What is AMY Doing Now?

The AMY Project participants working together.

Founded in 2005 by Claire Calnan and Weyni Mengesha, The AMY (Artists Mentoring Youth) Project is a free program offered to young women between the ages of 14-24 living in the Greater Toronto Area. It is an educational arts project that nurtures the confidence and unique identity of emerging artists through developing their cultural vocabulary and skills of healthy, creative self-expression.

The participants typically meet once a week for a couple of months to rehearse and are provided with TTC tickets, attend live theatrical performances, share a free weekly meal, earn volunteer hours and cash honorariums for performing.

For each session of the AMY Project, there has been a theme that the participants have chosen to work around. Claire says, “A discussion ensues around various issues that young women face, and conversations start to emerge about what the group has in common.  Then, a theme for the session becomes established.”

A discussion ensues around various issues that young women face, and conversations start to emerge about what the group has in common.  Then, a theme for the session becomes established.

Past themes have included pressure, girl-on-girl hate, normal versus deviant, and values.

The AMY Project participants.

Each young woman receives a mentor, who works in the field that she wants to pursue. These mentors are highly accomplished women from the local community including Weyni Mengesha (director, da kink in my hair, blood claat), Nicole Stamp (actor and host of TVO Kids), d’bi.young (dub poet and actor, da kink in my hair), Nylda Gallardo, Camilla Singh and many more.

The mentors work with the participant for six hours and help create a piece of work that will be performed at Theatre Passe Muraille. In the past, participants have performed at Luminato Festival, the annual Lab Cab Festival, and ARC Fest (Arts for Real Change). They have received high praises and have been featured in Say Word and CanPlay.

Claire says, “A huge number of young people have helped create programs and The AMY Project is shaped through the people that help create it. So it changes over time.”

A huge number of young people have helped create programs and The AMY Project is shaped through the people that help create it. So it changes over time.

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Young women who are interested in participating in the 2011 session of the AMY Project can contact Claire Calnan at whoismyamynow@yahoo.com or call 416-819-1612 to receive an application form. Deadline for applications is December 3, 2010. Space is limited.

The AMY Project receives project grants from numerous sources, such as Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Theatre Ontario and several private donors. Like The AMY Project on Facebook!

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Aasana Sri is the Fall 2010 Communications Intern at the Toronto Arts Foundation.

How Can We Advocate For Community-Engaged Artists?

On October 14, three panelists, Robin Pacific, Artist and Co-Founder of Art Starts, Andrew Suri, Community Arts Officer at the Toronto Arts Council, and Nadira Pattison, Arts Services Manager at the City of Toronto Cultural Services, shared their perspectives on arts advocacy at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

The turnout was great on a cold, rainy day, and individual artists and members of organizations such as Arts for Children and Youth, Scarborough Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, MABELLEarts, & Jumblies Theatre came together to discuss  how we might defend, maintain, support, and promote community-engaged artists in Toronto.

The conversation started with the panelists sharing their proudest arts advocacy moments:

Nadira Pattison’s work with an external advisory body enabled her to pinpoint four major service gaps:  space, funding, profile of the sector and resource-sharing. This advisory body developed 14 recommendations that were adopted by City Council as the Community Arts Action Plan. Nadira says, “We underestimate the value of telling our elected officials the wonderful things that have happened.”

Robin Pacific, co-founder of Art Starts, a storefront community arts centre that uses the arts to help build healthy communities, says that we need to ‘speak to people’s higher natures’ when advocating for community arts.

Andrew believes that the work has to be effectual. Community art is still relatively new, and has the potential to change the lives of the people working with it. “As the practice deepens, I would like to see more rigorous community arts happen without losing that grassroots quality.”

There was a question and answer session that ranged from topics such as bringing community arts to rural communities in Ontario, advocating to city counselors, politics of the field, and individual art-making versus community arts. Cheers to good sushi and networking for Neighbourhood Arts Network members!

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The Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies has put together a toolkit that has practical tips and strategies for arts advocates. To download the PDF version for free, click here.

Remember to vote for the upcoming election on October 25!  Arts Vote has released their candidates’ Arts Report Card.

The next Neighbourhood Arts Network event will be on November 18, 2010. Presented by NAN and City of Toronto Arts Services, the topic is ‘Building a Movement for Social Change’ with Che Kothari, Executive Director of Manifesto.

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Aasana Sri is the Fall 2010  Communications Intern with the Toronto Arts Foundation

From Arts Hubs to an Arts Network: the process behind enhancing community arts in Toronto

Starting in 2002, the Toronto Arts Council (TAC) saw an increase of applications to its Community Arts program. Stemming from this influx, the TAC hosted a series of symposiums to identify the challenges and opportunities of artists and organizations working at the community level. In this process a pulse was generated, and a variety of reports have since been released discussing what is needed to better support and enhance capacity for community-engaged art in Toronto. On Thursday April 8^th, I spoke about some of these ideas with Leslie Francombe, Community Investment Manager for the Toronto Arts Foundation.

Different neighbourhoods need different things, and there are different artists living in different neighbourhoods, and different neighbourhoods have things happening already that they can activate

How did the concept of Arts Hubs evolve into the Neighbourhood Arts Network?
It’s a bit confusing because it evolved over a few years. We had to figure out what community arts organizations really needed by hosting symposiums and consultations to throw about ideas. We originally wanted to build capacity for community arts and get more funding for artists in Toronto. So we had this grand idea about initiating neighbourhood arts hubs throughout the City. It could be something in a library, like a booth where people could access information about arts in their neighbourhood. It could be a place already there in the neighbourhood, where we would label it as an ‘arts hub’. At that time we wanted to establish hubs in neighbourhoods that were lacking any sort of visible arts activity. But that was a huge project. There were a lot of people working on the ground already, and it really wasn’t going to help them. Every neighbourhood is different.

There is no way to create a specific model for a hub to replicate throughout Toronto. But you can have guidelines, helpful hints, mentorship, and become a resource for communities that are interested in building arts hubs

There is no way to create a specific model for a hub to replicate throughout Toronto. But you can have guidelines, helpful hints, mentorship, and become a resource for communities that are interested in building arts hubs. So that’s what the Neighbourhood Arts Network (NAN) is doing, as well as connecting all the artists together. We couldn’t access great partners without knowing who they are. So in order to get everybody together and make sure they are accessing information to get the most out of partnerships, NAN came forward. It was something that we could launch and get going right away as opposed to trying to build 30 hubs across the city… they are just too big a mountain.

Do you think the creation of arts hubs is a mountain that will never be climbed?
No not at all, because the NAN activates different organizations and people throughout the city. People can now see all the different things that are happening and say, “Wow – I want that in my neighbourhood!” It becomes organic. That’s the way it’s most successful – if the neighbourhood wants it to happen. Not if we come in and just plant a hub and say, “This is what you need.” Different neighbourhoods need different things, and there are different artists living in different neighbourhoods, and different neighbourhoods have things happening already that they can activate. Some neighbourhoods have schools that are empty or storefronts, they may not need a physical space, it all depends on that neighbourhood. We want to be a catalyst, and a resource to help people along.

connecting and getting to know each other is a huge move forward

A series of reports on community arts have been developed and released by the Toronto Arts Foundation over the past few years. What kinds of changes have you seen since this research has been done?
I think we’re going to see more over the next year now that we have the NAN. For example, we had a workshop run by TELUS on helping organizations put together proposals for funding from them. We have a plan for a series of networking events. I think we will really see the impact over the next year. But already at the TELUS event we were able to discover that a lot of the people in the room didn’t know each other. So connecting and getting to know each other is a huge move forward.

How does community arts, as a grassroots movement, work within the Culture Plan for the Creative City and the Creative City Planning Framework?
There’s been a lot of talk about the Creative City documents speaking the language of big powerful people. However a lot of this Creative City stuff is more about business creativity as opposed to the creativity of actual artists working with communities. So we have to educate the Creative City movement and keep it informed so it can truly see the advantage of community arts. We also have to let community arts practitioners know that they’re [city planning] not the enemy. We shouldn’t just shut the door because the language is different, because it may be a great way into the bigger picture. We want art and community-engaged art to be in that language and discussion.

we have to educate the Creative City movement and keep it informed so it can truly see the advantage of community arts. We also have to let community arts practitioners know that they’re [city planning] not the enemy

If you could waive a magic wand and make something happen today for community arts in Toronto, who would you waive it at, and what would you make happen?
Of course it would be good if the City just increased their funding and made a real statement to everybody to say that art is important to our neighbourhoods and to our city. Increase the pocket of money [for community arts] without taking away money from any of the other disciplines. Increase it by at least 4 times the amount they currently spend, if not more. The sector is huge and they have no operating money! It would make a big statement that community arts are important. The impact would be huge.

To join the Neighbourhood Arts Network visit http://www.neighbourhoodartsnetwork.org

To learn more about the Toronto Arts Foundation visit
http://www.torontoartsfoundation.org

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Robyn Shyllit is a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and a student in the Cities Centre Community Development Program at the University of Toronto completing a Masters degree in Planning.