What was the Academy of Spherical Arts?
The Academy of Spherical Arts was a snooker and billiards club, restaurant, art gallery and special-events venue in Toronto’s Liberty Village. Created and owned by Richard Barry “Rick” Williams, it brought antique billiard tables, art, food and celebrations together in an old billiard factory at One Snooker Street, formerly 38 Hanna Avenue.
The Academy opened in September 1991 and closed on December 31, 2012. This website is a family memorial, restoring the experience of the Academy through its original words, menus and photographs. It is not an operating restaurant or a venue accepting reservations.
Read the Academy’s original history and visit Rick’s family memorial.
Who was Rick Williams?
Rick Williams was the Academy’s creator and owner. His love of antique billiard tables, beautiful objects and good company gave the Academy its character. His family created this restoration as part of his memorial at richardbarrywilliams.com.
The memorial entrance is an invitation to step back inside his creation—to imagine another evening at the Academy, while remembering the person behind it.
What were the Academy’s four rooms?
- The Samuel May Room, the original room where the Academy opened in 1991.
- The John Brunswick Room, a home for billiards, dining and the arts.
- The Georges Chenier Room, an intimate space named for the Canadian billiards player.
- La Belle Époque, the fourth room, opened on November 9, 1999—Rick’s birthday.
The original history and room pages disagree on the precise years of the Brunswick and Chenier expansions in the 1990s. Their original wording is preserved, with the discrepancy noted alongside the sources.
Are the menus, hours and contact details current?
They are historical. The dinner menu, other restaurant pages, event information, prices, opening hours and contact details preserve the Academy as it was before its 2012 closure. They do not describe services available today. The restored site does not take bookings or payments.
How was this website restored?
The original website was sphericalarts.com. Surviving pages and documents were recovered through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Each recovered page links to its archive capture. A capture date describes when the Internet Archive saved a page; it is not necessarily the date the Academy first published it.
The photographic and document archive includes original Academy material and credited photographs from Billiard Traveler’s May 2012 visit. Rick’s portrait is from the family memorial. The crest and wordmark are newly drawn vector reconstructions based on surviving historical references.
Unrecovered material—including Flash virtual tours and the original wedding-album photographs—is identified on the relevant pages. Historical text is preserved; present-day restoration notes explain the source and any known gaps. Photographs, artwork and historical material retain their original rights.
How can I share a memory or a correction?
If you remember an evening at the Academy, have a photograph, or can help identify something in the archive, share your memory with Rick’s family. Your recollections can help keep the story of the Academy alive.