A Case Study of the Challenges and Opportunities of Creating Community Experiences at the Gladstone Hotel

A Case Study of the Challenges and Opportunities of Creating Community Experiences at the Gladstone Hotel

Permission Granted: A Case Study of the Challenges and Opportunities of Creating Community Experiences at the Gladstone Hotel
Abstract

How do we create the conditions for dialogue and exchange within a cultural institution? When
we cannot define a project from the outset, can we collectively create parameters for communities to
unpack their own narratives in an inclusive and dynamic way? This paper examines the alternative models of exhibition and programming that are being employed by the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Canada. Situated as a multi-purpose space, the Gladstone Hotel produces and hosts a myriad of exhibitions, arts, and cultural programming: acting as part-community center, part-bar, and part-art space, the hotel’s multifarious approach embraces experimentation and fosters vigorous discussion. The Gladstone Hotel is a contemporary community space that reflects Jane Jacobs’s assertion that “new ideas need old buildings.”
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