BAND Gallery and Cultural centre

Type: Art Gallery, Community

Client: Black Artists Networks in Dialogue (BAND)

Location: Toronto, Ontario.

Schematic Design, Zoning, Committee of Adjustments

Black Artists’ Networks In Dialogue (BAND) was created in 2010 after its founders recognized a need for an artistic and cultural organization to have dialogue about Black Canadian culture.

Located in a late 19th century Victorian semi, BAND Gallery and Cultural Centre presents exhibitions and hosts performing arts events, talks and discussions intended to encourage dialogue among Black artists, cultural workers, and larger society. BAND focuses on developing emerging artists, curators, and arts administrators by providing an accessible venue to showcase their work.

SOCA was hired to create a design that increased gallery space with Class B gallery standards, provide barrier free accessibility, and enhance BAND’s public identity in the Parkdale neighbourhood.

The project revitalizes and expands the Victorian residential building into facilitate its use as a cultural hub and beacon for contemporary Black art and culture. The new facility supports art, artists, and art-communities safely, comfortably and at a high standard, in spaces designed specifically for them. The new galleries are accessible with improved visibility and street presence. They also have an increased potential for public and private events that span both the interior and exterior.

Initially we asked: What’s the symbolic meaning of a contemporary Black gallery in a Victorian era house?

We were intrigued by notion of ‘the back’ which has been significant in Black Canadian history especially during the reign of Queen Victoria. Whether it’s the rear coloured entrance, the back of the bus, or back of house areas for domestic workers, ‘the back’ in many ways conjures the Black community’s struggle for representation and equality.

Architecturally speaking: Black entrances, historically synonymous with back entrances, have been portals of disregard. Similarly, while the front facades of many Victorian Toronto homes have pretty and ornate brick and woodwork, the back facades are often shabby afterthoughts.

Our design relocates the front entrance to the rear and side, where in effect the back becomes the front—a place of pride, celebration, and connectivity to the Parkdale community.

Renderings featuring artists Kwasi Kyei and Leyla Jeyte.