Akin’s 2024 Summary Report

2024 was a year of growth and change for Akin. We’re happy to share a summary with you including our Financial Results, an Action Plan Summary based on our annual membership survey responses, and a Programming Overview.

Reviewing the financial charts below, you’ll see that the most significant cost incurred is the rent paid to the property owners of Akin’s studio locations. Other substantial costs include staffing to run the studios, gallery and programming activities as well as other facility expenses like utilities, insurance, studio supplies, repairs and maintenance. 95% of the membership fees that Akin artists pay go directly to paying for these staffing and facility costs. Our organization remains entirely artist run, with our twelve core staff and eight contract workers balancing their artistic practices with their work for Akin.

Major 2024 milestones include opening Akin Queen East , and Akin Niagara as well as expanding Akin Richmond-Bathurst. This allowed us to add 148 more artist spaces to our studios and focus on central areas of the city where artist workspace has been greatly needed. These new studio openings were pivotal to our organization recovering from closing four locations in 2023: Akin Stockyards, Akin Waterfront, Akin Bloor-Yonge and the Akin Studio Program at Auto BLDG. Akin’s method of occupying space on an interim basis in the city is intentional and allows Akin to host artist workspaces in key areas of the city that would otherwise be unaffordable to so many of us. However, we are continuing to strive for longer leases and more permanent spaces to better serve the artist community in the city (stay tuned for big news on this soon).

In 2024 we were intentionally far less active with our programming than in past years. Even so, we featured 28 artists in exhibitions, presentations, and artist markets in 2024, while offering over 35 events and programs to roughly 375 attendees including exhibitions, workshops, artist talks, and community events. We also supported the creative growth of 5 emerging artists through the Akin Career Launcher Award at OCADU and the Neighbourhood Arts Network Space Award. Last year marked a strategic shift in our programming approach due to significant financial challenges, prompting us to focus on smaller-scale, higher-impact initiatives that align with both our core values and community interests. We prioritized meaningful engagement through artist-led Crit Nights, a variety of exhibitions, virtual artist features, and collaborative partnerships with organizations such as Neighbourhood Arts Network, and Culture Days Ontario. Our programming strategy has allowed us to tailor our efforts to what matters most to our community while laying the groundwork for sustainable growth in the years ahead.

In response to the December 2024 Studio Member Feedback Survey, Akin has developed a multi-faceted Action Plan that addresses key areas raised by our community: Facilities, Marketing, Membership, Programming, Remote Gallery and Staff. With over 120 members contributing their insights, this plan reflects their collective voice and outlines both short-term improvements and longer-term initiatives aimed at strengthening the Akin studio experience. We feel very fortunate to have heard so many thoughtful insights from our studio members about how Akin can improve! We’ve already begun acting on many of the suggestions, while others will unfold gradually as we continue to build capacity and explore new partnerships.

This Action Plan is rooted in care, transparency and a deep appreciation for our members. It includes practical changes like enhancing storage solutions and noise control, expanding referral and support programs and refining our new member onboarding. It also looks toward the future and evolving Remote Gallery with more robust support for exhibiting artists. As always, we remain open to feedback and will continue learning alongside our community.

If you have any questions about the information shared here or ideas for Akin as we move forward, please get in touch with us. Your voices shape Akin, and we’re excited to keep building space where creativity, connection and care can grow.

We’re so grateful to all of our studio members, attendees of our programmed events, partner organizations and supporters of Akin. The support of individuals like yourselves is incredibly important for Akin, now nearly 400 artists strong. With your help we can continue to serve the artistic community and to impact artists directly in ways that increase the creative vitality of Toronto. Please click here to learn about ways in which you can contribute.

Thank you,
Your friends,
The Akin Projects’ Staff and Board

2024 Financial Results

TOTAL NON-PROFIT BUDGET: $1,131,667

Action Plan Summary

Below is an outline of Akin’s Action Plan resulting from our December 2024 - January 2025 Studio Member Feedback Survey. These actions are aimed at addressing member feedback, improving the studio experience, and enhancing the Akin community experience.

We are so grateful to have received feedback from 120 of Akin’s studio members! We have begun and will continue to act on these learnings with dedication to allow Akin to gradually evolve for the better. It is important to note that some of the initiatives listed below will be quicker to happen and some of them will be worked on over the course of several years.

Facilities
This category focuses on the physical aspects of Akin's studios, including improvements, maintenance and addressing location-specific member feedback. Initiatives range from enhancing lighting, monitoring sound levels within the studios and various common area improvements. There's also attention to creating more dedicated storage facilities, and using currently underused spaces for additional storage. Many of these elements will also benefit from periodic monitoring to ensure that they’re being well-handled for the benefit of our studio members.

Marketing
This category deals with strategies to attract new members and improve the member experience in our studios, ultimately, encouraging our existing members to continue using their studios at Akin. It includes campaigns to build safe and supportive communities within the studios, which highlight the benefits of working at an Akin studio over working from home, campaigns that share the amenities that are offered by members at some Akin locations like kiln firings and Akin’s shared memberships for artists who don’t need a dedicated studio space or are looking for a lower cost option. It also covers aspects of improving our back-end system for tracking conversations with prospective members and current members to ensure that all aspects of these conversations are accounted for.

Membership
This category focuses on our new member acquisition process, financial support for current members, general member studio experience, and new member onboarding improvements. Initiatives include expanding the member referral program, providing subsidized studio spaces through organizational partnerships, and establishing an artist support fund. It also looks at ideas such as potentially introducing day passes and virtual memberships, and offering one-month or summer memberships. Another key aspect of this category is addressing members’ suggestions for making their Akin studio more valuable.

Programming
This category centers around events and activities for members. It involves encouraging member-led programming, involving members in studio storage management (via artwork trades or sales), prioritizing programming based on member interests (creative workshops, exhibitions, professional development), and organizing casual studio gatherings to foster community connection between our members.

Remote Gallery
This category focuses on enhancing Akin’s Remote Gallery. It includes developing an exhibition how-to guide and making general improvements to the newly enlarged gallery space and its promotion efforts.

Staff
This category addresses staff-related initiatives such as appreciation and support, developing a facilities issues response protocol to better support our team in handling studio issues, and refreshing our conflict resolution guidelines and processes.