Early in the year 2000, a new art school, Art City Toronto, will be opening in Toronto. Located right in the heart of St. James Town, the school will aim to attract young people from the most densely populated community in North America. The goal will be to channel the energy and talent of young people in the neighbourhood into creating art. A similar initiative in Winnipeg has been highly successful and has resulted in a significant drop in the juvenile crime rate in the area where the art school is located.

The school is the brainchild of Lori Martin, city planner with the City of Toronto's Urban Planning and Development Services. The Director of Art City Toronto will be Seanna Connell who has run the very successful Home for Creative Opportunity in Regent Park for the past eight years. The Regent Park and St. James Town initiatives will be working collaboratively with a single board of directors.

One fifteen year old young man who was a drug addict and a prostitute when the Regent Park program started, but who has since turned his life around said, "If I didn't have access to this art studio, I would either be in jail or in an institution." This same young man, several years later, has a full-time job and volunteers for several hours a week at the Home for Creative Opportunity.

Lola Rasminsky, Director of the Avenue Road Arts School, has agreed to sit on the steering committee of the new school. She will help raise money for teachers and supplies and will encourage Avenue Road teachers to become involved in this project.

If you, as a private citizen, or the donations committee of your company, would consider supporting Art City Toronto and would like to hear more about it, please contact Lola Rasminsky at (416) 961-1502.

ArtsReach to Public School
Classroom Teachers

The Avenue Road Arts School recently launched an outreach initiative to work with classroom teachers in neighbourhood primary and elementary schools. With the government having cut art specialists from most public school rosters, classroom teachers are finding themselves ill-prepared for their added responsibilities. With no special art training, they are now expected to present art lessons in accordance with Ministry of Education guidelines.

Artist/Educator, Linda Prussick is working with teachers from Brown Public School and Cottingham School to help them generate the ideas, the enthusiasm and the confidence they need to take on tasks that were once the domain of specialty art teachers. Classes meet at the Avenue Road Arts School, one Thursday evening each month.

To find out more about teachers' workshops, call Linda Prussick at (416) 961-1502.