This artist is recreating tiny versions of now-shuttered Toronto music venues
Andrew Smith's work keeps these historic spaces 'immortal,' musician says
The doors don't open at these music venues, but even if they did, you wouldn't fit inside.
That's because these versions of The Silver Dollar Room, Koolhaus and the Orbit Room are miniatures of the historic live music venues that once hosted some of Toronto's most fun concerts.
Carpenter Andrew Smith, 72, began recreating the former venues out of plywood and paint during the COVID-19 pandemic and found them to spark some creativity he said he hadn't felt in years.
You can see how he goes about making the miniatures in the video above.
Smith's now built 19 venues, and said all have two things in common: live music was played there, and they are no longer in business
His work, which he said has tapped into a "vein of nostalgia," is gaining online attention and some are on display in the window of an east-end art gallery. The name of his show: Toronto Lost Music City, is a tribute to bars that are now silent and a poke in the eye of the city's claim that it is still a live music hub.
The Orbit Room
Toronto band The Dexters used to frequent the Orbit Room — a College Street venue that hosted live music from a wide range of genres for 26 years before it closed in 2020 — to the point that it felt like home.
So Lou Pomanti, the band's founder, was stunned when he saw Smith's miniature venue.
"It was so exact that I thought it was just a photo of the front door," he said.
"What a great way to keep that immortal."