Art Metropole : Art Metropole was founded by the Canadian artists collective General Idea as a non-profit artist-run archive and distribution agency for artists' publications and other materials. The three artists of General Idea had been publishing their periodical FILE since 1972. The enormous interest internationally led them to found Art Metropole as a means for other artists to access their distribution system. They had also begun to amass a collection of artists books and ephemera, and this they saw as the beginnings of the Art Metropole collection. In 1974 they opened their doors to the public in an abandoned space over a Greek restaurant in downtown Toronto. The building had originally been built in 1911 for one of Toronto's earliest art galleries, Art Metropole (which closed in the forties), and from this came the name. In 1975 Peggy Gale joined Art Metropole to initiate a video distribution service, one of the first in the world. In 1987 they discontinued conventional video distribution and began publishing artists' videos in low-cost VHS format. In the late 1970s they began publishing books. Performance by artists in 1977 was the first of a series of resource books on new artists' media. In the same year 3 death stories by Tom Sherman was published, the first of a long series of artists books. Although Art Metropole hosted video screenings and book launchings, they did not undertake an exhibition until 1982, when they toured the seminal exhibition Museums by Artists. In 1984 they presented a ten-year anniversary overview of the Art Metropole Collection. In the late 80s they establshed a small exhibition/display space and began a regular exhibition program. Art Metropole continued to produce a series of innovative distribution-based projects such as Ads by artists (1987) and Billboards by artists (1997). In both cases they commissioned artists to produce art works for conventional advertising space, in one case in the advertising section of international art magazines, in the other, on billboards in downtown Toronto. In 1997 Art Metropole transferred their permanent collection of over 13,000 items to the National Gallery of Canada. "Art metropole: origins." Art Metropole. 2002. 23 January 2002. . 1199
