East End Arts’ Youth Arts Council (YAC) launched in 2018, and provides youth ages 16 – 25 with opportunities to deeply engage with the arts in east Toronto and beyond. Our Youth Arts Council members meet once a month to take part in exclusive arts workshops and experiences, while also helping to shape East End Arts’ programming. In addition to being a part of a network of youth who share similar interests in the arts, another important pillar of our Youth Arts Council is to help youth members make meaningful connections with artists and arts and cultural organizations in Toronto.
To kick off 2019, YAC members took part in a screen printing workshop at The inPrint Collective Studio. Led by artist Amye St. John, our YAC learned all about inPrint Collective, and gained hands-on skills in screen printing and created unique items with an illustration by artist Shelby Mcleod.
One of our Youth Arts Council members Aviva Gale-Buncel wrote a fantastic piece about our studio experience with the inPrint Collective – check it out below!
East End Love in the West End!
On January 17th, the East End Arts Youth Council went west to visit the inPrint Collective! It was a wonderful experience visiting inPrint and learning about printmaking. We got to print horses, butterflies, bicycles, and shared our #eastendlove, in a rainbow of colours on paper and tote bags. For many of us, it was our first time printmaking. There was a moment of suspense each time someone would finish rolling a print… “Did it print or not? That is the question!” It was an evening of fun, growth, community, smiles, and art! We were also lucky enough to be given a tour of the beautiful inPrint studio.
The inPrint Collective, formed in 2008, describes themselves as: “a Toronto-based group of printmakers who love to print and want to share it with the world.” When the members are not in their studio making art, they are busy sharing their passion with communities, putting on artist talks, exhibitions and more.
When I entered the studio, I was struck by the friendly community creative vibes. I found it refreshing to see adult artists making space and community for and with their art. As a youth artist, I sometimes feel like when I grow up I will have a challenging time making time for my art. I have noticed our society has a conception that very few people can do art or what they are really passionate about in life and that you have to give it up as you grow into an adult. It was very inspiring for me to feel the passion within inPrint, and to learn about how the members of inPrint are sharing their art and energy with the world, making the world a little better, one print, and one community member at a time.
-Aviva Gale-Buncel, Youth Arts Council 2018-19 Member
Thank you inPrint Collective for hosting us! Next month our Youth Arts Council will visit Crow’s Theatre to see the play, ‘Towards Youth: a Play on Radical Hope‘.
If you are a local artist or arts organization who is interested in hosting our YAC in your creative space, contact our Program Coordinator, Adom Acheampong!
The Youth Arts Council runs from November 2018, to September, 2019. Applications for our 2019/2020 Youth Arts Council will open in the fall of 2019.
