PlaySpace is for following the creative impulse. Hosted by the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence, PlaySpace is an urban, floor-to-ceiling glass storefront shipping container space located in downtown Toronto. It’s high-impact and low-stakes. Artists and researchers use PlaySpace to make, experiment, explore and try things out in community. Apply with a short proposal here.
Accessibility and Transit Options
PlaySpace is located at 707 Dundas St West, in downtown Toronto. It’s the bright pink unit in the south end of the shipping container market outside Scadding Court Community Centre, affectionately known as Market 707.
PlaySpace has a small 3-inch rise at the door. At the moment, there is no ramp yet. The shipping container only has one door for entrance and exits. The unit has air conditioning and an air purifier that uses UV-C light.
Accessible washrooms inside Scadding Court Community Centre are open until 9pm. An accessibility ramp is located on the east side of the building, between the north and south ends of the market.
Closest TTC stops are the 511 Bathurst streetcar, and the 505 Dundas streetcar, with a short 2-minute walk to the market.
Apply to PlaySpace
PlaySpace residencies may involve public engagement, making installations or interventions, designing or conducting research, devising or presenting performances, developing prototypes or practices, or something else you’re thinking of doing… Residencies can vary in length, from one to six weeks, depending on your intentions. If you just need a pop-up space for one day or one weekend, that’s fine too.
Photos and logistical details available here.
Residencies are generally supported by the Lab with assistance such as:
- Marketing & communications support (graphic design, blog, social media)
- Support for your grant writing / fundraising efforts (e.g. letter of support)
- Project documentation (photo / video)
- Feedback as desired (artistic, technical, research, development)
Artists, curators, professors, philosophers, researchers, theorists, scientists and other makers / shapers / thinkers are welcome to express interest in a residency using the form below. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
After submitting, you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not, please let us know: info@artisticintelligence.com
Past Residencies
An Invitation with Returning River
The Returning River collective and the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence invite you for an art + community gathering in celebration of Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Free and open to all! Friday September 20, 2024 5:30pm Storytelling walk. Meet at Huron Square. 6:30pm Performances at Scadding Court, starting outside the Lab's PlaySpace before moving indoors. The event opens with a storytelling walk through Chinatown led by artist Kwoi Gin, who will regale you with funny, tender,…
Renaissance in Residence: Paper
Poster art by Renaissance, 2024. Photo courtesy of the artist. August 23-24, 2024, Toronto-based street artist Renaissance will be creating work in the Lab's PlaySpace. A micro-residency. Artist Statement Paper originated from a tree that stood as a beacon for many generations as a self-sustaining ecosystem before it was cut down severed from its roots taken from its community broken down altered and changed into the form we know now as paper. This current project that I am embarking on is…
Nava Waxman working with Blue Gestures and other archival images
A short interview with artist Nava Waxman whose creative research is on view in the Lab's PlaySpace from August 9 to 23, 2024. Thank you for sharing your art with the public! How was it creating in the space? I wasn’t sure what to expect and how it would unfold, but I felt I was guided by the possibility of bringing some photographic images that communicate with the Lab, the community, and the physical space as a shipping container, which I felt is such a liminal and transitory space. And I…
Longing Belonging Redux
Poster art by Kwoi Gin We're proud to launch our new home with a poster art series by artist Kwoi Gin. Longing Belonging Redux is a vivid, powerful assemblage of tableaux vivant dealing with unarchived history. The exhibition is on view July 17 to 31, 2024 at the Lab's new PlaySpace at 707 Dundas St West. "My father came under the guise of PaperSon," writes Kwoi, during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act when Canada denied Chinese people from immigrating on the basis of race, after using tens…
Patio Party this Friday!
If you're in Toronto, drop by a Patio Party we're co-hosting in the courtyard at Scadding Court Community Centre (707 Dundas St W). It's a free, family-friendly outdoor event with a special performance at 9pm (hint: flash mob). There will be art and music by members of the Lab, as well as pop-up vendors, crafting areas for all ages, and food of many flavours. Our friends at Long Time No See Collective also have a poster art exhibition on view at Scadding Court. Kwoi Gin will be exhibiting…