What is Makeshift?
Makeshift is many things. Here's what we have been called:
a community
an artist collective
a maker-space
a Chinese restaurant
a home
a crazy laboratory
a sitcom
an escape
a creative family
a halfway house for designers
an opportunity to do things differently
lucky
Here's what our members hope we might be some day:
a school
a design agency
an architecture firm
a production house
a coffee house
a speakeasy
a platform for social advocacy
a way of life
Can I join Makeshift?
The collective: yes you can!
We are always looking for friends who are passionate about making exciting things, and becoming part of a creative community. Just send us a message to let us know how can we can work together.
The space: unfortunately we’ve closed our doors since January 2020. Stay tuned in our Instagram for more information of any changes @makeshiftcollective.
Is Makeshift a Studio Space or a Design Agency?
We used to be both – but have unfortunately shut down our studio space in January 2020.
That said, we still continue to gather our collective members to support community and commercial projects. If you have a challenging and interesting project then send us a message here. We love projects that bring together a multidisciplinary group of creatives and challenge how we combine our skills. You can view some examples of projects we have done in the past on our projects page and Instagram.
Is Makeshift a Co-working Space?
Kind of.
When we operated our space pre-January 2020, we operated outside of the area of “co-working”. The term “co-working” carries a certain baggage and culture in Toronto right now, that just focuses on individual needs without delivering on actual “community”. While co-working happened in our studio, the actual focus of our space is the community.
Is The Studio Still In Operation?
Our collective is still vibrant as day 1; however we had to unfortunately close our studio doors in January 2020.
Do You Still Host Events?
Do you miss our Halloween parties as much as we do? While we have no plans at the moment without an anchor space; we are still interested in co-hosting events with other collectives and are always in the look out for great opportunities to gather the community together. If you have an idea, don’t hesitate to reach out!
You can also follow our Instagram for any up-to-date announcements.