Art Metropole, Artist-run center in Toronto, Canada

Art Metropole is an artist-run center in Toronto that focuses on distributing and exhibiting artistic publications, artist books, videos, and electronic media. The space functions as a platform where contemporary creators can showcase and share their experimental work.

General Idea founded Art Metropole in 1974 as a division of Art-Official, Inc., incorporated in Ontario in 1972, to give other artists access to the distribution system built for their periodical FILE Megazine. It opened above a Greek restaurant in a building erected in 1911 for an earlier Toronto gallery also called Art Metropole, which closed in the 1940s and supplied the name. Peggy Gale started its video distribution service in 1975, one of the first in the world, discontinued in 1987 in favour of low-cost VHS publishing.

The name comes from a 1911 gallery of the same name that occupied the building where General Idea opened in 1974; it closed in the 1940s. The shop sells artists' books, multiples, video and audio on site and by mail, continuing the distribution system General Idea built with FILE Megazine.

Art Metropole is at 896 College Street in Toronto; the sources give no opening hours or admission details, so check ahead before visiting. The premises hold artists' books, multiples, video, audio and electronic media, offered for sale on site and through the website. The 13,000-item permanent collection is no longer held here: it went to the National Gallery of Canada in 1997.

In 1997, the center transferred a substantial collection of around 13,000 items to the National Gallery of Canada, which led to the creation of a dedicated collection bearing its name. This transfer made the artworks and documents gathered there available to a wider audience within a national institution.