The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts

The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts opened in 1970 near St. Lawrence Market, part of a wave of civic performing arts venues built across Canada in the years surrounding the country's 1967 centennial, when municipalities invested heavily in cultural infrastructure as a form of national commemoration. The complex was built with multiple performance spaces under one roof, intended to give Toronto companies without their own dedicated venues, including theatre and dance groups, a professional home.

A civic venue for resident companies

Over subsequent decades the centre hosted a range of resident and touring companies, functioning as one of downtown Toronto's primary mid-sized civic performing arts venues distinct from commercial theatres like those run by Mirvish Productions. The centre has undergone periodic rebranding and reorganization of its resident companies and programming focus over the years, but has remained a working performing arts venue in the same St. Lawrence-area building since its centennial-era opening.

Sources

• Wikipedia — St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Performing Arts Centres in Canada

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