Public Space Incubator
Toronto, Ontario
There is a tremendous unmet need for public space in Toronto. Ken and Eti Greenberg in collaboration with the Balsam Foundation have created the Public Space Incubator administered by Park People, a non-profit organization dedicated to working with communities to improve parks and open spaces in Toronto and across Canada. The project is seeking to support people who have bold, creative, and radical ideas for Toronto’s parks, plazas, schoolyards, laneways, streets, and other publicly-accessible open spaces.
With increasing densities and challenges to creating new public spaces, there is a need to creatively make the most of every space in our city to contribute to our quality of life. Toronto is seeing a growing interest in dynamic ways to inhabit and enliven our public spaces. These projects are changing how we interact with public space—and with each other.
The Public Space Incubator will encourage and support more of these creative projects. By providing access to funding and professional networks by supporting tangible pilots that test new, innovative ways to bring under-utilized public spaces to life.
With a focus on innovation, partnerships, programming, and scalability, the Public Space Incubator will provide eight projects—four in each of 2018 and 2019—with up to $25,000 in funding per project. It will support successful applicants in implementing projects by connecting them with a network of professionals.