Project Home Donate
Programs

What We Offer

SKETCH is a studio for young people (16-29), living homeless or on the margins, navigating poverty, to make all kinds of art!

We offer seasonal 10-week workshop sessions in Fall, Winter and Spring with special Summer programs.

Everything is free. Most workshops you can drop into. There’s no formal intake process, but some programs do require registration or sign-up in advance.

Check out workshop times, drop by, take a tour, grab a bite during meal times and create!

Connect here if you are in need of emergency help now.

View Sessions

How We Work Together

SKETCH is committed to fairness and inclusion, through accessible and anti-oppressive programming using transformative justice principles as a guide.

Community Agreements

SKETCH Studio and Admin Hubs are shared spaces where everyone’s fabulosity is welcome & needed. We invite you along with us to:

Be Yourself

Strengthen and share your unique voice and perspectives.
Ask for what you need and we will work together to support you.
Ask people their pronouns & share yours!

Seek Consent

Ask first!
Ask and receive permission from others before touching or commenting on people’s materials, art, bodies or identities.
Respect each other’s right to personal boundaries and honor that these can change.

Address Discrimination

We invite everyone’s courage and compassion in this work!
We will not tolerate discriminatory words, actions or art that are racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, ableist or classist.
We are all at different places in learning or (un)learning this stuff.

Respect Resources

Spaces, materials, tools and foods provided here are meant to be shared with everyone.
Take what you need, share, don’t waste and help others get what they need too!
Support clean ups and use materials safely.

Create Harmony

Your voice has impact.
Consider how your words, experiences, perspectives, actions and artistic expressions might affect or harm others
Use strategies that reduce harm and encourage healthy relationships

Negotiate

This makes all of the above possible.
To address each other’s needs and differences we require all community members to communicate and strategize respectfully.
Tap us in if you need support or mediation.

If these community responsibilities aren’t being respected, come talk to us! We care deeply about how we all work together and want to hear from you!

Seasonal Session Dates 2020

Winter: January 14 – March 5
Spring: April 14 – June 4
Summer: July 14 – August 19
Fall: September 29 – November 26

Upcoming Community Open Studios

Wednesday, March 25: Colour Palette: A Black Artist Showcase, 6-9PM, SKETCH Creative Hub

June: Rad Grad (TBD)

Art Transforms

Check out how other young people experience working in the arts.

Watch Videos

SKETCH Programs are generously supported by:

Ontario Trillium Foundation
The Law Foundation of Ontario
The Slaight Family Foundation
Great West Life, London Life, Canada Life
Toronto Arts Council
Canada Council For The Arts
Ontario Arts Council
Green Shield Canada
TD Bank
City of Toronto
RBC Foundation
Ontario Trillium Foundation
The Law Foundation of Ontario
The Slaight Family Foundation
Great West Life, London Life, Canada Life
Toronto Arts Council
Canada Council For The Arts
Ontario Arts Council
Green Shield Canada
TD Bank
City of Toronto
RBC Foundation
All Funders
"You really want that utopian ideal of what our world could be? You want to be proudly and ACTIVELY anti-racist, more than fearing being called a racist? I want that for you too. If so, then do the work, educate yourself and others stand by us loudly, consistently, FOREVER." - Clara Amfo, BBC 1 Radio Host

Dear SKETCH Community,

The last two weeks have been yet another reminder that the Black community continues to be under attack by white supremacist systems. SKETCH's board of directors and staff sends their deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those who we have most recently lost including Regis Korchinski-Paquet, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and D’Andre Campbell, and all those whose deaths have not been televised.

In our grief and anger at these senseless murders committed by the police, SKETCH is ensuring that we stay accountable to our Black youth artists, staff and the Black community at large, by taking swift action to ensure that folks are supported, uplifted, taken care of and their voices amplified, as they continue to organize and march on the front lines for justice.

As an organization that is led by mainly white leadership, we are deeply committed to examining and activating our role as an accomplice to address violence, racism, oppression, and discrimination in our sector, in Toronto and in society generally.

This Means:
  • We will continue to look within and address our own biases and the ways that systemic and structural racism plays itself out in SKETCH;
  • We will increase investment and resources to young Black Artists;
  • We will endorse Black leadership in SKETCH and in arts and culture;
  • We will support self-care and resources for our Black staff; and
  • Our leadership will connect with other white leaders of arts and culture organizations to support Black leadership in the sector with resourced opportunities to lead in meaningful ways.

We want to acknowledge the trauma and grief of those who create with and work at SKETCH, who are Black. We know you endure violence on a daily basis. We want to reach out to support you, stand and work together with you, to fight for justice, for your health, and for your futures.

We seek to learn daily, with you, how to enact a more just present and future. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for calling us to be better. All of our liberations depend on it.

We join the movements for prison abolition, and for strong redirection of funding for policing to go toward community-based transformative justice efforts.

We call on the Arts Councils to create a Black Artists Fund to support Black Artists and Black Arts and Culture Organizations, recognizing and investing in their leadership in arts and culture, and in building fair and inclusive communities.

We encourage the non-Black community members of SKETCH to stand with us and take action by:
  • Educating yourself on the issues;
  • Supporting your Black staff with personal time for self-care;
  • Supporting the community by buying from Black-owned business (which include Black artists at SKETCH);
  • Donating to organizations that are directly supporting Black folks;
  • Reposting and resharing information on your social media feeds;
  • Having constant conversations with your peers, families, and friends; and
  • Signing petitions that call for justice.

With so many ways to actively support the dismantling of systems that continue to oppress the Black community, silence is not an option.

We welcome you all to join SKETCH in allying yourselves with the Black community in the fight for liberation for all, not as a token event, but one that actually leads to a re-education, re-evaluation, and unbiased and selfless action.

In solidarity,

SKETCH Working Arts

Artwork: Egwu Ogwu Mystic Dance by Kanna Anigbogu

Dear Friends and Investors,

Greetings from the SKETCH Project Home Team! We hope that you and your family are keeping well and safe during this time.

UPDATE: SKETCH is placing the capital campaign to purchase our studios on brief hiatus until the fall.

Our campaign has been a great success so far, with over $370,000 raised in funds and Community Bonds! However, in face of the COVID-19 pandemic, SKETCH is taking action to suspend the campaign to allow the time needed for those excited about our campaign to be in a more secure position to participate.

If you have already donated to the campaign, or purchased SKETCH Community Bonds, we deeply appreciate your commitment to Project Home. If you've just recently submitted your bond-purchase documents, we will still process your investment.

Have any questions about your donations or bond purchase? Please do not hesitate to contact SKETCH Executive Director, Rudy Ruttimann at rudy@sketch.ca.

This summer, we'll be working with our campaign partners and SKETCH community to determine exactly when we relaunch in the Fall. We'll be sure to keep you posted over the summer.

You can still inquire about SKETCH, our capital campaign, and its progress at invest@sketch.ca or by following us at @SKETCHToronto.

Thank you for your time, and we wish all the best for you and your family.

-The SKETCH Team & Campaign Advisory

Close