Tariffs are hurting Ontario’s art scene too. Inside its push to survive

We're going about 40% of our sales were to the United States, and even in June of this year, for the first time ever, the Americans were out buying the Canadians. So to have that all come crashing down to zero is pretty awful for our business. Who wants to pay a 50% tariff? It's absurd. I'm Emily Jane Alexander, and I'm the director of Art Toronto. So we have over 105 galleries who are participating here at the fair this year, and the majority of those are Canadian galleries. Thank you. As soon as the tariffs went into effect, I had to shut down all the online sales, because I know the Americans, if they got slapped with a 50% extra cost, they would blame us potentially rather than the government. We couldn't risk that. It's a feeling of helplessness. You look at them, the texture that comes forward in them, taking his Japanese iconography and his heritage and putting strong black women into those paintings. Music. My name is Carolyn Moulton and I'm the owner of the Eno Gallery located in Prince Edward County. Sculpture is a big part of our practice. I think we're probably one of the largest sellers of outdoor sculpture in Canada. By 2024, 60 percent of our sales were to the United States and since the tariffs have been imposed, our sales to the U.S. have dropped substantial. It's almost eliminated them. A lot of what's going on in this part of the painting is inspired by by some of those Group of Seven and Impressionist painters. My name is Will Cousy. I'm a senior art advisor and director with Canadian Fine Arts. So can you tell me how tariffs are affecting your bottom line and your business? With the long-term collectors that we have dealing with major collections, we actually offer a kind of storage system where we've had clients buy and say, can you store the painting with us until inevitably these tariffs are lifted? We also represent some American artists. This American customer now thinks that... The tariff applies to those American artists, even though it doesn't. American administration has created confusion, and confusion is never good. Well, if Donald Trump's listening, be kind to the artists. It's not a big business. They could use... Some nice treatment that way. The good news is our Canadian market has picked up. Canadians are supporting us in ways that we hadn't seen before. We're selling more to the Maritimes, out west, in addition to our usual customer base in Ontario and Quebec, so that's great, and we're selling to Europe. You know, Art Toronto is a gathering of 100 of the best galleries in the country. If you want to see what the pulse of visual arts is, historical all the way up to contemporary, this is the weekend you get to see all of that energy under one roof.