A brief history of the Manual Training Collective (MTC)

  

The seeds of the MTC were planted in the early 90s when several artists were able to afford reasonable rents from the city that opened the Bloomfield heritage buildings, including the Bloomfield School, in the North End for the use of various non-profits and artists. As the years went by and the buildings deteriorated, the city decided to evict everyone in favor of a high-rise development. The artists then moved to the old school building at the corner of Cunard and Creighton on the second floor. The school was called the Manual Training School where boys from other schools attended technical classes, hence our name the Manual Training Collective. After eight years in that situation, the building, run by a daycare, decided to renovate the second floor and the Collective had to find a new home in 2018. The new home was found in downtown Halifax on the fifth floor of the Champlain Building, across from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, at the corner of Duke and Hollis Streets. The space

affords enough studios for fourteen artists with a kitchen and a common area for meetings and general socializing.