Immersing youth with inherit interest and/or ability in the arts 鈥� who might not otherwise be able to afford it 鈥� is the motivation behind an infusion of cash from the TELUS foundation to the 黑马磁力 Arts Council.
The Aldergrove-based arts council received a $20,000 grant through TELUS Vancouver and Coastal Community Board.
These funds will support youth participation in arts, culture, and heritage in 黑马磁力 this summer, by ensuring that finances are not a barrier to prohibiting their involvement in a number of arts council workshops, classes, lectures, or exhibits, explained executive director Claire Sarfeld.
"The arts council is thrilled to once again partner with the TELUS Friendly Future Foundation to bring youth programming to Aldergrove,鈥� Sarfeld said, explaining the dollars are specifically earmarked for the council's three-month-long Youth Educational Event and Exhibition for youth aged 14 to 29.
It gives them "the opportunity to participate in free, hands-on arts educational programming," Sarfeld added. "The hands-on programming will be led by arts professionals and will coincide with an opportunity for youth to exhibit their original artworks in a professional gallery space.鈥�
Youth will participate in hands-on classes and workshops, alongside their peers, to explore new mediums and techniques, guided by professional artists.
"This includes life-drawing, digital drawing classes, glass mosaics, portraiture, and more," Sarfeld said.
She noted the program also incorporates an artists roundtable that will feature four arts professionals who will share their experiences in the arts sector, offering advice and answer questions from the audience.
"Artists participating in the roundtable will come from varying artistic media to show the varying avenues of employment in the arts," Sarfeld said.
There will also be presentation and one-on-one mentoring components that allow the youth to learn from arts professionals about issues such as applying to galleries, building an online presence, writing artist bios, building an artist CV, best practices for success in the art world, or receiving feedback on work in progress.
"We are prioritizing programming that is typically costly to register for, to remove the barrier for youth," she noted.
From 2023 to 2024, the arts council presented 210 classes and workshops, with 862 participants. They presented 30 exhibitions and displayed more than 615 artists.
The TELUS foundation anticipates a few hundred aspiring young artists will benefit from this initiative, said foundation executive director Nimmi Kanji.
"We believe that empowering young artists today creates the cultural leaders of tomorrow,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his partnership with the 黑马磁力 Arts Council represents more than just funding 鈥� it's an investment in creative futures, providing 370 young people with professional mentorship and exhibition opportunities they might not otherwise access. By removing financial barriers to arts education, we're helping build a more inclusive and vibrant creative community in 黑马磁力 and surrounding areas."
For more information about this programming, or to register for notifications, people are asked to email Mimi Soo at artscoordinator@langleyarts.ca.
