Toronto's cultural landscape is experiencing a significant transformation with four major visual arts institutions embarking on extensive renovation and expansion projects totaling $249 million in Canadian dollars. The ambitious undertakings involve three museums and one arts center, each addressing different aspects of contemporary cultural needs and community engagement.
The most radical transformation is taking place at the BAND Center (Black Artists Networks in Dialogue) in the Parkdale neighborhood, where a Victorian house is being completely reconfigured at a cost of $3.5 million. The renovation is so comprehensive that the center's address will change from Brock Avenue to Noble Street. This community-focused project represents fifteen years of aspiration for a dedicated cultural space.
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is utilizing the last remaining empty space within its premises for a major renewal project. The $130 million initiative, which includes a complete metamorphosis of the entrance hall, will further expand what the museum already proclaims to be the country's largest museum. The project, named OpenROM, represents the most significant addition since Daniel Libeskind's 2007 building.
Neighboring the ROM, the more modest Gardiner Museum is proceeding with a $15.5 million "reinvention" of its ground floor. This transformation is being driven by innovative narratives surrounding ceramics and will place Indigenous ceramics from the Great Lakes region at the heart of the future hall and larger exhibition spaces. The renovation includes a circular space called Indigenous Immemorial, designed by Oneida architect Chris Cornelius from Wisconsin, intended to display objects borrowed from different Indigenous nations.
Karine Tsoumis, the Montreal-born chief curator at the Gardiner Museum, explains that visitors currently enter through a narrow corridor where the ticket office and shop are combined. "Indigeneity is one of the pillars of the transformation," she reveals, noting that communities have expressed their desire to speak for themselves about their cultures and their history. The museum, whose original collection was based on European porcelain and earthenware, recently hired a curator specializing in Indigenous art to develop this aspect.
The new Indigenous space will feature a wooden structure covered with copper mesh to allow interior visibility, creating an effect of transparency and porosity. A reversed dome with video projection will take visitors through a 24-hour cycle, connecting sky and earth. Beyond Indigenous works, the museum will also display 9th-century Islamic ceramics through loans from other museums, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Joséphine Denis, director of museum initiatives at BAND and a former Montreal resident who moved to Toronto in 2021, expresses enthusiasm about the ongoing projects. "There are people who have ambition for this city, a city at the center of many things," she says. "We're talking about museums that have been anchored for a long time. We're seeing a re-engagement with contemporary movements. We need places that implement inclusivity discourse, spaces dedicated to different communities."
The BAND transformation is the most radical despite being the least expensive, affecting the entire house from front to backyard, basement to roof. The project will add a balcony, an additional floor, an elevator, and proper exhibition halls. Denis emphasizes the importance of maintaining the center's community-focused mission: "People who came here made the space their own. It's important to keep that. It's a space where we learn to spend time with works, with people, a space for exchange."
Delivery delays and more difficult financing have postponed the reopening by one year, initially planned for spring 2025. "We still have $1.5 million to raise," Denis states, noting plans to appeal to the Ontario Premier's office. Despite the delays, BAND has remained active, multiplying its partnership activities, including a summer exhibition in Paris at the Canadian Cultural Centre.
The major public museums, ROM and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), are creating new architectural additions. ROM's project involves 86,000 square feet of space, the largest since the 2007 Libeskind building. The construction, attached to the existing structure, will make the main entrance unrecognizable by 2027 and add two new exhibition halls, including one extending the dinosaur section.
"The main objective," says Stephanie Altman, the project director, "is to create a more open hall and make the entrance grand and welcoming. We want people to be able to just sit, hang out, be there." The AGO, meanwhile, has been constructing a new pavilion since 2024 between the current museum and the neighboring university's School of Art and Design, also expected to open in 2027.
All four projects are linked to philanthropic initiatives, with three of the four launched thanks to donations of $9 million, $35 million, and $50 million respectively. The Gardiner Museum project, the most advanced as of early July, is scheduled for inauguration in the fall. These transformations represent not just physical expansions but philosophical shifts toward greater inclusivity, community engagement, and contemporary relevance in Toronto's evolving cultural landscape.
