RALLY Ossington Creative Factory.
Founder + Creative Director
Rally Ossington was a unique flexible warehouse space for like minded creatives and innovators to meet, work, play and share their passion and craft.
RALLY lived as a cultural community centre and space incubator balancing curated shops, commercial spectacle, art exhibitions and installations, contemporary events, thoughtful talks and spaces for creative work.
Its mandate: to ignite new blood and catalyze growth for Toronto’s creative community while fostering an arena for diverse people and ideas to come together under one roof. A show space, meeting space and as a forum of expression and collaboration.
In a moment of cultural exodus from the neighbourhood Vogue magazine touted the 2nd hippest in the world, Rally emerged and brought authentic art and culture content back to the corner of Queen West and Ossington, a neighbourhood built on art expression, small businesses and budding entrepreneurs.
Rally Ossington was a hub that lived as a cultural centre for events, showcases of local and international artists and designers, retail or pop-up storefront, co-working and meeting space for creative and tech sectors, and most importantly, a rallying ground for like-minded causes to intersect.
Full space pop-up with Montréal's Cabinet Éphémère, 2016.
The business model, mixed use formula and creative direction was spearheaded by Jacquelyn and delivered in partnership with real estate developer, Hullmark Developments. RALLY quickly became a neighbourhood icon <link> and welcomed thousands of culture seekers from October 2015 to January 2017.
This creative placemaking initiative and pilot project was designed specifically for the neighbourhood and its unique inhabitants, and was produced and managed with cultural artist agency, Hermann & Audrey.
Frontier Magazine Launch and historical exhibition, 2016.
RESULTS:
From October 2015 to January 2017, RALLY produced or hosted 62 events from weekend retail pop-ups, art exhibition, public art, to branded events, to private parties and heated debates.
The 8900 sq ft creative hub, sub-divided into flexible zones rotated permanent and temporary uses, market rate commercial rents and community partner events, artistic exhibition, and full takeover events and artistic residencies.
Specifically, in its 15 month run RALLY featured:
• 17 retail pop-ups (3 of which became permanent in the area)
• 12 art exhibitions featuring local emerging talent (putting net $120k direct into artist pockets)
• 11 commercial pop-ups (featuring global artists the Weeknd, Kanye West, Big Sean, Scott Campbell)
• 5 professional artist-in-residence opportunities (providing photography and public presentation spaces)
• 2 short-stay artist apartments (catalyzing visiting artist opportunity in Toronto)
• 22 community events (including events with OCAD, Ryerson and charity fundraisers for ArtBound, Lifeline Syria + Warchild)
• 10 murals painted in the Ossington area (with the grand help of Hebru Brantley, the Love Letter Projects, Pangeaseed's SeaWalls, Friends of the PanAm Path, StreetARToronto).
Praise for RALLY:
“The Rally Ossington cultural incubator set an early pace for our placemaking strategy in the neighbourhood. It brought thousands of new people to the street, spearheaded new public art programs and supported an ongoing destination build for the Ossington strip.” Jeff Hull, President, Hullmark Developments.
“The location could not have been better for our purposes. Our sales far exceeded our expectations and although we did have lots of our core customers and friends come to see us at Rally, we also had a surprising amount of walk-in traffic, which is really key to growing the brand.” Jill Woods, 18 Waits.
"From the opening reception to the very last day of our event, everything was well conceived and executed. Everyone at Rally is friendly and professional and made us feel part of a lovely community.“ Saria Moubayed, Cabinet Éphémère.
Commercial Event Destination: Big Sean's Toronto tour's pop-up.
Rally was an urban intervention and first-of-its-kind placemaking project in Toronto, Canada.
Rally was designed to spark the creative economy in a changing west-end neighbourhood through the creation of a destination hub for ideas, creative entrepreneurs and cultural showcase.
Commercial pop-up space and contemporary retail pilot. Front space with local brand KOTN.
Local fashion designer showcases and launches 2015/2016.
Cultural Partnerships with innovative groups and events: FORMS Summit on Tactical Urbanism.
Retail incubator 'Mercantile', 2015-2016.
In the Beauty I Hide, Exhibition curated by Richard Ahnert, 2016. With support of Beautiful Bizzare Magazine.
Rally created multi-faceted district benefit: entrepreneurial success in the creative sector, development of an authentic culture destination, place for community galvanization, launch-pad to local independent business, and stage for the innovative ideas forming Toronto’s cultural landscape. pow.
Caratoes joined us from Hong Kong for A Love Letter to the Great Lakes where we added several new murals to the hood.
Hennessey x Scott Campbell limited edition, Canadian launch Events. 2016.
Commercial pop-up and cultural event, Weeknd’s Starboy, 2016.
Ryerson's DOCNOW, a documentary film festival and exhibition, 2016.
Rent VHS, a video shop replica and pop culture exhibition during TIFF 2016. Featuring artists Justin Broadbent, the Doody's, Jordan Soderberg-Mills, Fred Caron. Part of the monthly public exhibition schedule. Supported by Heineken. Global News clip.
Hebru Brantley's 'Coffee Makes you Black" Exhibition was RALLY's inaugural showcase, he painted a mural to mark the occasion.
Tokyo Police Club record launch event and 12 hour music marathon, 2016.