Collaborate with Other Community-Engaged Arts Initiatives
Why collaborate with other community-engaged arts initiatives in Canada? You will
Help build a Canada-wide community of arts for social change enthusiasts
Be inspired by others in different cities, provinces or territories
Discover new ideas, lessons learned, reasons for success, how others overcame challenges, and promising practices
Share resources, such as studio space, policies, forms, procedures, toolkits, etc.
Pool strengths and talents and come up with stronger, more cost-efficient creative projects
Connect with established initiatives to learn from their experiences and successful practices
Learn new approaches and trends in community-engaged arts practices
Capitalize on the belief that there is “strength in numbers” and “two heads are better than one”
ArtBridges/ToileDesArts’ can help connect you with community arts initiatives across Canada. Contact us to start making those connections!
Ways you can collaborate:
As a startup community arts initiative, connect with an established initiative that’s similar to yours
Become a mentor for a startup community arts initiative and share your expertise and material
Create an event, art exhibit or multidisciplinary performance with other community-engaged arts initiatives
Share a studio space with another community arts initiative and defray rental costs
Create a ‘sister’ community with another community arts initiative in a different province/territory to share ideas, issues and mutual guidance
Collaboration in action
RaY (Winnipeg), the Murphy Centre for Community Youth Arts, (St. John’s) and ArtHeart (Toronto)
RaY, a street-level agency working with homeless youth in Winnipeg, asked ArtBridges/ToileDesArts’ who to talk with for advice about setting up an arts-based pre-employment program for street-involved youth. We led them to: The Murphy Centre for Community Youth Arts in St. John’s, Street Culture Kidz Project in Regina and ArtHeart in Toronto –- all agencies that had experience in providing this kind of service.
University of Ottawa’s Education Students (Ottawa)
Students at the University of Ottawa needed to conduct a fundraising benefit event for their studies in Education. They reached out to ArtBridges/ToileDesArts’ and asked what community-engaged arts initiatives worked with at-risk children and youth in the Ottawa area to be a recipient of the event. ArtBridges/ToileDesArts directed the lead student to four initiatives and shared fundraising event planning information with her. The benefit raised over $1,000.
Artscan Circle, Mamow Sha-way-gi-kay-win: North-South Partnership for Children (Ontario)
“ArtBridges/ToileDesArts’ has connected us with Aboriginal Organizations and other connections to art stores, etc. Cora-Rae connected us with Michael Cywink, who attended and created a mural with the youth at our showcase. ArtBridges/ToileDesArts’ also connected us with ArtsCan Circle who lended [sic] 20 paintings to showcase at our event. ArtBridges/ToileDesArts’ has even offered to continue posting about SYiM on a monthly basis and update on the work that our youth are doing. We could not be happier with our relationship with ArtBridges/ToileDesArts’ [they] have really gone above and beyond to support our campaign and especially support our youth in the north. Miigwetch.” - Lauren Akbar, Youth Engagement Coordinator, Mamow Sha-way-gi-kay-win: North-South Partnership for Children