The Music Gallery
The Music Gallery is an independent performance venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known as a space for musical and interdisciplinary projects in experimental genres. The Music Gallery is publicly-funded through arts grants from the city, province, and country, and through membership and ticket sales.
The Music Gallery was founded in 1976, by members of the improvisational experimental group CCMC. The musicians ran the space and performed there regularly until 2000. CCMC artists also established the Music Gallery Editions record label and Musicworks.
The Music Gallery's motto is "Toronto's Centre for Creative Music."John Oswald, in an editorial describing the founding of Musicworks, described it as "an experimental music performance facility." Others have called it "one of the city's most magical, best-kept secrets," "a vital venue," "seedbed for cultural multiplicity and emerging hybridity," and "one of Toronto's cultural gems."
From its founding in 1976 until 1983, the Music Gallery was in a converted warehouse at 30 St. Patrick Street, including offices for Musicworks from 1978 onwards.
From 1983 to 1993, the venue was at 1087 Queen West, in the basement of what was originally West Toronto's first YMCA, a space now known as the Great Hall (which has fostered other cultural groups such as the Theatre Centre and the YYZ Gallery).
From 1991 to 2000, the Music Gallery occupied a space at 179 Richmond Street West. The Music Gallery’s website describes it as "the fabled multi-purpose space" and "a strange oasis for creativity and experimentation on the outskirts of Toronto’s uber-commercialized entertainment district.” This venue hosted up to 150 concerts a year, until they were evicted in 2000. For a year, the Music Gallery was a “Guerrilla Gallery” throwing events in various alternate venues.
Since 2001, it has been in St. George the Martyr Church, located at 197 John Street. The venue has a unique agreement with the church and its parishoners (as well as those who live in the church's residences) that allows for office space, and early-evening programming within the sanctuary itself. Because the venue must obey sound law and stop all performances at 11pm, they have invested energies in daytime programming and all-ages events.
The Music Gallery has used "streams" of programming to organize its diverse genres and focii. These streams have included Classic Avant, Jazz Avant, Pop Avant, World Avant, and New World. The Gallery ceased programming in streams in 2014.
...
Wikipedia