We are pleased to announce that five new members have been appointed to the NYA Board of Directors! With expertise ranging from accounting to artistic direction, this new leadership will accompany the existing members’ skills to further support NYA’s strategic goals both now and in the future.

The new members will be joining the current Board of Directors who are cultural, business and community leaders from across the city: Joe Borowiec, Jason Ho, Umair Jaffar, Susan Karnay, Millean Kung, Diana Panagiotopoulos, Kathleen Sloan, Bill Stephenson and Nina Zaslavsky.

The Board will continue to provide leadership and strategic oversight to carry out NYA’s vision of an inclusive, engaged, and sustainable arts and culture community in North York. The new members’ knowledge and passion for the arts will be a meaningful addition to our team.

Please join us in welcoming the newly appointed NYA board members. Click on the links to learn more! 

David Di Giovanni

Mira Lax

Jessica Singh

Jonathan Stewart

Elka Weinstein

The opening of the 2020 Northbound Exhibition Program is quickly approaching, and we’re excited to introduce our first artist: Anna Kavehmehr! Born in Tehran, Anna moved to Toronto in 2013 to pursue her art career. Her exhibition, “Lacrima: /’la.kri.ma/”, follows the story of a girl in different stages of her life where she is experiencing feelings of loss, loneliness, displacement, and the hopelessness that comes with them. 

Keep reading to learn more about Anna and her work!   

Tell us about yourself and your background in the arts. 

I started drawing from a young age by copying my mom’s sketches. She used to draw beautiful portraits and I was always in awe of how she captured elegance with a few lines. I became obsessed with creating art that conveys something intangible, and I never stopped drawing. I went to art school and studied Graphic Design and focused on book illustration for my thesis.  After moving to Canada, I completed my master’s degree in Digital Media and created an AR storybook of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland for my final project. I am currently working on a short animation and a graphic novel and am always open to collaborate with other artists. 

Describe your exhibition; where did you draw inspiration? 

This collection of work stemmed from emotions that I was experiencing after immigrating to Canada and the loneliness that came with it. The feelings were contradictory, complex and at times dark. What compelled me to create art about them was that I was fully aware of them and was trying to work through them by bringing them on a page and confronting them. It almost felt like being stuck in a freeze-frame moment where I was merely a bystander looking upon myself.

What is your favourite part about showcasing stories and emotions through your work?

 For me, creating any sort of art is almost a form of therapy. Depicting emotions has helped me understand the different states I’ve been in and has helped me know myself a little better. I believe stories have the power to connect a wide range of audiences that might on the surface have nothing in common. They help us understand different people, their struggles, their happiness and their dreams. To me, Illustration is just a different form of storytelling.

What is something you hope that people take away from your exhibition? 

My hope is that I was able to depict that dark emotions can creep up in the most ordinary settings as well as over-powering a situation one might be in. That all emotions are welcome in getting to know oneself. 

What are you most looking forward to as a participant of Northbound? 

I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity and thankful to North York Arts for promoting emerging artists, especially in the North York area. The chance to have so many people view your work is always very exciting, and I’m looking forward to connecting with other North York based artists and art enthusiasts. 

Lacrima: /ˈla.kri.ma/ will be on display from April 1 – April 30 at the North York Centre; the exhibition opening will take place on April 1 from 12 pm – 1 pm. This exhibition is free to the public. For more information, click here.

We are excited to introduce Cecilia Acevedo, the group leader of Legacy Collective. Legacy Collective is an independent North York-based senior engagement initiative supported by North York Arts. The group celebrates creativity and wisdom through peer-to-peer learning, storytelling, and art-making. 

Over the past year, Cecilia Acevedo has been the group’s lead coordinator – she has ensured that it is a well-run space for sharing, creating, and building friendships. We asked Cecilia about her interest in the arts and her involvement in the Legacy Collective. 

Tell us a bit about yourself and your interest in the arts. 

My name is Cecilia and I am from Chile. I came to Canada in 1984 and while it was really hard at the beginning, as time went on it became much better. I always had an interest in the arts (I think I got it from my mom!). There was just something inside me that drew me to art – I think my favourite is visual art. I’m a visual learner; I can look at something and in my mind, I can see where to add or change colours. Art has always been a way for me to express myself.

Tell us about Legacy Collective; when did you get involved and what is your role now? 

Legacy Collective is a group of senior women from different ethnic backgrounds. We gather together and share our knowledge in visual arts, painting, crochet, knitting, and other types of art. In 2009, before I was a part of Legacy Collective, I was involved with another arts group that I learned about at a community centre. Then, 3 years ago, I heard about the Legacy Collective and decided to join. Now I am one of the group’s leaders and I’m really happy because I have the opportunity to teach and share my knowledge with the other ladies, which they can use to improve their skills. 

What impact has the Legacy Collective had on you and the participants?

For me, the Legacy Collective has been very important because it’s a place where we can share our knowledge, emotions, and our cultures. We all come from different countries and situations which gives us the chance to learn from each other – a chance that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. For this reason, being a part of the Legacy Collective has been amazing. Legacy Collective was able to bring people from all around the world together. 

How do you hope to see Legacy Collective grow in the future? 

It’s our dream for Legacy Collective to grow. We want to do so many more things – and we are trying. We want to grow our participants, become much bigger, and we want to continue to give a helping hand to other people. Just like North York Arts, we want to be able to share with those in our community. 

The Legacy Collective meets every Friday in North York. To learn more about the work they are doing visit https://www.northyorkarts.org/project/legacy-collective/. Interested in joining? Contact cecilia@northyorkarts.org.

North York Arts is excited to announce that the Call for Nominations to the Board of Directors is now open!

The Board of Directors provides strategic leadership, governance, establishes policy, oversees the operations and financial performance of North York Arts and assesses the Board’s own effectiveness. Our Board Members will serve on several committees, including:

• Executive
• Finance & Audit
• Accounting
• Governance & Nominating
• Programming & Events
• Fundraising & Marketing
• Legal

New members will be supported and mentored by the existing Board of Directors to help ease the transition into this leadership role. Participation on the Board is voluntary and there is no remuneration for service.

Expected Commitment from Board Members:

• Term begins April 2020 and have the ability to serve for a minimum of one (1) year and eligible for re-election at the annual general meeting
• Attend 8 Board meetings that take place each year: one in conjunction with the Annual General Meeting
• Able to commit the time and resources to serve on the Board and one board committee, and represent North York Arts as requested

The Governance & Nomination Committee is particularly interested in candidates with the following knowledge and expertise, who either live or work in the City of Toronto:

• Fundraising, Development & Sponsorship
• Community Arts & Leadership
• Small Business and/or Social Enterprise

Qualifications:

• Commitment to North York Arts’ Vision and Values and has an appreciation for the arts
• Personal commitment to devote the time necessary to perform the responsibilities of a Board member
• Strong communication and collaborative skills
• Previous non-profit board experience is an asset
• Live and/or work in the City of Toronto

To apply:

• Please submit a cover letter and your résumé / CV by March 11, 2020 to lila@northyorkarts.org
• All applicants must complete this application to be considered for the position.
• All cover letters and résumé / CVs will be reviewed by the Committee to be selected for an interview.
• Nominations Committee will then make recommendations for each open board position to the Board. The Board will meet and review the recommendations and then motion for selection.

North York Arts is strongly committed to equity and inclusion within the community and encourages applications from all qualified candidates including Persons with Disabilities, Persons of Colour, Indigenous and 2SLGBTQIAP community members. We thank all applicants in advance, however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

For more information about the role and nomination process – please contact Executive Director, Lila Karim at lila@northyorkarts.org or 416-733-9388 x 7062.

We’re excited to introduce arts leader and educator, Charles Smith. Charles is the Artistic Director of The Wind in the Leaves Collective and the Executive director of Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO). 

We’re highlighting Charles’ involvement in CPAMO, specifically growing the equity and diversity landscape in the arts. North York Arts was fortunate to be involved in CPAMO’s most recent cohort of organizations dedicated to deepening their understanding of equity and pluralism in the arts and making organizational changes. 

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background in the arts.

I am a poet, essayist, and interdisciplinary performing artist.  I’m also an arts administrator and educator involved in teaching and promoting equity and pluralism in the arts and society.  I’m from New York City where I studied poetry with Armand Schwerner and William Packard at City University New York and New York University.  When I arrived in Toronto, I started the Black Perspectives Cultural Program in Regent Park and was very involved with Black Theatre Canada. I am currently the Executive Director of Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) and Artistic Director of The Wind in the Leaves Collective, an interdisciplinary performance group combining his poetry with music, dance, and visual arts.

What is CPAMO and what kind of work are you doing in the city?

CPAMO is a movement of Indigenous and racialized artists and arts organizations engaged in empowering the arts communities of Ontario. We aim to build the capacity of artists by providing access to cultural institutions and facilitating partnerships with various arts organizations. CPAMO strongly believes that its efforts will create an environment in which creative artists from Indigenous and racialized communities will be better understood by presenters for music, dance, theatre, interdisciplinary practices, visual arts, and literary publishers.

To assist in achieving CPAMOs goals and objectives, we undertake activities in community engagement, professional development, research and publications, artist performances, and organizational development and change.

What is the role that arts organizations play in facilitating cultural pluralism?

Arts organizations can and do play a significant role in promoting cultural pluralism.  This is being done by such organizations working directly with Indigenous, radicalized, queer, deaf and disabled, women and other marginalized artists.  Such work can include coming to understand their artistic practices, staging and/or exhibiting these works as well as active promotion and advocacy.  

How can individuals and arts organizations get involved? 

CPAMO is always open to new people and/or organizations that want to get involved. You can become a member (free of charge) or become a presenter. CPAMO members are able to use our website to promote their activities, and they take part in surveys and Roundtable meetings to provide input into CPAMO’s initiatives. You can also join our email/ newsletter list; CPAMO newsletter comes out every other month and we publish the information shared at our events.  

To learn more about CPAMO and to get involved, visit: https://cpamo.org/. To learn more about the how North York Arts was involved,visit: https://cpamo.org/equity-education-in-the-arts/cpamo-poc-phase-2/

Next month, North York Arts will be running “Second Act Seniors” An 8-week ESL theatre program for seniors and adults. Each week, participants are led by instructors to feel more confident in their English speaking abilities. 

With that said, we’re excited to introduce one of the instructors, Stephan Dyer. Along with his partners Juan Cajiao and Isaac Luy, Stephan founded MalPensado, a Spanish speaking comedy club. We spoke to Stephan about MalPensado, comedy as a tool for development, and what he’s looking forward to with Second Act Seniors.

Tell us about yourselves and what you do.
Juan Cajiao, Isaac Luy and I are bilingual comedians and public speaking coaches born in Colombia, Venezuela, and Costa Rica, respectively. In 2014 we founded MalPensando, the only Spanish comedy club in Canada. We’ve also been on TEDx and Comedy Central and performed in 15 countries including Malaysia, Singapore, and Luxembourg. In 2017, MalPensando became a bilingual comedy school and has since helped over 600 people in 5 countries become funny, confident speakers through improv, clown, public speaking and comedy workshops.

Tell us about MalPensado and its impact on the community.
MalPensando gives back to the Hispanic-Canadian community regularly as it is one of our key priorities and core values. Every year we give over $3000 workshop scholarships to charities that help Hispanics better adapt into Canada. We also offer numerous free Leadership workshops on a yearly basis in order to give our community the necessary tools to succeed in today’s Canadian society.  Examples of these workshops are “LinkedIn Workshop To Advance Your Career (For Hispanic Newcomers),” “Resume Critique Workshop For Hispanic Newcomers,” “How To Network Effectively: The Canadian Way,” “The Secrets Behind Getting A Job in Canada,” “How To Be A Master Of Ceremonies,” “Speaking With Confidence,” and coming this winter 2020 “Financial Literacy for Youth.”

How can comedy be used to develop public speaking and other skills?
Comedy is truth and pain. Comedy is basically tragedy plus time. In other words, it’s very therapeutic. When you’re real on stage, when you’re authentic, you connect with people because it’s also happened to them. Typically when something is “relatable”, it’s funny! 

Our 6-week course actually teaches people to conquer the fear of public speaking, make people laugh, and influence any audience! It helps people get amazing presentation skills because we teach you 25 tips and techniques. Instead of me telling you, I’ll just copy and paste one of our student’s testimonials: 

“This was honestly one of the best things I have ever done. I was able to push myself beyond my comfort zone and grow as a person. Prior to this course, I wasn’t very confident in myself. One of the main reasons I joined the course was to overcome social anxiety, and it definitely helped me do that and so much more. MalPensando not only helped me become a more confident public speaker, but a more confident person in general. I am super grateful for the lessons Stephan and Juan taught us. It is definitely a course that impacted my life greatly. I got to meet some amazing people from different walks of life that I would have never crossed paths with if it hadn’t been for this course. I highly recommend this for everyone! It was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.” 

What are you most looking forward to during your Second Act Seniors workshop?
So excited you have no idea. More often than not, I find that seniors are more authentic when expressing themselves. That authenticity is KEY for connecting with an audience and making people laugh because, as you remember, comedy is truth and pain, Often, they’re not scared about being vulnerable and sharing real stories, real failures, or telling it like it is. Their stories will be therapeutic and will inspire people everywhere. 

Second Act Seniors starts on February 4th! Interested in signing up? Visit northyorkarts.org/project/second-act-seniors or call 416-733-9388 x 7067. 

Want to learn more about Stephan and MalPensando? Visit: malpensando.com