Artists dig Forest Hill studio

[attach]2960[/attach]A year-round greenhouse. A beach volleyball court. An artists’ colony of live-work studios and offices for non-profit arts and environment groups.

Those are just some of the features of the Artscape Wychwood Barns — a two-year-old community initiative that has successfully turned forgotten streetcar maintenance buildings into a prized gem for Toronto’s Midtown community.

The Barns are part of the family for contemporary mixed-media painter Susan Avishai. One of her daughters held her wedding in one of site’s community spaces this past summer.

Avishai has rented a work studio in the main barn since 2008. She sees first hand the important connections artists and other tenants develop with the public.

“I always wanted to be in a situation where they were a lot of artists around me,” she says. “But I just liked the idea of going somewhere every day…coming to a place where there is a lot of creative energy.”

Opened in November 2008, the Christie Street site, south of St. Clair Avenue West, preserves the TTC barns — built between 1913 and 1921 — that hadn’t been used for 25 years.

The $21.2 million redevelopment saw the barns converted into 26 units of housing for artists and their families, 15 affordable studio spaces, theatre spaces and art gallery, a community space that is used in the winter months for a farmers’ market, and 13 offices for non-profit arts and environmental groups. It’s surrounded by 127,000 sq. ft. of parkland.

“It is one of the best things that has happened to this area,” says Eddie Yanofsky, who has lived with his partner on nearby Hoken Avenue for 12 years.

Yanofsky often checks out the farmers’ market on Saturday mornings, takes his dogs Basil and Walter for jaunts around the site and stops in to check out the work of some of the artists, many of whom he has become friends with over the past two years.

[attach]2963[/attach]He said the Barns is a fabulous place to interact and meet other community members. It offers something for everyone, year round, he added.

“It gives you a real sense of community … a real sense of history,” Yanofsky said.

Non-profit arts group Artscape was chosen by the city in 2004 to manage the redevelopment. Artscape, which has transformed a number of derelict spaces into artist-friendly spaces (including ones in Liberty Village, Parkdale and the Distillery District), worked with food security organization The Stop Community Food Centre to create a greenhouse, community bake oven and compost demonstration centre. They worked with Housing Connections to choose artists from an intensive interviewing process for the affordable housing units.

Construction began in March 2007, and wrapped up in October 2008. The project was spearheaded by local councillor Joe Mihevc.

Mexican-born artist Jesus Mora, who is one of the 26 artists who lives onsite, has rented a small live/work studio at the Barns since its opening. He sees the opportunity to live and work there as a way to foster a relationship with fellow artists and the general public.

Mora, who regularly shows his work in Canada and Mexico, often opens up his studio to passersby.

“It’s good for me as a painter to see what other people think,” Mora says. “For the community, the Barns creates a point of interest.”

The environmentally friendly building features energy efficient lighting, water conservative plumbing, geothermal heating and a water-reuse system.

Outside, there is a playground, featuring water sprinklers in the summer months, chess and checkers tables, a fenced-off dog park, a community garden, and a open field for impromptu soccer games, and come winter, an ice skating rink.

Glass blower Nadia Tasci and her husband Uros Jelic, a painter, say the low rent has allowed them to give up their day jobs in order to work as full-time artists.

The couple and their cat moved into a one-bedroom unit in 2008 and this past summer secured a small studio in the main barn.

Tasci makes her glass jewellery in the couple’s home studio, while Jelic uses the newly acquired studio to paint.

“It’s a high-profile building,” Tasci says. “There’s a lot of curiosity, it’s very unique, it draws a lot of very ‘in people’ and it gives us a lot of exposure and that is a huge benefit for emerging artists like us.”