Tim Jones

is a champion for the role that the arts play in transforming cities and communities.  Under his direction as President and CEO since 1998, Artscape has grown from a Toronto-based affordable studio provider to an internationally recognized leader in city-building through the arts.

In Toronto, Tim has played a catalytic role in the redevelopment of the Distillery District, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Artscape Triangle Lofts and the award-winning Artscape Wychwood Barns.  He has pioneered new models of creative space development that helped build local economies, enriched social fabric, and advanced environmental best practice. In addition to their work in West Queen West, Liberty Village, Parkdale, Toronto Islands, Distillery and Wychwood communities, Tim and the Artscape team are working on more than a dozen new projects in neighbourhoods across Toronto.

In Canada and abroad, Tim acts as a consultant, mentor and advisor on projects, policies and initiatives. He and his colleagues at Artscape are passionately committed to building a community of practice around creative placemaking. Over the past 5 years, more than 100 Canadian communities have been engaged in Artscape’s knowledge exchange activities and Tim has presented Artscape’s work in more than 20 cities outside of Canada from Melbourne to Copenhagen.

In his determination to marry thinking and action in advancing the creativity agenda, Tim has hosted three major conferences under the banner Creative Places and Spaces. These forums have engaged leading Canadian and international thinkers, practitioners and policymakers in an exchange about the relationship between people, place and creativity while shining a spotlight on the people and initiatives that position Toronto as a global city.  Creative Places + Spaces conferences are now acknowledged among the world’s most important forums on creativity and innovation.