Blank Canvases

What is a glen? It is a deep narrow valley.

This mural is based on the the school’s mascot–a fox–and the glen. Inspired by the work of local artist Daphne McCormick, who oversaw this project, students in kindergarten throughout grade 6 participated in the creation of this beautiful mural.

A team of librarians created mixed-media identity portraits based on their VIA Character Strength assessments as part of enriching their development. Staff members were to create a collage expression of their top character strengths.

In March 2018, Blank Canvases was hired by Gap Kids to design a wolf mask for the opening reception of TIFF Kids. Children were encouraged to create their own mixed-media wolf masks based on the main character in White Fang. 

In the Fall of 2017, Blank Canvases was hired to beautify the storage container of R.J. Lang Public school. The students painted the container based on the works of Toronto illustrator Daphne McCormick, and were particularly inspired by the natural habitat of the birds and the bees!

Veterinarian clinic staff created portraits of cats through a variety of mediums. This was a creative collaboration that enabled the whole team’s problem solving skills.

On September 23rd, 2017 we were invited by Queen Street Art Crawl to provide the art engagement in Trinity Bellwoods Park. This year we featured local artist Sean Skier, children got to create their own mixed-media collage portraits.

This summer Blank Canvases was contracted by the City of Toronto to do arts engaged lessons with the kids in our City’s Camps. Located throughout the GTA the camps offer day time programming for the children in our communities over the summer months while schools out! 

Catering to children ages 6 to 12 the camps offer fun, councellor led camp activites that will leave long lasting memories and build neighbourhood freindships. Blank Canvases was hired to bring quality arts lessons to the camps for their arts weeks activites and to enrich their daily programming. 

Here are some examples of the children’s work after they learned about Urban Graffiti arttists and Toronto artist Shary Boyle. We had a great time going into the relaxed, happy atmosphere of the camps where the kids are enjoying summer vacation to their fullest! 

Blank Canvases partnered with The Feminist Art Conference (FAC) to bring a series of workshop programs to youth from Central Toronto Academy (CTA). The Women’s Kit Education Program, later re-dubbed the Women’s Kit REMIX, functioned as a weekend long summer art retreat for socially conscious and artistically-minded youth. 

The Women's Kit is a 20 pound box produced by artist and researcher Pamela Harris in the 1970s, containing over 100 items including zines, posters, albums, slides, postcards, and games that address what were considered the educational gaps in women's history and art. The kit itself reflects an interesting array of social issues still prevalent today and the retreat was designed to mentor youth to make art projects inspired by it. The weekend retreat provided young people with the opportunity to explore feminist issues as they presentthemselves then and now. The days were structured into two key parts: Exploring the artifacts of the kit and investigating the issues it put forth, and considering contemporary issues to make personal, updated responses to the kit.

Watch for our exhibition Women’s Kit Regenerartion launching October 5th at OCAD University. This show will show the youth’s print’s displayed with the work of the Drawing and Painting students!

Blank Canvases recieved a grant from the City of Toronto’s Cultural Hotspit programme to create Beautiful Waste 2.0 in the east end! Continuing​ the partnership with Thinking Forward, ​facilitated​ ​by​ ​Aileen​ ​Lam​ ​and​ ​Kageana​ ​Arul​,​ ​the​ ​Beautiful​ ​Waste​ ​2.0​ ​Art​ ​Workshop​ ​was​ ​designed​ ​to​ ​help​ ​the​ ​participants exercise​ ​their​ ​creative​ ​thinking​ ​sand leadership skills.  ​In the workshop they would ​build​ ​the​ ​artwork​ ​that​ ​would​ ​be​ ​presented​ ​to​ ​the​ ​public​ ​at the​ ​​Monarch​ ​Park​ ​Arts​ ​and​ ​Music​ ​Festival​.​ 

For their project Beautiful Waste 2.0, they had youth design and lead a public art installation around ideas of waste in our lives. In workshops before the festival, the youth came up with the idea of 'food waste' in the domestic space as an issue they wanted to explore through art at the festival.

Blank Canvases provided an interactive art activity for the guests at the Monarch Arts and Music Festival at Monarch Park.  Working with installation artist Tim Manalo, they created two large constructions of foods that are most wasted ( corn, and onion ). At the festival, they asked participants to draw photos of the last food that they had wasted.

The idea was that normally people throw food away without thinking. By having the participants sit and draw this food, it created a moment of reflection. Afterwards, the participants attached their food to the large onion or corn which was set up by the studio tables. Throughout the day the sculptures filled with drawings and people interacted and explored looking at and reading what other people had added as their wasted food. The result was a very colourful and engaged art experience that created some very provocative community conversation about an issue that the students were very passionate about.

Over the last weekend in April, Blank Canvases was invited to provide programming for the Girl Guides of Canada convention. We arrived on Friday and set up our booth and laid out our amazing supplies from Currys Art Store. For this event, we planned to have the youth learn about Canadian artist Shary Boyle and make their own work inspired by ideas of feminism, mythology and super powers! The young women were very engaged in the creativity and conceptual ideas that the lesson evoked. The Girl Guides from all over Canada had a great time getting to know one another while making art around the table! 

A wonderful thank you to John from our sponsor Currys Art Store! John is the materials representative for the schools. He visited us at one of our morning classes at Parkdale Public School today. The students were learning about Toronto artist Charles Pachter and creating personal symbol pattern paintings. John took the time to give a demo using the sketchbooks that they donate to each child in the programme. John showed the young artists how we use sketchbooks to be creative and problem solve our projects. It seems like it worked because the paintings turned out great! 

Blank Canvases was hired by the Toronto Catholic District School Board to do a workshop with elementary teachers on the best practices on how to teach art in our city’s classrooms! Natalie Kauffman, our amazing Education Director, did an extensive workshop outlining Blank Canvases teaching methods which include: open ended choice making, stimulating creativity, upcycling materials, promotion of problem-solving, group feedback and student centred art curriculum strategies. Within our facilitation, we always encourage our participants to play, get messy and get into the art making themselves! The learning that happens in creation is invaluable. For their ‘mock lesson’ they learned about Toronto artist Tonya Hart and her Arctic Animals project. The results were nothing short of amazing!

For the 4th rendition of our semi annual fundraiser, we threw a painting party! Located in a factory off Spadina party-goers got to paint whatever they wanted from 9pm-1am on a 100-metre long canvas provided by Currys Art Store. We are also joined by EGR the Toronto Grafitti artist who live painted on a large stretched canvas throughout the party. Also, our community was engaged with an interactive light sculpture using vintage 1980′s overhead projectors and found objects! Sponsor Harlem Restaurant provided mac and cheese, and Muskoka Brewery added to the event with Beer! DJ Mark Foreman and DJ LenX got everyone on the floor dancing between making art. We raised enough money for over 1000 elementary students in model neighbourhoods to get a Blank Canvases art lesson! Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our initiative.

Blank Canvases was hired to activate the children and family area of the OCADU Grad Ex show for the Alumni Lounge! With the help from volunteer art students from Lawrence Park High School and Blank Canvases Artist Educators we created an interactive sculpture installation inspired by the art of Soyeon Cho! Using chicken wire a large frame was hung from the ceiling, art supplies from Currys Art Store were laid out as well as various found objects, upcycled art materials and found objects. Families came in throughout the day and their children were engaged with creating art pieces to hang on the scultpture. Utilizing conceptual art ideas of interactivity, collaboration and community the sculpture expanded throughout the day with texture, colour and unexpected creative surprises.  

The Queen West Art Crawl, better know as QWAC, takes place in Trinity Bellwoods Park and featurs artists, music and food from all over the city of Toronto. To encourage the creativity of the attendees at the festival we activated our Blank Canvases booth with an art lesson featuring Toronto Artist Meera Sethi. She creates art work that explores issues of identity, home and belonging through a lens of fashion and style from Eastern and Western influences. Using fabric and magazine collage, children created their own version of fashion designs as influenced by their experiences, background and the people and places who inspire them. Creating one of a kind portrait collages with art supplies from Currys Art Store and upcycled fabrics from HOK, participants went away with wonderful one of a kind art pieces to commemorate the festival. 

Blank Canvases was invited by our partner ArtSpin to provided educational programming for schools at the inFuture festival! This festival is the first of its kind in Toronto. Taking place at Ontario Place, artists activated the vacated site with site specific conceptual art projects to engage the public in an exploration of this former amusement park. We came up with the idea of a Beautiful Waste project which would include community members in the creation of a massive art installation made of the “beautiful waste” created in our city.  In partnership with Thinking Forward, a leadership programme for children and youth this project engaged young people from Central Toronto Academy in developing a student centred project. Working with sculptor Tim Manalo, the project that they came up explores the history of Toronto's waterfront, both its natural habitat and human made aspects, including areas partially created from landfill. Through these stories, we have had children and youth participate in a discussion around the possibilities of creating an ecological and sustainable future of creativity and problem solving through art making.

At Ontario Place, the Beautiful Waste project engaged children, youth and families in the creation of a massive art installation made of the “beautiful waste” created in our city. This project explored the history of Toronto's waterfront being created from landfill. Through these stories children and youth participated in a discussion around the possibilities of creating an ecological and sustainable future of creativity and problem solving through art making.

The CTA students and Blank Canvases Artist Educators led art workshops with the public and school visits. During the lesson, they asked participants about their vision for the future. Using markers donated by Currys Art Supplies people coloured their unique vision on the outside of the plastic bottle. Together, participants created a “telescope” made from a discarded water bottle around their vision. The water bottle telescopes were installed on site at the festival, and the public will be able to see the many different perspectives for the future when they gazed through them.

Big thank you to Brockton Collective for asking us to lead the art programming at the children's festival! We had a great time making monotype prints at our booth insprired by Toronto illustrator Daphne McCormack and the habitats in Lake Ontario.  Daphne McCormack is an illustrator, painter, muralist and art educator. Her concern for the natural world, especially the turtle and our fresh water areas, are a common theme in her work. In this lesson, children are asked to share their knowledge of water habitats while learning to express their ideas through warm and cool colours, patterns, textures and line. Students also made stencils and creating shapes from their own designs. Check out some of the beautiful art work the participants made.