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York Accrues Accolades
At right: The new CIBC Lobby in Accolade East is lovely…so why can’t we stop thinking “red rum!”?
Full disclosure: Torontoist is a former Yorkie, having graduated from the Fine Arts department several years ago with all the requisite loving hatred. But our curiousity about the Fine Arts department’s brand spanking new Accolade Project overcame our lingering bitterness (not to mention our longtime dread of the 96A bus – at least it doesn’t go along Finch anymore), and so up we trekked to hell and gone Finch and Keele for the official ribbon cutting yesterday.
The Accolade Project, after years of seemingly endless construction (and upwards of $105 million), is finally complete – two new buildings for the Fine Arts department just bursting with much-needed additional studio and performance space. Accolade East houses the 325-seat Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre, a 500-seat cinema, a 325-seat recital hall, and an art gallery, plus heaps of dance, theatre, and music studios, not to mention a gorgeous student lounge with huge windows, the likes of which we would have killed for as an undergrad. Accolade West has the student art gallery and more classrooms and computer labs.
There are tons of performances to catch in the new spaces all week, and no tickets are more than $15 (and some are free). The