Browse art courses and workshops. Registration for fall programs is now open.

 

Located inside Guild Park and Gardens, the Clark Centre for the Arts is a stunning new cultural facility that houses specialized art studios and gallery spaces that Toronto residents and visitors can enjoy year-round. The Centre provides rental opportunities and delivers close to 85 accessible arts programs annually, including art courses, workshops and talks.

Guild Park and Gardens is a unique 88-acre site on the Scarborough Bluffs that includes forests, shoreline and a collection of architectural fragments, sculptures and buildings.

General Admission

Free

Hours of Operation

Monday to Sunday: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Closed on statutory holidays.

Location

191 Guildwood Pkwy.

Limited free parking is available.

Public Transit

From Kennedy Station, take the 116 bus to Guildwood Pkwy at Guild Inn East Side.

For specific TTC route and schedule information call 416-393-4636 or visit the TTC website.

Clark Centre for the Arts offers a variety of visual arts workshops for children and adults. Browse visual arts courses & workshops online or via the brochure.

Registration is required.

How to Register

Visit https://efun.toronto.ca

You will need the following information:

  • client number
  • family number
  • course code
  • credit card

To obtain your client and family numbers, please call Client Services at 416-396-7378. Staff are dedicated to providing timely, accessible and high-quality services to the public and will take all reasonable measures to accommodate accessibility needs.

Please contact Clark Centre for the Arts, if you have any special needs requirements. The Clark Centre for the Arts is excluded from Parks, Forestry and Recreation policies and procedures, including the Welcome Policy.

Blessyl Buan (she/her)

Blessyl Buan is an interdisciplinary artist whose art reflects rhythm, movement and land-based spirituality. Her recent creative work draws inspiration from Philippine Indigenous traditions and the concept of “Kapwa,” which signifies the interconnectedness of Self with community, Land, and the Cosmos. Her research delves into themes of cultural preservation, identity, and ceremony through the interplay of natural materials and movement. She is also the designer and founder of Buankissed, a contemporary jewelry line that elevates diasporic Filipino culture and supports Philippine Indigenous weavers.

Guinevere Pura (she/her)

Photo-based artist; Guinevere Pura has been honing her portraiture skills in digital photography since 2008. Formally trained in analog, she began her career in the darkroom. An interior and architectural photographer, she honed her portraiture skills photographing headshots for actors and performers. As an artist, she is experimental artist, explores different mediums while combining analog and digital photography. Themes in her work is her observations of the socio-economic landscape and societal changes that is at our midst. She is born and raised in Toronto.

About the Artist Residency Program

The Clark’s Artist Residency program provides Toronto artists with opportunities to think, experiment, work and create in an artistic lakeside yet urban environment. The residency will conclude with a one-month exhibition in Gallery 191.

Learn more about applying.

The Clark Centre for the Arts site has a long tradition of creativity and fine arts. In the 18th century, the land surrounding the Clark Centre for the Arts site had been divided into tracts that were granted to loyalists who had served in the American Revolutionary War. After changing hands a number of times, General Harold Child Bickford purchased the property in 1914, named it the Ranelagh Park Country Estate and built the well-known Bickford House. Today, the Bickford House is a Designated Heritage Property, and considered an excellent example of early 20th Century Period Revival style with Arts and Crafts detailing.

In 1932, Rosa and Spencer Clark founded the Guild of All Arts after Rosa purchased 450 acres of land. The Guild of All Arts contained shops, a tea room, and studios in fine art and craft, including painting, sculpture, hand-loom weaving, tooled leather, ceramics, metal work, wood carving and batik. After the Second World War, the Clarks expanded the hotel and restaurant operation and created formal gardens. The area became known as the Guild Inn or the Guild. During Toronto’s building boom that began in the 1960s, many historic 19th and 20th century downtown buildings were demolished. As an advocate for architectural preservation, Spencer Clark recovered many of these buildings’ facades and architectural features to display on the grounds of the Guild.

Architectural services were provided by Taylor Hazell Architects and the construction was undertaken by Atlas Construction Ltd.

Sculptor’s Cabin

The Sculptor’s Cabin is a small historic building located near the front entrance of Guild Park and Gardens. It was renovated in spring 2019 and serves the community as a meeting place and information centre.

Under a community partnership agreement with the Guild Park Stakeholder Group, comprising Friends of Guild Park, Guild Festival Theatre, Guildwood Community Village Association and Guild Renaissance Group, the Sculptor’s Cabin acts as a vibrant community resource to promote civic and cultural engagement.

Log Cabin

Located south of the centre, the Log Cabin operates as a program resource to support the Clark Centre’s Artist in Residency and pre-registered programs.