Remembering Jini Stolk, champion of the arts

A mainstay of Toronto’s arts scene for five decades, arts administrator Jini Stolk impacted many organizations. But in addition to her roles with the Creative Trust, the Doras, Toronto Dance Theatre and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, to name a few, Stolk was also in her personal life, one of local arts’ biggest champions.

“She walked the walk,” says daughter Kasia Gladki. “She supported the arts through her work, her volunteer hours, her patronage, and her money. She went out to see shows whenever she could.” The day before she died, she and Kasia were looking at the Fall for Dance festival lineup together to determine which program to see. “She had just asked me whether I would get her a season subscription to Canadian Stage.”

Stolk also supported emerging and experimental artists, says husband John Gladki, by attending opening nights of their performances. “She loved works that exploded boundaries,” he says.

Her love of the arts began early. Born Jini Lorraine Stolk in Teaneck, N.J., the elder daughter of grocery store owner Lawrence Stolk and his wife Olga, “devoured novels,” says daughter Sarah Gladki. “She grew up listening to the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, and later formed a love for opera.”

Stolk and her sister Jeri grew up living on the same street as many of their aunts, uncles and cousins. Although she adored her parents and saw her mother as a role model (“Olga,” Sarah says, “was an independent woman with a job in the city at a time when many of her peers were homemakers”), life in suburban Teaneck wasn’t always easy. “She felt a bit like an outsider,” Sarah says.

As a teen, Stolk and her best friend took the bus to New York City, where she found the “art, culture and energy that she craved,” Kasia says.

“(But) it wasn’t until she left for college,” says Sarah, “that she truly found people with similar interests and values.”

Stolk studied the arts at the University of Chicago but left during in her second year. She and her then-boyfriend, an artist, moved to Canada in 1972. Over the years, Stolk moved seamlessly between arts genres: as general manager of Open Studio, an artist-run printmaking centre (1974 to 1980); associate director of the Association of Canadian Publishers (1982 to 1984); and as executive director (1985 to 1995) of the Toronto Theatre Alliance (now Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts), where she organized the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Working with Toronto Dance Theatre artistic director Christopher House, Stolk, as managing director in the late ’90s, helped make it one of the leading modern dance companies in Canada.

“She was often referred to as ‘a mover and shaker,’ ‘a Renaissance woman’ and ‘a force in the arts world,’” Sarah says. “She challenged current systems, got people together to discuss and solve problems and got projects started. She was a connector.”

“Jini loved artists and all those who made the arts thrive,” says Claire Hopkinson, director and CEO of Toronto Arts Council and Toronto Arts Foundation, who met Stolk in 1985. “She was a positive, formidable and persistent arts champion who spent her entire life strengthening the arts ecosystem in Toronto.”

The ’90s was a very difficult time for the arts in Toronto. “Premier Mike Harris had made major cuts to the Ontario Arts Council,” Hopkinson says, “and stagnant funding in Toronto meant that that mid-size organizations, without access to corporate philanthropy, were really suffering.” In response, Stolk and Hopkinson co-founded Creative Trust. Following its incorporation, Stolk became its founding executive director, leading the country’s most successful arts sustainability program to raise and distribute $6.7 million to support more than 50 performing arts organizations.

Later in life, she established the Creative Champions Network at Toronto Arts Foundation and wrote articles on arts sustainability, emphasizing, Hopkinson says, “collaboration, cooperation, joint action, and learning and resource sharing, as opposed to competition.”

Stolk also served on several boards and was a founding member of the Ontario Nonprofit Network and worked with the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, where during pandemic, the Gifts of Heart program raised money to purchase art for front-line workers.

Despite being “unapologetically career-oriented,” Sarah says her mother was devoted to her family, integrating her husband of 40 years and their daughters Kasia (born in 1983) and Sarah (1985) into the world of art. “Kasia and I both have early memories of eating cubes of cheese and crackers under cruiser tables at theatre or dance opening night receptions,” says Sarah. “Although our mom worked hard and often, she was fully present when she was home. I remember the comfort of cuddling up to her as she read us bedtime stories.”

“She surrounded herself, and thus us, with beautiful things,” says Kasia, purchasing works from creators at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair as well as second-hand books. In 2021, she donated to 22 arts organizations, including East End Arts and Moonhorse Dance. “In the arts, especially for smaller organizations, every donation counts,” Sarah says. “She wanted to support the sector in every and any way.” This included mentoring emerging arts administrators, writing blog posts and offering advice to artistic directors. Her efforts yielded her the Toronto Arts Foundation’s William Kilbourn Award for the Celebration of Toronto’s Cultural Life in 2012, a Theatre Ontario Award and a Harold Award.

Her retirement from Creative Champions Network in 2021 afforded Stolk more time with her four grandchildren (“she truly knew how to entertain and befriend toddlers,” says Sarah), to attend performances, dine out, travel, and exercise at the JCC, where she had been a member for four decades.

She also spent time at the family cottage, a cherished spot at Kasshabog Lake in the Kawarthas. An environmentalist, Stolk could be found there most weekends from May through October.

“Jini was a true leader,” says John. “When she took on a project, she had a clear vision of where she wanted it to go. She understood that the arts would not flourish unless there were strong, healthy structures and organizations in place to support them.” As such, Stolk continued to work as a consultant for various organizations until her death.

“Art,” says Sarah, “was everything to her. It formed her whole world.”

*This article was originally published to the Toronto Star by Tracey Tong on November 6, 2022.