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| Founded | 1908 |
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| Type | Private members' club |
| Location |
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| Website | artsandlettersclub.ca |
The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto is a private members' club in Toronto, Ontario, which brings together writers, architects, musicians, painters, graphic artists, actors and others working in or with a love of the arts and letters. It was founded in 1908 as a gentlemen's club, but women have been members since 1985. [1]
| St. George's Hall (Arts and Letters Club) | |
|---|---|
 Front entrance at 14 Elm Street | |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Established | 1908 (Arts and Letters Club) |
| Built | 1891 (St. George's Hall) |
| Built for | St. George’s Society |
| Original use | Settlement house |
| Current use | Private club |
| Architect | Edwards & Webster (1891), Sproatt & Rolph (1920 alterations) |
| Governing body | The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto |
| Designated | 2007 |
| Designated | 1975 |
The club is located in a historic building, St. George's Hall, at 14 Elm Street in downtown Toronto. It is protected under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act , designated by the City of Toronto since 1975. [2] In 2007 its premises were designated a National Historic Site of Canada. [3] [4] It is sometimes open to the public during Doors Open Toronto. [5]
The building has been described as "an eclectic blend of architectural styles popular at the end of the nineteenth century, combining elements of Romanesque, Flemish, and medieval architecture." [6] When the club moved to the building in 1920 it made numerous renovations, including new windows and a large stone fireplace in the neo-Gothic Great Hall. It now has a lounge, meeting rooms, a library, art studio, and the two-story Great Hall for concerts, plays, lectures and meals.
The club was founded in 1908 by journalist Augustus Bridle, who arranged a first meeting on 23 March 1908. [7] At a meeting on 14 May the motion to give the club its name was moved by E. Wyly Grier; The Globe reported "it is the intention of the members of the club to seek among themselves a genial companionship, and to increase sympathy between the various branches of the arts." [8] The first official meeting of the club was in late October 1908. [9]
Events moved from place to place until late 1909, when the club moved to its first home at 42 King St. East, above the Brown Betty Tea Rooms. [10] In 1910 it moved to 57 Adelaide St. East, on the second floor of the County of York Courthouse. [11] In 1920 it moved to its present quarters at St. George's Hall at 14 Elm Street, which it rented until 1986 when it bought the building. [12]
Membership opened to women in 1985. Among the forty-two "charter women" members was Laure Rièse. [13]
The club has been an important part of Canadian cultural life since its founding, and "many of the key figures in a number of the arts organizations being created in the first half of the twentieth century in Toronto were members of the Club." [14]
When Rupert Brooke visited Toronto in 1913, Edmund Morris brought him to lunch at the club, "five years old and the centre of Canadian literary and cultural life. The nucleus that would form the Group of Seven met in the club's rooms." [15]
Founding member Roy Mitchell staged a number of theatrical productions at the club between 1911 and 1915 that "introduced skeptical Toronto audience to the principles of theatrical modernism.". [16] In 1919 he worked with fellow member Vincent Massey on the creation of the Hart House Theatre and became its first artistic director. [17]
In the 1920s the club "helped draw together Toronto's artistic and intellectual community; it was favoured by journalists, poets, musicians and bookmen, as well as by the Group of Seven and other artists." [18] In 1927 it hosted a show of work by Bertram Brooker that was the first solo exhibition of abstract art in Canada. [19]
In the 1940s members of the club played a role in the creation of the Canadian Arts Council, which in 1958 became the Canadian Conference of the Arts. John Coulter instigated an advisory council on government support for the arts at the club in 1943, and in April 1944 he, Herman Voaden and others went to Ottawa to meet with James Gray Turgeon, chair of the House of Commons Special Committee on Reconstruction and Re-establishment. In June a group of members represented the club and went to Ottawa with fifteen other arts organizations to lobby the government. [20] As a result, in December 1945 the Canadian Arts Council was formed, with Voaden as its first president. [21] Involvement with Canadian arts policy continued when in 1949 Vincent Massey chaired the Massey Commission, which led to the creation of the Canada Council in 1957 when he was Governor-General. Club member Claude Bissell was its second chair.
In the club's early years several members were Theosophists, such as Albert E. S. Smythe (first president of the Toronto Theosophical Society), Lawren Harris (who later wrote articles such as "Theosophy and Art") and Roy Mitchell (whose books include Theosophy in Action). Mitchell staged plays at the Club with the Arts and Letters Players (and later at Hart House Theatre and in New York) that were informed by his Theosophist views. [22] Early productions at the club "reveal the influence of Theosophical ideas upon formal experimentation—as well as a pervasive sense of fun and an interdisciplinary approach to the performing arts." [18]
Connections continued with other members through the years. Artist Eric Aldwinckle was "active in the Theosophical Society" as of 1942 [23] and in 1950 published Two Fables with the Theosophical Press.
Aside from the Group of Seven and others mentioned above, well-known members of the club include Hector Charlesworth, Robertson Davies, M. O. Hammond, George Locke, Charles William Jefferys, Mavor Moore and Owen Staples.
Since its founding, two club members have become Nobel laureates (Frederick Banting, "one of Canada's most accomplished amateur painters," [24] and John Macleod), six have been knighted (including Banting and MacMillan) and, since 1967, more than 150 have been named to the Order of Canada, including Betty Oliphant, Joyce Wieland and Ezra Schabas. [25]
The club's artistic life revolves around its "LAMPS" disciplines: Literature, Architecture, Music, Painting, and Stage (originally Sculpture). [26] These are very broadly defined and include photography, all performing arts, screenwriting, urban planning and other related fields. The Club welcomes both professional members, whose careers have been associated with one or more of these, and non-professional members, who appreciate and support the arts. [27] Events offered by the Club include lunchtime talks and concerts, dinners with speakers on subjects of current interest, film nights, stage performances, studio painting sessions three days a week, art exhibitions for members, and groups interested in photography, writing and poetry.
The annual Boar's Head Dinner is believed to be the oldest event of its kind in North America, and the Club's constitution is unique in that every year it is sung at the annual general meeting to music specially composed by Healey Willan.
The club's archives contains a wide variety of original material documenting membership and activities since its founding. The archives are open to scholars, historians, and other researchers. Thirty-four boxes of documents dating back to the founding of the club are stored at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. [28]
Sir Frederick Grant Banting was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate noted as the co-discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic potential.
Charles Vincent Massey was a Canadian diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Confederation. Massey was the first governor general of Canada who was born in Canada after Confederation.
St Michael's College, officially the University of St. Michael's College, is a constituent college of the University of Toronto. It was founded in 1852 by the Congregation of St. Basil and retains its Catholic affiliation through its postgraduate theology faculty. However, it is primarily an undergraduate college for liberal arts and sciences.
John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, usually better known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne, by which he was known between 1847 and 1900, was a British nobleman who was Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883. He was the husband of Princess Louise, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. He was the first president of "Rangers Football Club", thanks to his Argyll ties to the original founders of the football club.
Lawren Stewart Harris LL. D. was a Canadian painter, best known as a leading member of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art and as a visionary in Canadian landscape art.
Massey Hall is a performing arts theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1894, it is known for its outstanding acoustics and was the long-time hall of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. An intimate theatre, it was originally designed to seat 3,500 patrons, but after extensive renovations in the 1940s, it now seats up to 2,765. It has an extensive history of concerts by artists of many musical genres which continues today.
Franklin Carmichael was a Canadian artist and member of the Group of Seven. Though he was primarily famous for his use of watercolours, he also used oil paints, charcoal and other media to capture the Ontario landscapes. Besides his work as a painter, he worked as a designer and illustrator, creating promotional brochures, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and designing books. Near the end of his life, Carmichael taught in the Graphic Design and Commercial Art Department at the Ontario College of Art.
Hart House is a student activity centre at the University of Toronto. Established in 1919, it is one of the earliest North American student centres, being the location of student debates and conferences since its construction. Hart House was initiated and financed by Vincent Massey, an alumnus and benefactor of the university, and was named in honour of his grandfather, Hart Massey. The Collegiate Gothic-revival complex was the work of architect Henry Sproatt, who worked alongside decorator Alexander Scott Carter, and engineer Ernest Rolph, and subsequently designed the campanile at its southwestern corner, Soldiers' Tower. In 1957, the house hosted U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Herman Arthur Voaden, FRSA was a Canadian playwright.
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada. Originally controlled by the Church of England, the university assumed its present name in 1850 upon becoming a secular institution. As a collegiate university, it comprises 11 colleges each with substantial autonomy on financial and institutional affairs and significant differences in character and history. The university maintains three campuses, the oldest of which is St. George, located in downtown Toronto. The other two satellite campuses are located in Scarborough and Mississauga.
Eric Aldwinckle was a Canadian Official war artist, designer and one of the most prominent illustrators of the 20th century. He was also a teacher at the Ontario College of Art, 1936–42; Principal of New School of Design and Vice-Principal of the Ontario College of Art, 1946.
The Canadian Conference of the Arts was an Ottawa-based, not-for-profit, member-driven organization that represented the interests of over 400,000 artists, cultural workers and supporters from all disciplines of the nation's arts, culture and heritage community.
Owen 'Poe' Staples was a Canadian painter, etcher, pastelist, political cartoonist, author, musician and naturalist.
The Toronto Heliconian Club is a non-profit association of women involved in the arts and letters based in Toronto, Ontario. It operates out of Heliconian Hall, a historic building located in the Yorkville area of central Toronto. Founded in 1909, the Club still focuses on its original commitment to women supporting and working in the arts.
The Women's Art Association of Canada (WAAC) is an organization founded in 1887 to promote and support women artists and craftswomen in Canada, including artists in the visual media, performance artists and writers. At one time, it had almost 1,000 members. Although smaller today, it still plays an active role in fundraising and providing scholarships for young artists.
The High School of Montreal was an English-language high school founded in 1843, serving Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the area eventually known as the Golden Square Mile. It was less formally known as Montreal High School and from 1853 to 1870 was called the High School of McGill College, or the High School Division.
Frederick Sproston Challener (1869–1959), also known as F.S. Challener, was a Canadian painter of murals as well as an easel painter of oils and watercolours and a draftsman in black-and-white and pastel. He also did illustrations for books and commercial art. He "easily ranks with the first few mural decorators in Canada", wrote Newton MacTavish, author of The Fine Arts in Canada
Augustus Bridle was a Canadian journalist and author.
Curtis Williamson known for his portraits and figure painting; also genre and landscape. He was nicknamed "the Canadian Rembrandt" because of his dark, tonal style. Williamson showed his work at the Canadian Art Club's inaugural exhibition in 1907 and like some of the other members, his work had a Hague school or Barbizon sensibility.
Roy Matthews Mitchell was a Canadian-American theatre practitioner who played an important role in little theatre in Canada and the United States. He was involved in the creation and was the first artistic director of the Hart House Theatre at the University of Toronto, and was an influence on Vincent Massey, Herman Voaden and Mavor Moore. In 1974 Moore wrote "in 1929, Roy Mitchell was a voice crying in the near-wilderness of Canada" and called him "the seer who said it all on our own doorstep nearly half a century ago." A later scholar wrote that Mitchell's "vision ... did not fully come to pass in his lifetime, nor did it subsequently."
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