Young Changemakers: The Koffler Arts Studio Program

In partnership with Recreate Place, Koffler Arts is pleased to announce the launch of Young Changemakers: The Koffler Arts Studio Program. With generous funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, over the next three years, Young Changemakers will deliver contemporary arts based programming for children ages 8-12 in schools across Toronto.

We and all our partners believe that increasing equitable access to arts-based programming, supports children's confidence, emotional wellbeing and connections to each other. Through this creative and immersive in-school program, children will co-create outdoor art installations on their school grounds with local artists for the whole community to enjoy.

During our first session, we heard children say:

“I felt very happy because I like art so much, and loved it when you came to visit”

“I felt so much joy today!”

“I feel so proud of what I made”

Supporting the program is a multi-disciplinary team of artists, child-friendly facilitators, art therapists, an evaluation expert, and collaborating teachers all working together to create an immersive experience for children.

Over a series of workshops, children will work closely with the team of local artists, and collaborate on the creation of an outdoor art installations, from June onwards, and available for the broader community to experience. This community-building project will engage students in a playful and inclusive way, encouraging confidence and skill-building, and building their connection to place.

About the Collaborating Artists and Partners:

Recreate Place: Prioritizing children’s participation in community projects, Recreate Place creates age-appropriate experiences for children and youth to impact the design, plans and decisions affecting their community.

Our Team of Artists for Year One:

D&S Projects: Christine Dewancker and Katie Strang

D&S Projects is a collaboration between landscape designer Katie Strang and visual artist Christine Dewancker. Through D&S Projects, we explore the relationships between the built environment and cultural production, and the psychological effects of space. Our projects aim to inspire imagination, understanding and connection with the places we inhabit, by creating experiences that foreground often-invisible contexts from our surrounding environments.

Ksensiya Tsoy

K is an artistic producer and community-engaged artist with a focus on creative projects with a social purpose. She is a passionate advocate for open arts and culture as dynamic vehicles for positive societal change and loves crafting meaningful shared experiences that inspire human connection beyond our visible differences. She works on international projects with World Culture Open - a global network of cultural creatives, based between Beijing and Seoul. She is also working on a range of creative projects as an independent cultural producer based between Toronto and Ottawa.

Roda Medhat

Roda Medhat is a multi-disciplinary Kurdish-Canadian artist. In 2022, his sculpture was featured at Toronto's Nuit Blanche, a prestigious annual event, and received extensive coverage in national media. He designs public art sculptures to make art accessible to the masses, creating works of massive scale that are designed for spaces other than formal art institutions. His pieces often explore the experience of living between cultures as a child of the 1.5 generation. Through his art, Roda seeks to bridge cultural divides and create a shared sense of human experience.

Our Team of Artists for Year Two:

Leah Gold

Leah Gold is a visual artist and educator who specializes in large scale, collaborative artworks. She creates approachable, low barrier settings for community members of all ages to experiment with drawing and printmaking processes. She then takes the products of these workshops, and uses them to compose diverse works, such as artist’s books, tapestries, or installations. Her recent projects include a residency at
Maria Shchuka Library, where Leah worked with library patrons to produce a kaleidoscopic print and collage installation, transporting viewers to an idyllic garden setting - an escape from our current reality, built on our collective efforts and creativity.
Leah holds a BFA from Concordia University, and is currently based in Toronto. She is
part of the TDSB Creates team.

Janet Hinkle

Janet Hinkle (she/her) is a mixed-race multidisciplinary artist with a practice rooted in both contemporary fine art and craft. With a fondness for mixing juxtaposing materials and a practice rooted in shared histories, she is driven to explore concepts involving identity. Pulling inspiration from both mid-century forms and futuristic
design, her work manifests as installation, sculpture, gatherings, time-based media, and both human-food and human-flora interaction. She is also one third of studio.docx, a creative team that presents innovative contemporary art in public spaces to create unique community experiences. In addition to her creative practice, Janet Hinkle coordinates and curates art projects and artist capacity-building programs. She is part of
the TDSB Creates team.

Returning: Roda Medhat

Roda Medhat is a Kurdish-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist based out of Toronto. Medhat is an emerging artist having recently shown work at Nuit Blanche and the Small Arms Inspection Building. Roda specializes in sculpture, with a background in film. He adds a playfulness to his work, often by exploring scale, which is very appealing to children and youth.

Returning: D+S Projects

D&S Projects is a collaboration between landscape designer Katie Strang and visual artist Christine Dewancker. They explore the relationships between the built environment and cultural production, and the psychological effects of space. Projects aim to inspire imagination, understanding and connection with the places we inhabit, by creating experiences that foreground often-invisible contexts from our
surrounding environments. D+S worked with students at Edgewood Public School in 2022 creating an outdoor art installation with two classes and Recreate Place.

Photos