With properties sitting vacant in Ottawa’s downtown core and developers looking for ways to use empty spaces in new ways, Cassandra Olsthoorn wants to bring artists into the conversation.
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With properties sitting vacant in Ottawa’s downtown core and developers looking for ways to use empty spaces in new ways, Cassandra Olsthoorn wants to bring artists into the conversation.
“We’re seeing lots of opportunities for redevelopment in both public and private spaces,” Olsthoorn told OBJ last week. “We’re seeing opportunities to be able to build more art spaces and spaces for artists to create work. The question is, is the arts sector ready to catch those spaces as they become available?”
Olsthoorn is co-executive director of local non-profit Arts Ottawa, which advocates for the needs and priorities of the city’s arts sector. The organization is the amalgamation of two leading groups in the space, the Ottawa Arts Council and Arts Network of Ottawa, which officially merged in January.
It’s a partnership that Olsthoorn hopes will allow the new Arts Ottawa to go deeper into the biggest issues facing artists.
“Something we often say is that we’re a mile long and an inch deep. We’re doing lots of things but we’re not always able to get to the core of those issues,” she said. “We haven’t always been able to see the impact of really moving the needle to make life better for artists.”
Still in its early days, the organization is building out its governance charter, according to Olsthoorn, but is also thinking about what issues will take priority in its advocacy work.
Of particular interest to Olsthoorn is determining how artists can be involved in the conversation around converting vacant property into new uses.
“Space is a real challenge (for artists),” she said. “Being able to access affordable, accessible space across the city, both for the creation of art – like studios or rehearsal halls – but also space where artists connect with audiences and the community, like galleries and performance spaces or parks that have the right electricity. Those kinds of space problems are ongoing.”
With artists needing space and a number of properties in the city needing new uses, Olsthoorn said there could be an opportunity to try something new. The question, she said, is how?
“The downtown action plan talks about building lots of arts spaces. If, say, a federal government building is being off-loaded, well, who will do that?” she said. “Which group of artists, which organization?”
That is what Olsthoorn is in the process of examining. Across the country, arts-minded cities have taken different approaches to increase the number of local artist spaces and cultural centres.
“I’m sure there are lots of people in our community who are ready, that have their feasibility plans and know how they want to use the space, but are they visible enough? Are they going to be seen and selected? How can we build some sector-readiness so when these opportunities come, we can be advocating. We can say, here’s this group that’s ready.”
In the Waterloo region, ArtsBuild Ontario launched a pilot program called “Meanwhile Spaces,” which offers temporary use of vacant properties to arts groups to help regenerate the empty spaces.
But before Ottawa can take that step, she said the city needs to know what kinds of spaces are needed where and who has the capacity to invest in them. In Vancouver, for example, she said independent non-profit Cultural Land Trust purchases and manages land for use by artists.
Also cropping up across the country are programs that allow artists to stay in spaces they would otherwise be priced out of as neighbourhoods revitalize. Those initiatives include profit-sharing models or lease-to-own programs.
“Often arts organizations come in at that point of revival,” she said. “They are a big draw in making a space or community more attractive, but then they can’t necessarily afford to stay after those things have been realized. So part of our interest is exploring new business models that we can innovate in Ottawa, that will help future proof these arts spaces.”
It will be a community effort to determine what works best for the city, Olsthoorn said, and one that she hopes will be multi-sector as well.
Efforts like the downtown revitalization task force 2024 report, she said, already show that there is broad interest in producing cultural and arts spaces, outside of the arts sector. For example, the report proposes converting L’Esplanade Laurier, a government building on the federal government disposal list, into a mixed-use complex with attractions such as an amphitheatre. In cases like that, she said there could be opportunities for artists to partner with developers.
Later this month, Arts Ottawa will host an event called “Shared Ground,” which Olsthoorn said will bring members of the community together. It will be hosted at 300 Sparks St., a former cinema that she said Arts Ottawa will be looking at as a case study for reimagining under-used spaces as arts hubs.
Olsthoorn said she hopes to see leaders from across sectors attend to make connections and start conversations.
“How do we think of these places as really arts-centred, but not solely arts-focused?” she said. “There’s an opportunity in building these arts spaces that can be 24/7 activated. If we can think of what is the right mix of services and destinations, we can create more third spaces in our downtown.”
