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

Build Your Art Practice

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:

Great West Life, London Life, Canada Life

All Funders

SKETCH COMMUNITY UPDATE (as of August 14, 2020)

Thanks to all who participated in Creating Against the Odds! Our online experiments offered May, June and July. Thanks to everyone who made those experiments during these challenging times.

SKETCH studios at 180 Shaw Street will remain closed to public access until further notice. We are forced in this time of pandemic to rework and consider our sustainability given public health priorities and resources. We will keep you posted on new designs in September.

Connect here for wellness supports.

We've launched our Equity at SKETCH Web page to be in dialogue with you about our Equity goals.

Black activists and communities everywhere are working hard to lead all society to call out and authentically address the violent impacts of White Supremacy in policing, justice, education, health, community and in all systems and infrastructures across Turtle Island (North America). Anti-Black racism is deeply embedded in every fabric of our society. This, as well as our violent colonial legacy of Indigenous erasure, constant gender discrimination and violence, and the violence and mistreatment of those in the disability community, are pervasive pressing truths that we need to face and address, daily, to make change in real ways. We need boldness, energy, honesty, deep listening and accountability, to generate sustained action and inversions of power in the immediate, medium and long term.

What can a community-engaged arts organization in Toronto like us do, to take up its role in this critical renaissance of justice? Join us in learning together with us, what this means.

SKETCH is deeply committed to supporting, learning from and amplifying the brave and creative leadership of young Black Artists and Activists. Check out Art in Pandemic and be inspired by the incredible work of young artists creating during this time.

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.

Please support us to be a just, accountable and vibrant arts platform for young people on the margins! We need your help now more than ever!