Artist-run centres in Canada

Artist-run centres are non-profit galleries and production spaces governed by artists and funded mostly by arts councils. Most choose much of their program through open calls, and the publicly funded ones pay exhibiting artists a fee. Our guide What is an artist-run centre? explains how they began and how they work; this page lists the centres in the cities we cover.

98 centres in 9 cities British Columbia 11 · Alberta 3 · Manitoba 9 · Ontario 25 · Quebec 50

British Columbia

11 centres Association: PAARC

Vancouver 11

Alberta

3 centres Association: AAARC

Calgary 2

Edmonton 1

Manitoba

9 centres Associations: MARCC, AGAVF

Winnipeg 9

Ontario

25 centres Associations: ARCCO, AGAVF

Toronto 14

Ottawa 8

Hamilton 3

Quebec

50 centres Association: RCAAQ

Montréal 40

Québec City 10

What this list leaves out

The list covers the cities we have published so far. Centres without a street address or a website in our records are not listed yet (20 centres in these cities at the moment), and neither are centres in towns and cities we do not cover. ARCA, the national association, says it represents more than 180 centres.

If a centre is missing, closed or listed with the wrong details, send us a correction.

The associations, province by province

Each association keeps its own member directory. Nationally: ARCA, the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference.

  • British Columbia PAARC Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres
  • Alberta AAARC Alberta Association of Artist-Run Centres
  • Saskatchewan PARCA Plains Artist-Run Centres Association (no public website found)
  • Manitoba MARCC Manitoba Artist-Run Centres Coalition AGAVF Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones
  • Ontario ARCCO Artist-Run Centres & Collectives of Ontario AGAVF Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones
  • Quebec RCAAQ Regroupement des centres d'artistes autogérés du Québec
  • New Brunswick AARCA (Atlantis) Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic AGAVF Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones
  • Nova Scotia AARCA (Atlantis) Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic AGAVF Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones
  • Prince Edward Island AARCA (Atlantis) Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic
  • Newfoundland and Labrador AARCA (Atlantis) Association of Artist-Run Centres from the Atlantic

AGAVF brings together francophone groups outside Quebec, in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Manitoba; AARCA covers the four Atlantic provinces.

How we verify

Sources

Listings start from open data (OpenStreetMap, Wikidata and the artist-run centre associations), then each fact is checked against the gallery's own website. Every page lists its sources.

Dates

Each listing shows when its facts were last verified. Listings we have not checked yet say so, and we never fill a gap with a guess: a missing fact reads “Not listed”.

Corrections

Galleries change hours, addresses and policies. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

Suggest a correction