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Art Engagement Project

Changing The Narrative Through The Arts

The Art Engagement Project embarked on its creative flow for school aged children in Simcoe County, through artistic expression, teaching students how to become allies in their schools to combat anti-Black racism and discrimination. We created the highly successful Art Engagement Project afterward being the 2021 recipients of the  TD Bank of Canada- Ready Commitment program. We are happy to also announce that funding has been renewed for the 2022-23 school year. 

Our Making Change presenters and artists worked with a total of 10 classes from Simcoe County District School Board and another 18 classes from Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board. Youth from grades K through 12 all received an opportunity to express their feelings about diversity & inclusion through forms of art, such as visual, dramatic, music and dance.

Changing the narrative through the arts by engaging Black artist mentors, sparking conversations and discussions, students will:

Explore the impact that anti-Black racism has on the world around us;
Reflect on how we can overcome racism and discrimination by making change;
Create their expressions of making positive change through art, dance, music, theatre; and, 
Share their creations in the community as opportunities are available (social media, displays etc.)

At Making Change, we couldn’t be more proud of the work we have accomplished since we have launched our programs in 2020 and look forward to continuing our work not only within Simcoe County, but throughout each region in Ontario.

The Art Engagement Project 2023

Art Engagement Project:

Changing the narrative through the arts by engaging Black artist mentors, sparking conversations and discussions, students will:

Explore the impact that anti-Black racism has on the world around us;
Reflect on how we can overcome racism and discrimination by making change;
Create their expressions of making positive change through art, dance, music, theatre; and, 
Share their creations in the community as opportunities are available (social media, displays etc.)

These creations will engage your students in critical thinking about diversity, inclusion with an emphasis on Black people, Black cultures and issues around anti-Black racism. Their reflections will generate creative expressions in various forms visual, dance, music, theatre as part of the movement to drive positive change and inclusion in our community.

Implementation Overview:

  • Advance planning with educator for the class and any other school stakeholders (1 hour attended by Making Change presenter and artist)
  • Educators lead pre-reading and instruction in advance(on inclusion, belonging, diversity and equity with a focus on anti-Black racism)
  • Students engage in  the MacLaren Art Centre virtual tour 
  • Making Change Educational Intro to Anti-Black Racism (1 hour, age appropriate)
  • Class mentorship with the professional artist mentor from the Black community (1 hour x 3 weeks for Drama, Music,, Photography, or Dance classes;  1.5 hours x 3 weeks for Visual Arts classes.

Sharing the project to expanding the reach and impact, we encourage classes to share their project widely with students, the Board, the Community

MacLaren Art Centre Partnership:  They are partners with our project and have included a virtual tour of Farihah Aliyah’s photography exhibit which was on during the summer at the centre.  This tour includes an interview with Farihah herself and how her exhibit showcases the discrimination seen throughout the history of photography.  Through her work students are shown how racial bias has shaped colour photography.

Available art streams to choose from:

Meet Our Artist Mentors: