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 is 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.
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 opportunities and eliminate barriers to access for Indigenous, Black, disabled and equity-deserving communities to create and experience culture in neighbourhoods across the city in order to ensure we have a culture sector that is relevant and accessible to everyone.
Recognize and promote Toronto’s creatives and cultural sectors as essential components to city building, shared prosperity and community well-being.
Increase opportunities for everyone to discover, create and engage with meaningful and impactful cultural and creative programs and events.
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 10 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.
Ensure that culture and creativity are essential components of thriving communities across Toronto.
Over the next 10 years the City will support the development of one million square feet of new cultural space in Toronto.
Toronto residents and visitors can discover, create, and access rich, meaningful, and fun cultural experiences, engaging all kinds of creators and audiences.
Every resident will have access to at least one free cultural experience in their neighbourhood supported by the City each month.
Ensure that Toronto continues to have a successful and innovative cultural and creative sector, today and in the future.
The City will increase investment in culture by $35 million over the next 10 years to retain, rebuild and reimagine culture in Toronto.
Solidify Toronto’s recognition globally as a creative capital offering both unparalleled cultural experiences and an environment where creative businesses flourish.
The City will enable 1,000 new creative export and artist exchange projects over the next 10 years.
Culture Connects was developed based on the feedback gathered throughout the engagement process with members of the arts and creative sectors, an advisory panel of community leaders as well as the broader public.
More than 4,000 residents participated in community consultations throughout 2023 and 2024. Read the engagement summary report by Monumental Projects, summarizing key findings from the consultation process leading up to April 2024.
In addition to community engagement, Culture Connects was informed by research and analysis of sector challenges and opportunities, as well as a jurisdictional scan to see what other cities and organizations were doing to address similar challenges. 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 actions identified in Culture Connects will be implemented over the 10-year period of the plan. Implementation of these actions may vary and change in order to be responsive to community and sector needs.
Work has been underway to implement the urgent actions and Year One commitments. More than 82 per cent of the plan’s original 28 actions are currently in progress, with significant key accomplishments including:
The inaugural Mayor’s Culture Summit was hosted at Meridian Hall on April 20, 2026. Nearly 300 participants representing 290 organizations joined almost 50 speakers and mentors from across the arts, business, philanthropy, advocacy and community sectors to explore the future of culture in Toronto. The conversations, ideas, and relationships sparked at the Summit will help to shape programs, partnerships, and the ongoing implementation of Culture Connects.
A clear call to action that came from the summit was the need to establish recurring city-wide opportunities to gather and convene across sectors and with partners. The City will continue to work with community partners to find opportunity for sector connection and partnership. The next Culture Summit will be hosted by Humber Polytechnic in 2028.
Further details on the implementation of Culture Connects can be read in the first annual report which was brought forward to Committee in June 2026.
Sign up for the CultureTO Newsletter for updates on Culture Connects and connected initiatives, City cultural programs and events, and the resources and supports currently available to the culture sector.