Toronto Music Experience to Open a Permanent Museum by 2029

Toronto’s music scene is getting its own museum.

The Toronto Music Experience (TME) has unveiled plans to launch a permanent cultural home by 2029, commemorating the city’s worldwide impact through music.

The TME announced plans for its expansion this week (May 5) at a private event at Live Nation’s The Lounge in Toronto featuring artists including Rush’s Alex Lifeson, Jully Black and Lorraine Segato.

The organization announced that it has been granted charitable status, which means it can go ahead with fundraising, partnerships and community engagement as part of its five-year plan towards its permanent home.

TME’s goal is to highlight Toronto’s musical past, present, and future through immersive exhibits, pop-up activations, live performances and education initiatives. It aims for a storytelling approach, highlighting the achievements and impact that have shaped the city’s music scene, from its historical Indigenous roots to the global impact of superstars like Drake, The Weeknd and Rush.

The museum fulfills the city’s need for a hallmark representation of its impactful musical legacy which is currently missing.

“We don’t have a museum devoted to what is arguably Toronto’s biggest cultural phenomenon, its biggest international export,” TME board director and longtime music journalist Nicholas Jennings told Billboard Canada in November 2024. “This is an untapped area for the city, and there is a need for it, because we’re losing some of these stories.”

TME has been actively telling these stories through a number of exhibitions in partnership with Friar’s Music Museum, located in a Shopper’s Drug Mart at Yonge and Dundas, the former home of the Friar’s Tavern music venue. TME hosted its first-ever live show experience with the Sound of Rhythms & Resistance concert at TD Hall in November 2024, an extension of its “Rhythms & Resistance” exhibit in 2021.

“The success of the two exhibits that we’ve held at Friar's has shown us that there’s an appetite and a market for something more permanent,” Jennings said.

Its latest exhibition, “Shaking the Foundations: Women Trailblazers in Toronto Music,” is currently on display at Friar’s. The organization plans to continue hosting rotating temporary exhibitions around the city in the coming years as part of its expansion.

TME wants to incorporate a mix of production, retail and café spaces as well as pop-up exhibits, pairing music education alongside interactive experiences featuring memorabilia.

“Our mission is to build an experiential space where artifacts meet immersive experiences in tribute to the artists, communities, and cultures that make our city sing,” says Denise Donlon, a music industry and broadcast executive and member of TME’s advisory board. “It’s a powerful way to celebrate our past and inspire the next generation of creators.”

TME is largely about informing the future of music in Toronto through past experiences and the cultural diversity of the city’s music scene. “This is about creating a permanent cultural space that reflects and amplifies who we are as a city and a destination which inspires future musical success stories,” says chairperson Lorna Day.

Fundraising for the project is now underway, with The Lewitt Family Foundation already announcing its plan to match donations up to $100,000 during the private launch event.