The State of the Arts: Living with Culture in Toronto

Freakier rich people. More suburban art. A venue for new music. Better staplers. An infrastructure for hip-hop. Laneway art. More wi-fi. A more understanding marriage between art and business. Affordable live-work spaces. What would make Toronto a better place for the arts? City Hall proclaimed 2006 the Year of Creativity. 'Live With Culture' banners flap over the city. And across the city, donors are ponying up millions for the ROM and the AGO. Culture's never had it so good. Right? The State of the Arts explores the Toronto culture scene from every angle, applauding, assailing and arguing about art in our fair burg. The essays consider the big-ticket and the ticket-free, from the CNE to unintentional art. In between, you'll find thoughts on the 'creative city' and photobloggers, Toronto on film and the fine line between part and art. Taken together the thoughts of these writers, artists and city-builders create a snapshot of culture in T.O. as it grows from 'Toronto the Good' to 'Toronto the Could' to 'Toronto the Can-Do.' Includes sixteen colour pages of eye-level Toronto, and cover art by Susan Szenes. With essays by Sandra Alland, Jason Anderson, Anna Bowness, Stephen Cain, Kate Carraway, Hanna Cho, Brendan Cormier, Natalie De Vito, Liz Forsberg, Mark Fram, Marc Glassman, Katarina Gligorijevic-Collins, Brenda Goldstein, Amy Lavender Harris, Karen Hines, Sarah B. Hood, Christopher Hume, Sam Javanrouh, Dory Kornfeld, Adam Krawesky, More Or Les, John Lorinc, James MacNevin, Claudia McKoy, Brian McLachlan, Ryan McLaren, Shawn Micallef, Jill Murray, Matt O'Sullivan, Christopher Pandolfi, Michael Redhill, Dylan Reid, Damian Rogers, Stuart Ross, Lisa Rundle, Dana Samuel, Nadja Sayej, Susan Szenes, Kevin Temple, Pablo Torres, Gayla Trail, Rannie Turingan, Jason van Eyk, Adam Vaughan, RM Vaughan, Stéphanie Verge, Lisa Whittington-Hill and Carl Wilson.