The organization was established in 1995 so that children with financial challenges would have the opportunity to attend arts classes at the Avenue Road Arts School.

The organization has formally appointed its own staff members, who with the continued support of its Board of Directors, will allow the charity to grow in an exciting and responsible way.

Lisa Phillips, Administrative Coordinator of Arts for Children of Toronto, runs the daily operations and, as well coordinates all the programs. She has spearheaded the fundraising drive, which includes a direct mail campaign and applications to foundations, arts councils and private individuals.

Julie Frost, Outreach Coordinator, is designing and coordinating programs which send artists into public schools to work with children and offer follow-up training to teachers.

Arts for Children is now able to work with more social service agencies, schools and community groups to offer scholarships, outreach programs, teacher workshops, as well as exhibits and presentations of visual art, drama and music.

Please visit the new website at www.artsforchildren.org.

For more information on Arts for Children of Toronto, call Lisa Phillips at 416-961-1502, ext. 302 or e-mail her at lisa@artsforchildren.org

Outreach Coordinator Wears Many Hats

Depending on which day it is, Julie Frost is the Senior Kindergarten Teacher, the Kinder Arts Coordinator and Coordinator of the Integrated Arts for Teachers at the Avenue Road Arts School, as well as Arts for Children's Outreach Coordinator. Julie, who is herself an identical twin, could do well to clone herself to handle all the responsibilities she has taken on!

Before joining the Avenue Road Arts School in 1997, Julie worked as a visiting artist in the public school system for ten years where she saw, first hand, the need that teachers have for assistance in delivering a high quality arts curriculum. Well aware of the numerous challenges that teachers face in preparing and delivering their lessons, she developed "tricks of the trade" which she is eager to impart to other teachers in both the Arts School's Integrated Arts for the Teaching Professional and Arts for Children's Outreach Programs.

As Coordinator of the Outreach Program, Julie's goal is to give teachers a chance to work directly with a real professional artist in their classroom setting. This gives both teachers and children a role-model, someone to look up to as a person who is passionate about what they do and committed to doing it well. The activities offered by these artists are designed to introduce strategies for making art with children that will raise the confidence level among the teachers and inspire them to be enthusiastic about the arts. In this respect, the program Julie has designed is meant to benefit the teachers as well as the children.

What is unique about this Outreach Program is that it includes "in-service" training for teachers, following the classroom program, which allows teachers to extend the experience they had with the visiting artist. In addition, each teacher is provided with detailed, "tried and true" lesson plans that they can use in their classroom once the artist has left their school. Artists also introduce the teachers to simple, inexpensive materials that they might not know about.

Julie looks forward to reaching children who would not normally get this kind of arts experience so that, through the guidance of an artist, they can achieve something "amazingly grand."

For more information about Arts for Children's Outreach Program, contact Lisa Phillips at 416-961-1502, ext. 302, e-mail her at lisa@artsforchildren.org or visit our website.

Outreach Update

Outreach Programs are underway at the following locations:

• Aboriginal Head Start (visual art)
• Shalom Food Project (visual art)
• Growing Together at the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre (music)
• Keelesdale Junior Public School (visual art)
• Dennis Avenue Community School (music)

Remember Fattah?

Four years ago, Splash! carried a story about a remarkable 15-year old boy, Fattah Stanley, who was attending adult painting classes at the Arts School on a scholarship from Arts for Children.

That young boy is now a first year student in International Relations at the U of T's downtown campus. When he won the prestigious CIBC Youthvision Award (one of 8 in Ontario), his artistic accomplishments were cited as one of the reasons for his selection as the recipient of this prize which will pay for four years of his university tuition.

The following is an excerpt from a letter he wrote recently which he has kindly agreed to share:

"The joy I felt the day I found out that I had become a scholarship student at the Avenue Road Arts School is not measurable and for me the joy will never be forgotten. I am the second eldest in a family of ten siblings. With such a large family, life can be difficult at times. The one thing I can say for sure about my situation is that the days spent in class on a Wednesday night at the Arts School were days spent in a personal oasis. Going to class became much more than a challenge to master my artistic talents, but it also become a second home where I could be the youngest for once and could learn from the elders around me. Avenue Road Arts School did not just help develop me as an artist, but it developed me as a person. I learned the lessons of responsibility, friendships, attentive listening and most of all it helped me develop my sense of self."

Fattah is already working on his own series of paintings of people on campus, based on photographs that he is taking. He is hoping to show the paintings at one of the University galleries.

This fine young man is someone to watch out for. We will certainly be hearing more about him in the years to come. We wish him the best of luck.

Fundraising Update

Arts for Children has just completed its first ever direct mail campaign. The support shown by the school community over the years has been encouraging. As Arts for Children steps up its activities, we need even more funding to reach our goal of $150,000 (by June 2003). If you haven't received an Arts for Children brochure, call the school and one will be mailed to you. Donation cards are available at the Arts School office, or you can give online at www.artsforchildren.org. Please donate whatever you can.