Culture Connects: An Action Plan for Culture in Toronto (2025-2035) was adopted by City Council in November 2024. It sets out a bold new vision for culture in Toronto – a vision for a city where everyone, everywhere, can discover, create and experience culture.

Culture is what draws us to the city, connects us to each other and makes us proud to call Toronto home. Culture Connects will address challenges facing the sector today and ensure that we are increasing access for audiences, while supporting local artists, organizations and creative industries into the future.

The implementation of Culture Connects will be informed by five guiding principles. These principles, developed based on overarching values shared with us by the community, will shape every action the City takes to advance culture in Toronto – from the day-to-day support that City staff provide to residents, creatives and businesses, to the development of long-term projects and plans.

Centre Indigenous Culture & Creativity

Celebrate diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis knowledge and knowing, culture, and artistic processes, and work to support the deepening of Toronto as a centre for Indigenous culture, creativity and leadership.

Prioritize Equity and Access

Prioritize opportunities and eliminate barriers to access for Indigenous, Black, disabled and equity-deserving communities to create and experience culture in neighbourhoods across the city, to ensure we have a culture sector that is relevant and accessible to everyone.

Champion Artists, Creatives & Creative Industries

Recognize and promote Toronto’s creatives and cultural sectors as essential components to city building, shared prosperity and community well-being.

Attract & Build for Audiences

Increase opportunities for everyone to discover, create and engage with meaningful and impactful cultural and creative programs and events.

Foster Innovation & Enable Creativity

Cultivate an environment that supports and encourages creative and technological innovation, financial sustainability, entrepreneurial thinking and risk-taking.

Culture Connects identifies four priorities for the next ten years. Each priority includes a key target, a set of urgent actions to address the pressing challenges facing culture today and longer-term actions to drive systemic change in the years to come.

Culture Everywhere

Ensure that culture and creativity are essential components of thriving communities across Toronto.

Target

Over the next ten years, the City will support the development of one million square feet of new cultural space in Toronto.

Culture for All

Toronto residents and visitors can discover, create, and access rich, meaningful, and fun cultural experiences, engaging all kinds of creators and audiences.

Target

Every resident will have access to at least one free cultural experience in their neighbourhood supported by the City each month.

Culture for the Future

Ensure that Toronto continues to have a successful and innovative cultural and creative sector, today and in the future.

Target

The City will increase investment in culture by $35 million over the next ten years to retain, rebuild and reimagine culture in Toronto.

Culture Beyond Our Borders

Solidify Toronto’s recognition globally as a creative capital offering both unparalleled cultural experiences and an environment where creative businesses flourish.

Target

The City will enable 1,000 new creative export and artist exchange projects over the next ten years.

The actions identified in Culture Connects will be implemented over the ten-year period of the plan. Implementation of these actions may vary and change in order to be responsive to community and sector needs.

The implementation of Culture Connects will kickstart in 2025 with a focus on investing in culture and connecting audiences to art and culture. The City will deliver immediate targeted investments to support creatives, cultural organizations, and creative industries. Investment will focus on stabilizing and empowering vital, new and growing organizations, and organizations led by and serving Indigenous, Black and equity-deserving communities.

The City will also work to connect communities to culture, and each other, with deeper and increased opportunities for residents to gather and engage with culture closer to where they live, all year round. This will include a focus on promotion and discoverability to make it easier for all Toronto residents and visitors to find and participate in cultural offerings.

Additional information about the implementation of Culture Connects can be found in the report to Council.

Project Process

Culture Connects was developed through a three-phase process:

Phase One

The project kicked off in the summer of 2023 with research and analysis to better understand sector challenges and opportunities, as well as conducted a jurisdictional scan to see what other cities and organizations were doing to address similar challenges. This phase continued throughout 2023 and into 2024.

Phase Two

Community engagement took place from fall 2023 to spring 2024.

Phase Three

The Action Plan was developed from spring 2024 to fall 2024 based on the feedback gathered throughout the engagement process and the research and analysis.

Research

The City partnered with the University of Toronto School of Cities to conduct research on the state of culture in Toronto, including a detailed analysis of Toronto’s economic dynamics and changes in the cultural sector between 1991 and 2021.

Read the full report.

The University of Toronto’s work was complemented by research led by City staff, including a jurisdictional scan of best and next practices of 14 cities and organizations worldwide, as well as an assessment of recent economic impacts and trends related to culture. Together, this comprehensive research and engagement directly informed the development of Culture Connects, ensuring its actions will meet the needs of the sector and Torontonians.

Engagement Summary

Over 4,000 residents participated in community consultations through a series of different engagement activities including:

  • Virtual Town Halls to seek input on key challenges and opportunities facing culture in Toronto. View a recording and presentation slides from one of the town halls.
  • Community Conversations with a diverse and intersectional group of participants to dive deeper into the key issues and trends facing artists, creatives and the culture sector.
  • Creative facilitator led sessions across Toronto using a variety of arts-based techniques.
  • A Community Conversation Toolkit was developed to help interested community groups host their own community conversations, and share feedback with the City.
  • Online surveys used to gather feedback from those working across culture sectors and the broader public on sector priorities as well as gather feedback on the draft direction of the Action Plan.

Read the engagement summary report by Monumental Projects, summarizing key findings from the consultation process leading up to April 2024.

Advisory Panel

An Advisory Panel made up of community leaders from across the cultural sector and creative industries shared their insights, guidance and feedback to inform the development of Culture Connects. Panel members included:

Co-Chairs

Members

Stay Informed

Sign up for the CultureTO Newsletter for updates about the Action Plan, City cultural programs and events, and the resources and supports currently available to the culture sector.