Welcome to the Creative Hubs and Network Mapping Initiative

The Creative Hubs and Networks Mapping Initiative (CHNMI) is part of the Critical Digital Methods Institute (CDMI) at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC). Led by Mary Elizabeth Luka, the CHNMI supports the CDMI’s overarching interdisciplinary focus on seeking to build bridges across the gaps that exist between disciplines, media, systems and people. The exchange and dissemination of knowledge that this database provides will be important to the following organizations and individuals: creative hubs funders and leaders, policy makers, community users, creative workers and artists, researchers, and specific publics.

Each of these audiences will be able to access and use the database for assistance in various projects as well as an information resource. Creative hub funders will be able to better evaluate the inventory of creative hubs available, as well as being able to examine the creative hubs they do not fund. The publication of this database will be beneficial for the hubs themselves, and artists, as this puts the creative organizations in communication with each other. Finally, this database presents information for the general public in a way that is both digestible and in-depth, making it a key information resource for those interested in creative organizations in Canada.

The information collected for this database came from multiple sources.

Information was gathered from publicly available information from the organizations themselves (fact-checked in 2021); the creative hubs and networks inventories first conducted by Mary Elizabeth Luka in 2016 during a SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship; rebuilt and augmented in 2018 by Luka and Jacqueline Wallace; cross-checked with studies by Nordicity (2017) and Telefilm Canada (2019); with further contributions in 2020 and 2021 made by Luka, Wallace, Rachel Barber-Pin, Katy Ilona-Harris, Claudia Sicondolfo, Samarth Singhania, Hillary Walker, Helen Yung and Madison Zinger, supported in part by a University of Toronto Connaught New Researcher Award and by the KMD Institute. The database was restructured and the project dictionaries and Tableau dashboards were developed by Barber-Pin, Jermaine Williams and Luka with the advice and help of UTSC digital librarians Kirsta Stapelfeldt, Paulina Rousseau and David Kwasny in 2020-21. Some of the information collected was analysed or augmented for use in commissioned reports for the Department of Canadian Heritage (Arts Branch) in 2018 and 2020. Logo and web design are by J.P. King and Jermaine Williams.

To support the advancement of open and accessible information and data, this policy has been implemented to assist organizations and individuals using this database.

The Creative Hubs and Networks Database is committed to recognizing and respecting each organization’s information and data represented within the database.

  • Those wishing to use the Creative Hubs and Networks Database are required to acknowledge the CHND site per the CC license.
    • Under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license, users are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
    • Attribution: Users must give appropriate credit to the CHND site
    • Non-Commercial: The CHND site may not be used for commercial purposes
    • Derivatives: users that decide to change or build upon the material from the CHND site may not distribute the reformed material
  • All information that is derived from the Creative Hubs and Networks Database is required to acknowledge the organization represented as the original source.
  • The Open Access policy does not apply to third-party content. Anyone wishing to use content that belongs to the organizations within the database is responsible for understanding and contacting the right holder(s) for their permission.

Déziel, Marie-Odile & Duchesneau, Guillaume. 2019. Exploring the Phenomenon of Creative Hubs. Telefilm Canada. [industry report] https://telefilm.ca/en/studies/exploring-the-phenomenon-of-creative-hubs

Nordicity. 2017. Hubs and Business Skills Training for the Culture and Creative Sector- What’s Working? WorkInCulture [industry report]

Funder

Researcher

Creative Worker

Artrepreneurs/ Entrepreneurs

Media

Administrators

General Interest

Policy Makers

Select a dashboard view to learn how to make Creative Hubs work for you.

Creative Hubs and Networks Database Map

Impact Assessment Collection

Updated as of July 13 12:30 PM