Open Studio was established in August 1970 at 310 Queen Street West, Toronto, by artists Richard Sewell and Barbara Hall. Chicago artist, Don Holman, joined in 1971 to help set-up a lithography area for the space. An honorary Board of Directors made up of artist members and associates from the broader arts community helped incorporate Open Studio as a non-profit charity in December 1971, subsequently allowing the organization to gain charitable status in January 1972. From 1971 to 1996, Open Studio was located at 520 King Street West, Toronto, moving to a larger space at 468 King Street West in September 1996, with an increased area for production facilities, exhibition spaces, and improved administrative capabilities. In January 2004, Open Studio relocated to our current home in 401 Richmond Street West, where we gained significant additional production space and established a much larger gallery area where we could promote and exhibit our artists’ work.

The Studio was founded as an ‘open’ space governed and supported by artists who wanted to continue their printmaking practice in an inclusive, communal setting. Printmaking requires specialized equipment, space, and expertise to manage complex chemical processes that demand specific health and safety measures. Open Studio was founded as an ARC to fulfill these needs, providing a studio space where artists can work using various print media techniques including intaglio, lithography, relief, screenprinting, and more, with expert help as required.

Today, Open Studio is the only artist-run printmaking centre in Toronto providing affordable, comprehensive access to printmaking facilities and related programs to local, national and international artists. Outside of full-time post-secondary programs, Open Studio is the leading organization offering this range of facilities in Toronto for use by printmaking artists. We continue to serve artists through facility rental, residencies, scholarships/fellowships, printing services and art sales. We provide the public with opportunities to appreciate printmaking and its substance in the contemporary art world through our artistic programming and education services.

Open Studio is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Board is made up of artists—both Open Studio artist members and artists from the wider community—and associates, whom we rely on for expertise such as event planning, marketing and fundraising. The Board is elected by our membership at annual general meetings. Board terms are two years, and members can serve a maximum of two consecutive terms. Interested in more details? Please email.

PROGRAMMING MANDATE
Open Studio is committed to providing an open and equitable platform for public programming that reflects innovative, non-hierarchical and cross-cultural approaches to contemporary printmaking by artists from diverse backgrounds and wide-reaching perspectives.

Open Studio is dedicated to engaging and supporting all individuals and prioritizes applications from members of equity-deserving communities, including racialized persons: Black, Indigenous, People(s) of Colour (BIPOC); persons with disabilities, persons living with mental illness, and persons of all sexual orientations, and gender identities/expressions.

Through our public programming, we aim to encourage audience connection to the evolving medium of print as it relates to contemporary culture and to foster a diverse and expansive view of what printmaking can be. This may include, but is not limited to, non-Eurocentric printmaking, digital and analogue forms of print, DIY print practices (zines, posters, pamphlets, etc.), as well as other traditional printmaking mediums.

Our gallery exhibitions and residency opportunities are programmed through annual calls for submissions, in addition to invited and curated exhibitions. We welcome explorations of print’s industrial, digital, commercial, and craft-based aspects, including proposals that intersect print with other media, and that explore print’s ethos in concept (sequencing, multiples, layering) as well as in practice. We are open to ideas and welcome proposals for solo and group exhibitions.

CURATORIAL VISION
To create equitable and inclusive programming that supports and promotes global, innovative, and non-hierarchical approaches to contemporary printmaking from a range of cross-cultural perspectives. To elevate the printed medium, and shape audience experience of print in relation to wider contemporary culture.

STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY & EQUITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION (EDI) FRAMEWORK is available here.

• Allocate finances to support ongoing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) efforts, including but not limited to facilitation and training, education, programming and outreach.
• Provide EDI training for all Board and Staff and examine ways to include membership training as well.
• Include EDI discussions on the agenda at all Board, Committee and Staff meetings and create a Standing EDI Committee to advise on, coordinate and assist in implementing equity-deserving initiatives.
• Review, identify and update all hiring and recruitment policies. Prioritize EDI in recruitment to Board, Committees and Staff, and increase Board representation to include at least 50% of its members who self-identify as members of equity-deserving communities.
• Seek funding (grants, sponsorships etc.) specifically for initiatives that support programming and services for equity-deserving communities. Additionally, list external funding opportunities (grants and calls for collaborations) that further fund access for individuals from equity-deserving communities.

• Promote opportunities for equity-deserving communities, and utilize accessible language and representational images wherever possible in all communications, including but not limited to: website, social media channels, printed material, in-person signage etc.
• Prioritize responsiveness and transparency to requests for information and/or expressions of concern.

• Offer all 2021-22 BIPOC residency applicants one year free membership.
• Update studio signage relating to physical studio access to reflect open access and solidarity with equity-deserving groups via visual cues – separate from written communications.

• Articulate a curatorial vision and exhibition mandate that orients programming decisions towards equity, diversity, and inclusion. Develop a jurying rubric that reflects this vision and mandate.
• Program all residencies, visiting artist programs, and exhibitions as follows:
  • 2023/2024: 100% representation by artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour (BIPOC)
  • *2024/2025: 100% representation by artists from equity-deserving communities.
  • 2025/2026: Minimum 2/3 majority representation by artists from equity-deserving communities
  • 2026/2027 and beyond: Minimum 50% representation by artists from equity-deserving communities
• Build meaningful relationships with organizations that serve equity-deserving communities. Create inclusive outreach and organize programming that supports the work of our community partners.
• Hire guest curators from equity-deserving communities to aid in developing exhibitions and programs. 
• Increase the visibility of BIPOC curators, artists, and educators on Open Studio’s social media channels and website. Create paid opportunities to feature artist work that reflects print practice outside Euro-centric traditions.
• * The Members Gallery (Project Space) call will be open to all members while emphasizing that priority will be given to equity-deserving/seeking groups.

• Prioritize equity and inclusion in hiring education instructors. Create a call for new instructors that reflects this priority, and outreach proactively to diverse communities when recruiting. Provide increased support for instructors’ art practices and professional opportunities. 
• Create mentorship opportunities for individuals who are interested in training their print skills to become education instructors and collaborative printers at Open Studio. 
• Introduce a drop-in Community Print Night to our education schedule that emphasizes skill-sharing, where no print experience is necessary to participate. Implement an affordable, flexible or by-donation fee structure.
• Develop online education programming to increase access to printmaking, independently of Open Studio’s downtown Toronto location.
• Launch a speaker series featuring diverse artists with socially conscious print practices.

March 2023 Update
The Members Gallery (Project Space) call will be open to all members while emphasizing that priority will be given to equity-deserving/seeking groups.

February 2021 Update
In the winter of 2020-21, we inaugurated an Equity & Inclusion Committee involving an Advisory Panel of external arts practitioners from priority groups, to gain observations and insight towards making our organization more open and inclusive. We are also working with our membership to further guide us in enacting real change. We expect to release an action framework soon.

June 2020 Update
In June 2020, Open Studio paused much of its outreach and communication to give space to conversations surrounding injustices toward Canada’s Black and Indigenous communities. 

We took time to discuss and reflect on the ways Open Studio has inadvertently propped up systemic barriers that prevented Black artists, Indigenous artists and artists of colour (BIPOC) from accessing our studio and exhibition spaces.

Our initial solidarity statement expressed that “Open Studio was built on openness and as a safe creation space for all,” but we realize that this has not always been the case in practice.

We question why after 50 years of existence, the membership of Open Studio remains so homogenous yet exists in the centre of Canada’s most diverse city. In the past two years physical improvements have been made to ‘open up’ the studio, but we recognize that our institution has not done enough to actively make space for BIPOC artists.

We seek sustainable solutions and a long-term vision for how to manifest a more inclusive future. An advisory committee will be struck composed of artist members and members of the larger Toronto arts community, including Black and Indigenous artists, in order to explore ways Open Studio can lessen racial and financial impediments and provide broader access to our space and resources. We foresee new programming initiatives, new education scholarships, and potential changes at the staff and Board levels.

We look forward to building a more open and welcoming studio that will truly serve as a safe creation and exhibition space for the whole artistic community.