information or email us at gallery@akincollective.com.

Interested in supporting Akin’s Rent Relief Fund? Click here to donate.

Put that 2020 agenda to good use and don’t forget to apply to Akin’s Studio Residency at Collision Gallery (Commerce Court). Learn more about this opportunity here.

Vector Festival presents Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice / July 11-14

Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice
At a time when humanity’s collective dithering in the face of impending ecological disaster is threatening to harm our world beyond repair, Vector Festival 2019 explores how contemporary media art reflects on this dire state of affairs. Featuring interactive installations, screen-based works, experimental games, generative art, performances, sound art, and other digital works, the festival’s curators invite you to join us in speculating on possible futures, alternative realities, and post-calamity archaeologies of the mess we have created for ourselves.

Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. This year, Vector Festival is happening from July 11-14 and the full schedule of programming includes screenings, lectures, workshops, panels, exhibitions and more! The theme of this year’s festival is Speculative Ecologies: Media Art at the Anthropocenic Precipice.

Events are happening at locations all over Toronto, including InterAccess, MOCA, the Ontario Science Centre, Trinity Square Video, Artscape Youngplace and more. Visit www.vectorfestival.org for a full schedule of events (Although many events are free, some are ticketed and require registration - an All-Access Pass is $25).

Vector Festival is brought to you by InterAccess, a non-profit gallery, educational facility, and production studio. The mission of InterAccess is to expand the cultural significance of art and technology by fostering and supporting the full cycle of art and artistic practice through education, production, and exhibition.

Vector Festival Launch Party & Opening Reception:
Join us on July 11 from 
7-10pm in celebrating the launch of Vector Festival 2019, and the opening of the festival’s flagship exhibition, Future Relics, curated by Katie Micak and Martin Zeilinger. The party is located at 950 Dupont St., Unit 1 and is FREE!

About Future Relics:
How will post-extinction media archaeologists rediscover our lost civilisation? What will robots have to say about the last days of humanity? What possible futures are already inscribed in the technologies and digital tools we use today? Future Relics, this year’s Vector Festival flagship exhibition, presents media artists whose work offers insights and outlooks on digital culture and the environment that oscillate between the playful and the critical, the hopeful and the dystopian.

Akin King: Akin relocates group of 100 artists to new downtown studios at King and Spadina.

Facing evictions from four studios across two locations, Akin relocates group of 100 artists to new downtown studios at King and Spadina.

After nine years at 444 Dufferin Street and six years on the first floor of 87 Wade Avenue, Akin artists will relocate their studios to our new location at 511, 525 and 527 King Street West, thanks to a unique collaboration with Allied Properties REIT who are leasing us space as the site awaits development. Thanks to our friends at Small who have facilitated this arrangement, we are able to keep our artistic community intact, and simply shift it into a new space. For more information on Allied’s site development plans, please see here.

How can Akin move to King & Spadina?
By working together. As Toronto rents become impossibly high and artists look to Hamilton and beyond, Akin continues to find new space and maintain studio affordability by negotiating short to medium-term rentals in properties that are actively in transition, as is the case with the new Akin King location.

As artists we recognize that we may only have the same space for years (or even months) rather than decades, but, by relocating in this way, Akin can keep entire artist communities intact along with the friendships and collaborations that make them so important. Instead of facing eviction alone, artists can shift with us as a unit- maintaining a practice in an affordable space as part of an active, vibrant and supportive artistic community in downtown Toronto. Property owners and developers, in this case Allied Properties REIT, are able to lease properties that would otherwise sit empty and unused during the period before demolition and development begin, enabling Akin to create social and economic value from buildings that would otherwise remain vacant. In other cities, notably in London and across the UK, ‘meanwhile’ leasing of dormant space like this has effectively supported artists for years. Similarly to this new location, at our other recently opened studios, Akin St Clair (a local meat shop that sat empty pending development) and Akin River(underused storage and office space that will become a 38 storey tower) we provide studio space for nearly 50 artists in the interim. 

As the Toronto Star ’s Murray Whyte puts it, “in a place that has embraced the popular notion of “creative city” economics espoused by Richard Florida...skyrocketing commercial rents have had an unintended irony, having all but purged such workers from the core.” Akin is offering a solution to this challenge by rethinking how unused and underused properties can become usable studio space for artists- finding useful life for buildings that have been abandoned by commerce during years of development planning, construction design and securing of permits.

Akin strives to ensure that there is always studio space for artists and creatives of all kinds and at all levels across our city while engaging, connecting and educating communities through art. As with all of our  locations, Akin’s month-to month rentals include 24/7 access to the studios, taxes, insurance, utilities, wifi, access to communal working areas as well as storage, kitchen, and bathroom. 'Akin King' is  easily accessible by subway, streetcar, bus, bike, or car.

Akin artists Rebekah Andrade and Verity Griscti help load their studio supplies into Akin's moving trucks!

The first of multiple trips, moving artists from Akin Dufferin to the new Akin King location.

The first of multiple trips, moving artists from Akin Dufferin to the new Akin King location.

Artists packing up Akin Dufferin to move to their new studio spaces.

For more information about any of our locations, book a tour or to share ideas, please get in touch:

CONTACT:
jen@akincollective.com

Please share widely!

Akin Announces Two New Studio Locations

Akin is thrilled to announce the launch of two new studio locations - Akin St. Clair (1747 St. Clair Avenue West) and Akin River (77 River Street).

This exciting expansion will increase Akin’s size to approximately 27,000 square feet of studio space serving nearly 250 artists, enabling it to address the ever-increasing scarcity of affordable workspace in our city. Both locations will open in October 2017. 

77 River St. / 7 Labatt Ave, 1919. Photo credit: Urban Toronto

In addition to its fourteen current studios located at 444 Dufferin Street, 87 Wade Avenue, 100 Sunrise Avenue, 1485 Dupont Street and 888 Dupont Street, Akin's new spaces will offer a range of affordable studios in various sizes between 20-150 sqft in two new neighbourhoods.

Akin will also begin to develop programming specific to these neighbourhoods as a part of our 2017/2018 programming calendar in addition to our current range of free or low-cost workshops, studio critiques, gallery crawls, community programs and skill shares. 

We strive to ensure that there is always studio space for artists and creatives of all kinds and at all levels across our city while engaging, connecting and educating communities through art.

All rentals include 24/7 access to the studios, taxes, insurance, wifi, access to communal working areas as well as storage, kitchen, and bathroom. Both locations are easily accessible by subway, streetcar, bus, bike, or car.

1747 St. Clair Ave West- formerly Don's Meats. Found image.
 

For more information, pricing inquiries, to book a tour or to share ideas, please get in touch! 
CONTACT:
jen@akincollective.com

Please share widely!

Introducing Akin Collective Career Launcher Award Winner Kathy Zhou!

Congratulations to Kathy Hong Zhou, recent OCAD University Drawing & Painting graduate and winner of the 2017 Akin Collective Career Launcher award! We look forward to having Kathy join us at the studio! Kathy will receive a period of free studio space at one of Akin’s studios in 2017–2018, valued at $2000, as well as a $500 cash award.

The Career Launchers are unique, high-profile opportunities for graduating students of OCAD University, developed in partnership with industry organizations such as Akin in order to help new graduates start their professional practice after school. 

Kathy was born in Chengdu, China, in 1987. She currently lives in Toronto, Canada. She is an interdisciplinary artist with knowledge and practice in fine art, animation, illustration and graphic design. Zhou is focusing on experimenting materials such as wood and Leather. Find out about her work at http://kathyhzhou.format.com

Introducing Akin Sunrise!

Akin Sunrise is located on the territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and traditional territory of the Wendat, but we're still learning and are committed to better understanding what that means to us including our obligations and how to act on them.

Akin Sunrise, located at 100 Sunrise Ave in North York, has 11 studios ranging from 58 square foot to 196 square foot as well as a private office and a large, beautiful dedicated programming space where we will soon begin introducing a wide range of public programming. Akin Projects would like to thank G&N Developments Inc. for their special collaboration on this space.

Photography by Akin Sunrise member Katie Sadie.

We would like to invite you to join us at Akin Sunrise on March 29 for our first official event at this location, the Akin Show & Tell! This is a time for Akin members and other Toronto artists to show completed works or works in progress and get friendly feedback and answers from their peers in a casual studio setting. Everyone is welcome! Feel free to bring art to share, bring a friend or two, bring snacks or drinks or just bring yourself! Come for the conversation or just to meet people and hang out.

'Akin Collective buys artists space and time' - Akin Collective in The Toronto Star

We are very excited to be featured in the Visual Arts section of The Toronto Star! Thank you to Murray Whyte for a great article!

“Akin, with its 19,000 square feet across four buildings, most in the city’s traditional west-end hot zone of artistic production (a new property added just this week, at Victoria Park and Eglinton Ave. in the east, bucks the trend) counts 160 members and a longlist of pent-up demand. Small-scale artists at all stages of their careers patiently wait for their own corner to come up, which given the expanding Akin empire seems likely to be sooner than later. ”

— By Murray Whyte, Visual arts, The Star

Akin and Connected

“Just about every artist I met with was under serious pressure to find new lodging. But I kept hearing about a notable exception.

A whispered name. An organization that was creating long-term and insanely affordable studio spaces for artists – the Akin Collective. I just had to know more....What started as a side burner project in 2008 suddenly became a needed and sustainable venture over the past few years.”

— Sean Howard, Intercity Toronto at Medium.com