THE GREEN LINE
ORIGINAL STORY
L'Amoreaux's Canvas: Murals bring much-needed public art to Scarborough
VIEWS, a free mural program run by Next Generation Arts, is providing local youth with employable skills in the arts and a like-minded community.
VIEWS PARTICIPANTS PREPARE TO PAINT A MURAL INSIDE L'AMOREAUX COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE.
: JULIA LAWRENCE/THE GREEN LINE
AMANDA SERAPHINA JAMES RAJAKUMAR
Indian immigrant with a post-grad in journalism from Centennial College. Now living in Grange Park, meeting new people, and hearing different stories. Has four names, so it’s a pick-your-player situation.
JULIA LAWRENCE
Aspiring film photographer who studies journalism, communication and design at Toronto Metropolitan University. Visits beaches at 6 a.m. to clear her head.
November 10, 2023
Public art downtown is plentiful, but not all local artists have the same access to the resources everywhere in the city, including the Scarborough neighbourhood of L’Amoreaux.
One organization, Next Generation Arts, is looking to fill that gap with its popular mural painting program.
VIEWS — or Vision of Inspiring and Empowering Walls in Scarborough — is a free mural painting program hosted weekly at the L'Amoreaux Community Recreation Centre near Kennedy Road and McNicoll Avenue.
Local artists from ages 15 to 29 create murals representative of the area to beautify L'Amoreaux and to increase the amount of public art on display in Scarborough’s north end.
"When it comes to the arts, it's very centred in downtown Toronto and it takes a long time to get there. So it's very inaccessible for people especially if it's after school or after work," said Aswani Siwakoti, a participant in the VIEWS program.
"There's a lot of people who don't even entertain the idea of pursuing the arts because they feel like there's no stability in it, can't make a stable income."
MAP OF PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS ACROSS TORONTO, ACCORDING TO 2022 CITY OF TORONTO DATA.
: PAUL ZWAMBAG FOR THE GREEN LINE.
Toronto has over 400 public art installations across the city, but most are downtown. Recent data from the City of Toronto shows wards like Spadina-Fort York have 157 public art pieces while suburban wards like Scarborough-Agincourt just have one.
GRAPH SHOWING THE SPREAD OF PUBLIC ART IN TORONTO BY WARDS, ACCORDING TO 2022 CITY OF TORONTO DATA.
: PAUL ZWAMBAG FOR THE GREEN LINE.
Next Generation Arts, a charity that empowers young artists in the GTA, launched VIEWS in 2022.
Selina Tran helped bring the program to L'Amoreaux this year. She says VIEWS provides local residents with much-needed skills training, resources and peer support.
“Interacting with a lot of youth recently, I've noticed that they're really into creativity and arts, but they don't really have the space or resources to explore that beyond a hobby," said Tran, youth leader at the L’Amoreaux Community Recreation Centre.
"A lot of people really want to take arts as a professional or go on to really have professional schooling in arts, but they don't have the resources to do that. And I think especially with L’Amoreaux, we're really underfunded in arts, which is why the grants and everything that went into this is super important to them.”
CAI BELL-JEROME, A YOUTH FACILITATOR AT NEXT GENERATION ARTS, STANDS IN FRONT OF THE MURAL IN PROGRESS AT L'AMOREAUX COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE.
: JULIA LAWRENCE/THE GREEN LINE
Cai Bell-Jerome helped paint last year's mural at the O'Connor Community Centre in Clairlea, another Scarborough neighbourhood. Bell-Jerome's experience helped them build a professional portfolio, and also get a job as projects administrator and youth facilitator for Next Generation Arts.
“O'Connor Community Center VIEWS gave me a lot of confidence to sort of pursue it as more of a job, and it made it look more, I think, attainable for me because I had that start. So I was able to go out and use those skills for my own craft," said Bell-Jerome.
“I think it also puts you in touch with a lot of other people who want to do the same thing as you, and in that, you can form collectives, you can start projects together and it can just give you that starting point.”
This year, VIEWS is taking place out of the L'Amoreaux Community Recreation Centre where local youth are reclaiming the space.
“We saw some community violence and we saw a space where arts could overlap with mental health, and programming could be provided to youth. With VIEWS, we accept anyone across the city of Toronto — they don't have to be from Scarborough," said Teagan McCanny, projects administrator for Next Generation Arts.
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