Sun Life Financial & The Toronto Public Library Team Up For The Museum and Arts Pass

Strategy Magazine recently announced the March 7 launch of the Museum and Arts Pass (MAP) expansion. Sponsored by Sun Life Financial as part of the company's Making the Arts More Accessible program, the extension is geared toward improving community access to culture and the arts in a time when the recession has eaten into many a pocketbook.

The MAP program—which originated in July 2007—provides free passes to a host of Toronto's major cultural institutions. Now available at all 99 library locations, a MAP can be borrowed from a Toronto Public Library branch using a valid adult Toronto library card much like a book and used to gain entry for one family into places like the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Casa Loma, the Museum of Inuit Art, the Bata Shoe Museum and the Ontario Science Centre, among many others.

Linda Hazzan, director of marketing and communications at the Toronto Public Library, explains: "We circulated over 21,000 passes in 2008," due to increased demand as well as the library's focus on "free universal access to culture."