Art Starts is a charitable, not for profit organization committed to arts-based community development in the city of Toronto. It was founded in 1992 by a group of artists living in the Eglinton & Oakwood neighbourhood. Its mandate is to build healthier communities using the arts. “At Art Starts we understand that the arts are a medium for engaging residents, creating a shared sense of identity, identifying challenges and collectively working to overcome them. Art Starts uses the arts as a vehicle to encourage social change in at-risk neighbourhoods. We offer high quality, responsive and relevant creative opportunities to those who do not have access – namely people living in under served and stressed communities.” (web)

The general model of Art Starts is outreach within different sites in several neighborhoods. Previously, Art Starts worked out of a storefront, they currently work in four under-served neighborhoods in Toronto that include: Eglinton & Oakwood, Glendower, Villaways (Leslie & Sheppard), Lawrence Heights/Neptune. Art Starts’ method is to work in resident led and resident focused programs. They work in each community over an extended period of time in order to gain trust, make an impact, and become sustainable.

At each project location, they have a program manager and artists who are from the community who know the community. They work out of shared community spaces which include libraries, Parks and Recreation facilities, schools, parks and Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) sites. They have just moved their main operations into the Yorkdale Community Arts Centre, a formerly city-run facility in the basement of the Yorkdale Shopping. The space includes a gallery, a large studio space for programs and their administrative offices.

Art Starts is really good at “community engaged public art … projects that bring neighborhoods together to find artistic solutions to problems, their adaptable model, success with building long term relationships with new communities. [They are known for] their work with youth, and ability to incorporate them into overseeing the programs so that they are youth-led. ” Art Starts has also been very involved with the Neighborhood Arts Network this year in an advisory capacity, and helped to get this new network off the ground.

Its goals this year are: moving into the Yorkdale Community Arts Centre, initiating some fee for service programs at that site, and increasing the amount of programming that they’re able to offer at each site. They’d also like to sustain the amount of staff they have now. Its challenges this year are: being able to manage all of the change that comes with taking on these sites and moving their head office. As their model is site-based and funding is a challenge, they need multiple years of funding in order to be sustainable. They are trying to support residents to apply for funding for each site and initiate their own projects. They emphasize high quality of the art experience over large numbers.

The language of service is English. It serves/works with all ages. The average number of participants are: 15-20 per workshop. In 2009 they had a total of 2458 participants in their workshops. The hours of operation vary depending upon the site location. All arts disciplines are offered, including storytelling. It is mostly drop-in, however they are experimenting with registered classes as their attendance is so high, and they want to maintain quality programming. All programs are free. Art Starts has many events and art exhibits throughout the year.

Art Starts has 5 full-time staff, 2 part-time staff, and dozens of professional and community artists (on contract), with about 20 volunteers/year. It has a board of directors. Its annual budget is from $350,000-500,000. Its annual value of donations-in-kind is over $75,000. It is funded approximately by 1/3 gov’t.

Art Starts is interested in sistering/linking with other emerging/established community arts programs to share information with about models and responding to local conditions such as funding and space issues.

Wishlist: Art Starts would love to have a volunteer coordinator. They would also love a grad student to help collect data about Art Starts. (Grad students who are studying community development or education, for example.) They need people who can document their programs and collect testimonials from participants through video, audio, photography, and writing. Art Start’s artists, while they are working, are approached with participants’ issues that may require professional guidance. They feel that there is a need for artist facilitators to get training in community resources and how to help direct people to these resources.

ArtBridges interview with Liz Forsberg, Managing Director, (Liz has a Masters in community arts from York University) on February 4, 2010.

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