The Sketch Newsletter
November 2011
A Groundbreaking Day for SKETCH!
On Thursday, November 2, Artscape held a groundbreaking ceremony at the historic Shaw Street School at 180 Shaw Street, to celebrate the start of its renovations of that space in which SKETCH will have its new home. The centre's new name was also unveiled: The Artscape YOUNGplace. David Young, Chair of the Michael Young Family Foundation, was at the ceremony to present a $2 million lead gift toward the Artscape project.
Artscape President and CEO Tim Jones with Robert J. Foster, Chair of the Artscape Board of Directors;
The Hon. David Crombie, Honourary Chair of SKETCH
At the groundbreaking, Mr Young spoke for many Torontonians when he extolled Artscape's leadership in promoting community arts: “What Artscape is doing at the Shaw Street School is an example of social enterprise solving a problem and creating something good; not just for the artists involved, but for us and for our city. This is an example of the future landing happily on the past--something that Artscape is unbelievably good at making happen.”
SKETCH Executive Director
Rudy Ruttimann with John Andras, SKETCH Capital Campaign Chair at the groundbreaking
The SKETCH development team was thrilled to be a part of groundbreaking. Jessica Payne, SKETCH's Capital Campaign Associate remarked, "There was a lot of excitement at YOUNGplace, especially among invited artists, organizations and community members. There was an authentic feeling that this is really going to be a creative and collaborative space."
SKETCH hearts on display
As SKETCH moves another significant step closer to our new space, we invite you to become a significant community builder. Click on the thumbnail photo below to visit our website to learn about studio facilities that can only be constructed with your support. By making a secure online donation to our Capital Campaign, you help build not only a Recording Arts studio, Multi-Media Playground and an Industrial Arts space, but also countless skill-building and leadership opportunities for marginalized youth in our community.
Click to support our move to YOUNGplace
By Michael O'Connell, Recording Studio Coordinator
On August 4th, the SKETCH Recording Studio officially reopened in its new home at the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre in Parkdale.
After two months of renovating two old storage rooms within the MCCC, we were finally able to open the doors to some eager and patient musicians from the SKETCH community. Many familiar names were quickly filling up the sign-up sheets for Tuesdays and Thursdays. Some new names too. Since that day, we have witnessed a steady flow of fluid raps, new songs and edgy excitement as people are reviving old projects and bringing in new material generated during the hiatus.
Some scenes from SKETCH's new music studio
The studio has a new feel—it’s bigger. Associate Artist Amy Campbell is now in our much roomier control room offering Indie Music Support. She works with people on how to package and market their recordings once they are finalized, how to book a gig, or how to use social media to maximize their capacity as a working musician.
The new space further allows us to offer more instructional moments to those youth who have aspirations beyond simply recording their music: there is more room for them to hang out behind the console and learn about the engineering and production side of recording. We’ve formalized this process by assigning three SKETCH Community Artists in the studios during our Wednesday 24.7 program. 24.7 is the next step for many participants who have demonstrated a solid work ethic within the studio for a minimum of one year, and who have enough original material to create a full-length recording. The three assigned Community Artists work to support and learn from those longer, more comprehensive recording sessions.
Bugs! There are still bugs to work out in the wiring and in our program, and we continue to keep the dialogue open with our new neighbours within Masaryk Cowan (we are running a loud recording studio after all). But the feel is right. Perhaps the SKETCH Recording Studio will be a permanent fixture there even after our move to the Artscape YOUNGplace in 2012. There is definitely enough music and interest to justify a Studio 1 and
a Studio 2…
For now, the cozy, low-lit vibe is allowing us to reconnect our musical community and lay down some vital sounds.
By Dale Roy, Marketing and Communications Associate
SKETCH’s Expression Emporium is a new “art shop”. It’s an online store where you scroll around—instead of stroll around—and personally purchase items that support SKETCH.
When you make a purchase, you actually create opportunities for a young person living on the margins to realize their creative potential.
Click on the snowpeople to visit the Expression Emporium!
How so? Well, one very popular item at SKETCH is paint. We go through gallons of it a month. Purchase a couple of pails of paint at the Expression Emporium, and you’ll support youth as they create community murals, spectacular paintings to be displayed at our city’s galleries and colourful eco-projects at our Community Gardens.
The store also features this year’s holiday greeting cards: “Snow People”. Over 50 eclectic snow people grace the cover of these cards. It’s a fun way to celebrate both the winter season and diversity in our communities. (Be sure to order these cards before SKETCH winds down for the holidays December 15th.) Also available to purchase: paint, seeds, power tools and musical instruments that are fundamental to creativity and learning skills. When you purchase these items, you become a catalyst that opens the doors to personal development and expression for young people!
Be sure to visit the store often, as new and seasonal items will be added.
Happy Shopping!
By Jane Hudson, Resource Development Associate
Rarely does a quiet month pass at SKETCH, but all of 2011 has seemed even more active than usual. Maybe it was the MOVE! The most significant change of the year took place when we moved out of our 580 King West studio. We employed SKETCH participants who, together with staff and volunteers, sorted, recycled, donated, stored, trashed or moved all 6000 very crowded square feet and 11 years worth of art, materials, furniture, tools and everything else—right down to the community-kitchen sink!
Without skipping a beat, SKETCH then launched programming in several satellite locations. On Tuesdays, the Queen West Community Health Centre hosts open studio right around the corner from our old location. On Thursdays, SKETCH animates the whole Queen & Cowan intersection in Parkdale. Live jams blast out of the basement of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Church where art making, sewing and lunch are always popular. Across the street, veteran coordinator Sue Cohen and a host of enthusiastic participants work our plots in the HOPE garden.
Preparing culinary feasts at SKETCH's Community Kitchen
Next door, in the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre, many SKETCH youth practice and record music in the fantastic new studio that Music Program Coordinator Michael O’Connell, Associate Artist Chris Akinbode, and SKETCH participants built with material salvaged from our 580 King Street studio. On Wednesdays programmer Julian Diego hosts Kung Fu and Kalari workshops in the same building. All of this activity is coordinated from our new headquarters in St. Clare’s Housing at Queen and Gladstone. Our new spaces are bringing SKETCH many new friends and new connections.
An artist working with textiles at Parkdale Neighbourhood Church
Meanwhile, we have been running some special initiatives: SKETCH City; CUE: A Peer-to-Peer Arts Project; New Eyes; and Teasing Out the Strands of Violence: A Gender Based Analysis. (Read "Random Acts of Kindness" below for more information on these initiatives.)
The SKETCH community creating the vision at Closure
With this move comes the opportunity for reflection on where we have been, and strategic planning for where we are going. During our annual Closure, we sat together as staff, board members, community artists, youth organizers and participants to reflect on our vision, our mission and goals. We dreamed big! We will be hosting several community consultations on our strategic plan over the month of November. Stay tuned for the unveiling in the new year. The outcome will be an integrated five-year strategy that takes us into our new space in the Artscape YOUNGplace. We want to scale our work to reach its full potential! To learn more about our move to Shaw Street, please visit the new site www.sketchiswheretheartis.ca.
All of this is possible through the generosity of donors who, like you, believe in the boundless opportunities that come with self expression.
by Sue Cohen, Program Coordinator
In September, the H.O.P.E community garden held its annual Harvest Fest with the Food, Earth and Culture Festival!
SKETCH was there, decorating the floor of the wading pool with tempera paints.
The weather was as beautiful as the event, many people came and enjoyed great vegetarian food thanks to Greenest City, with special thanks to Frank and Emma.
The day was jam packed with activity; so many hands wielding paint brushes, community projects led by Catherine and Leslie and many other activities like yoga, face painting, and bike repair.
A wading pool becomes a community canvas
We got to hear inspiring performances from local artists such as Alisha, Rey-Ray, Day Po, Keys to the Studio and so many more. Special thanks to: Charlie, Moses, Laura, Alisha and Rey-Ray for all all the Greenest City volunteers for all your energy.
By the SKETCH Staff
SKETCH has so many wonderful people to welcome and, especially, to thank—for their talents, efforts and generosity!
We welcome these individuals to the SKETCH Board of Directors: Michael Booth, Campaign Manager at Jazz FM; Goodwin Gibson, Managing Partner at Conversion Marketing-Communication; Ralph Hoskins, Partner at Retail-Roadways; Kathy Moscou, Manager and Lecturer at University of Toronto; and Marilyn Wigglesworth, VP of Finance at the Mozilla Foundation. Welcome a-Board everyone, and thank you for partnering to take on the hard work ahead!
Big love goes to the staff at St. Clare’s Housing, Parkdale Neighbourhood Church, Queen West Community Health Centre and Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre for making us feel at home in our new locations. Speaking of “home”, as we settle into our new HQ at 180 Sudbury we can’t help but express gratitude to Junk It, Lee Valley Tools Ltd., Queen West Storage, Zoe Theysmeyer at Rain 43, Michael Wolkensperg at Rushmore and Judge Inc., and to all of the SKETCH youth, volunteers and friends who lent a hand in this transition!
We just held our Annual Harvest and Volunteer Appreciation Day: a warm thank you to the Parkdale Neighbourhood Church staff, Poutini’s, Menchies, Starbucks (King & Dovercourt), and, last but not least, all the VOLUNTEERS that we celebrated that day…thank you for sharing your time and talents with SKETCH!
Preparing for SKETCH's Nuit Blanche Event: The Happiness Project
...and some Projects on the Go!
There have been some special initiatives at SKETCH lately.
SKETCH City: a trans-media documentary project directed by Min Sook Lee that will take the viewer on a tour of Toronto through the stories, art and music of SKETCH youth.
CUE: a peer-to-peer arts project launched its first major public exhibition on June 9th called Margin of Eras—over 300 guests enjoyed spectacular and innovative art created by emerging artists!
New Eyes: a community-arts based research project developing an arts-based evaluation process to explore the important distinctions and challenges of homelessness and poverty for newcomer youth. This project is supported by the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.
Teasing out the Strands of Violence: this multi-year project supported by the Status of Women Canada, enables SKETCH to put all of our practice through a Gender Based Analysis to further engage young women who experience homelessness or are otherwise marginalized. The effects of violence are important for all of us in our pursuit of creating healthy and whole communities. This project invites leadership to young women to guide us in understanding how pervasive violence is. Once again, the arts create platforms for dialogue and solidarity.
A Nuit Blanche participant arts-up the hoarding at the Artscape YOUNGplace
Finally, check out the the latest research that builds on our understanding of how arts organizations fit within the arts sphere where Ontarians attend, participate, create and learn about the arts....
Photography credits: Sonya Reynolds, Laura Copeland, Gideon Ruttimann-Hoskins and Jessica Payne
Click on the photo link below and support our move into the Artscape YOUNGplace for Emerging Artists
Click here to view our funders and partners.
