Assembly Hall is dedicated to nurturing and celebrating community, creativity and culture with arts-focused classes, performances and events. The beautifully restored building, which blends history with innovative modern design, is a favourite community-based location for meetings, celebrations and more.
Free
Monday to Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Closed Sundays and for all statutory holidays
Monday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed for all statutory holidays
Assembly Hall can be reached either by the 501 Long Branch streetcar, which runs along Lake Shore Blvd. W., or by the 44 Kipling South bus, from Kipling Station.
By the Lake Book Club offers an inspiring season of in-person and virtual literary events. Join Humber Polytechnic alumni as they dive into conversation with leading Canadian authors. This series features six Tuesday-night events, between February and December. Each in-person event includes a reading, discussion, audience Q&A, book-signing and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. Virtual events are presented with live subtitles.
The 2025 lineup features Nina Dunic, Erum Shazia Hasan, Zhang Ling, Alicia Elliott, Anuja Varghese and Maurice Vellekoop.
May 14 to June 12
Reception: May 15, 6 p.m.
Experience Hong Yu (Casey) Chan’s showcase of stunning photography capturing profound connections between nature and humanity, including fleeting moments and the beauty of everyday life.
June 18 to July 24
Reception: June 19, 6 p.m.
Immerse yourself in this inspiring solo exhibition by Victor de M., where representational art and compositions come together to evoke childhood memories and dreams, expressed through a rich visual language of shapes, forms and color.
September 4 to October 2
Reception: September 11, 6 p.m.
Explore memory, identity and women’s resilience through the collage artwork of Daria Beer. Join the artist as she celebrates diverse stories using personal and found images, stitching them with embroidery floss symbolizing her family migration.
October 8 to November 6
Reception: October 9, 6 p.m.
Encounter images transformed from many unrelated sources into new and surprising collage artworks. Found papers, objects, painted elements and digital images converge to create bold new visions and dynamic ideas, brought to you by the EAG Collage Collective.
Boys’ Club is a tap dance collective that includes Veronica Simpson from Toronto, Laura Donaldson from Calgary and Elise McGrenera from Vancouver. Recognizing the historical dominance of men in the form, they aim to challenge this paradigm by amplifying feminine voices and experiences. Through tap dance, Boys’ Club seeks to reclaim space, express identities, and shed light on the often-overlooked contributions of women in the history of tap dance and jazz music.
Boys’ Club began in residence in May 2022 at Tanzhaus nrw (Germany). Boys’ Club has performed a full-length work at the The Claquettes Club (Belgium), and at Golem’s Theatre (Barcelona) and will be returning to the Claquettes Club and Tanzhaus nrw to perform a new iteration in 2024. They were welcomed as a company in residence at national and international residency spaces including Leña Artist Residency, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks and the Claquettes Club.
Kiera Breaugh is a dancer/choreographer whose style lives at the intersection of contemporary and hip hop. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and was a member of Los Angeles dance companies: the Young Lions, Immabeast, Immabreathe and MashUp Contemporary Dance Company. Breaugh performed in Dance Matters, Dusk Dances Hamilton and the Toronto, Orlando and Vancouver Fringe Festivals. She choreographed for PRESENCE, a site specific series commissioned by Peggy Baker Productions, ProArteDanza’s Choreolab, and presented an original piece during a Raptor’s half-time as a Welcome Toronto Creator. Breaugh teaches and choreographs across the GTA.
KINAJ is a cross-genre dance company created and led by Kin Nguien and AJ Velasco. Founded in 2020, KINAJ’s mission as choreographers and dancers is to create impactful work that challenges the status quo, fosters collaboration and unleashes the captivating power of storytelling through movement. In their cross-genre dance pieces, they blend street styles with contemporary dance, incorporating elements of improvisation, freestyle, and partnering techniques.
Since 2020, KINAJ has produced work that has been presented on international stages and festivals. Their latest mainstage work ALIENS commissioned by Toronto Dance Theatre has sold-out audiences and received critical recognition for its cross-genre choreography and sci-fi aesthetics. Currently, KINAJ is preparing for exciting opportunities working with the National Ballet of Canada.
Mid-career dance artist, educator and choreographer, Atri Nundy completed her arangetram (graduation) in 2005 after years of continuing her passion for dance molded through learning Bharatanatyam at Sampradaya Dance Academy under the tutelage of Lata Pada CM (Order of Canada). An advocate for sharing knowledge, Nundy continues to work as a teacher at Sampradaya Dance Academy. She has toured extensively in India, Indonesia, UK and USA and has performed in various prestigious venues across Canada. She continues to hone her craft through professional development in various forms and workshops with acclaimed artists Harikrishna Kalyanasundaram, Priyadarshini Govind, Leela Samson and Mavin Khoo among others. In November 2023, Nundy took part in Seeta Patel’s rehearsal process of her work Rite of Spring in London, UK with the Seeta Patel Dance Company. Technically diverse in her training, Nundy’s professional practice includes work in a variety of contemporary practices.
She has performed with many companies in Toronto including KasheDance and Ronald Taylor Dance. Commissioned by ĀNANDAM Dance Theatre, she created her first ensemble work, Mindful Chatter, for Contemporaneity 4.0. Her work helix was commissioned by Toronto Dance Theatre in 2023 for Convergent Divergency.
Presented in partnership with TOES FOR DANCE, this two-year program nurtures artistic development and community-building by holding time and space for dancers and choreographers to experiment, discuss and explore the art form while offering compelling artistic experiences that allow the local community to engage with the art of dance.
The Performance Hall and Community Rooms are ideal spaces for events ranging from small meetings and workshops to performances, weddings, film shoots and conferences.
To inquire about booking Assembly Hall for your event, please complete the rental inquiry form.
Assembly Hall has been an important part of the Etobicoke Lakeshore community for over a century. It was built in 1898 as part of the Mimico Lunatic Asylum, designed to serve as a place of recreation and worship for the patients and hospital staff. Patient labour was used to construct Assembly Hall and various other hospital buildings. The hospital’s first superintendent, Dr. Nelson Henry Beemer, was a strong believer in meaningful work as a form of rehabilitative therapy.
The original purpose for Assembly Hall was to meet the social and spiritual needs of the hospital. However, because there was no comparable facility in the area, Assembly Hall soon became the principal gathering place for a multitude of community events, dances and concerts. The Asylum changed names repeatedly over the years, becoming the Mimico Hospital for the Insane in 1911, the Ontario Hospital, New Toronto in 1919 and finally renamed as the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, but Assembly Hall maintained its name and central role throughout the entire history of the hospital.
After the closure of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in 1979, Assembly Hall fell into disuse for two decades. The combined efforts of local activists and politicians helped to support the City of Toronto’s restoration of this facility, which reopened on in June 2001. The renovated Assembly Hall has been designed to meet a variety of cultural and community needs. The beautiful 250+ seat Performance Hall is a venue for music, theatre, dance, receptions and special events. The community rooms are used for art classes, meetings, workshops and rehearsals. Gallery spaces for visual arts are located throughout the building. Assembly Hall is a rental facility for both public and private use.