This Sunday, a group of 17 Toronto youth will meet at the
Yorkdale Community Arts Centre to take a class on pattern-making. They'll continue to meet every Sunday for the next seven weeks. And, by the end, each will have sewn and designed a shirt from scratch.
The participants are part of
Sew What?!, a fashion industry intensive offered multiple times a year by
Art Starts Toronto, an arts-based nonprofit dedicated to art education in Toronto's under-serviced neighbourhoods.
Each Sew What?! session, explains Carleen Robinson, program manager at Art Starts, focuses on a different aspect of the fashion industry. That means that participants regularly attend more than one session to learn about everything from designing and pattern drafting to merchandising and display.
"A lot of our participants come for the winter, spring, and summer sessions," says Robinson. "But, at the same time, the program is always growing. In fact, for the session that starts Sunday we actually have more people signed up then we have funding for, but I think it's important not to turn anyone away."
Funding is in fact a pressing issue for Sew What?!; the program is funded by an Ontario Trillium grant, and this summer the 3-year grant runs out. But rather than retire the program, Art Starts has decided that they'll look for ways to fund it permanently. Even if it means moving around some other resources.
"The program really serves a need," says Robinson. "There is always so much interest and so much excitement. We have so many community partners and the youth are able to meet with real professionals in the industry and really get an idea of what it takes. Many of the youth are interested in a post-secondary education in fashion and Sew What?! helps set them up and learn about what they want to do."
Like all of Art Starts programming, Sew What?! is targeted at Torontonians who face "consistent barriers to participation in the arts." The program offers young people interested in the fashion industry a chance to learn about how multifaceted the field really is, and to see how their skills might be beside utilized. Not only is Sew What?! free, but Art Starts provides tokens to help participants get to and from the courses.
"There can be obliviously a lot of financial barriers to fashion education, and it's really important for us that this does not pose a barrier for our participants," explains Robinson. "I also make sure to schedule the program in a way that won't interfere with school or other obligations. So we have the course either in the evening or on Sundays to make sure that they still have time for school and other responsibilities."
While Art Starts has been running arts programming for youth and adults for over two decades, Sew What?! is the organization's first foray into the fashion arts. It was launched in 2012 after Arts Starts organizers noticed that the youth they worked with were interested in developing careers in fashion.
Because the program has to cater to diverse skill levels and interests, Sew What?! is more about breadth than mastery. It's designed to cover as many aspects of the fashion arts as possible.
And even though the funding is running out this summer, Robinson is confident that Art Starts will find the funding to keep the project going.
"I'm not sure yet exactly how we're going to do it, but we are really committed to making Sew What?! a permanent program. "
Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Carleen Robinson, Program Manager, Art Starts
CORRECTION: The original version of this story stated that Art Starts had been running for only one decade and focused exclusively on youth. Art Starts has in fact been running programs for over 2 decades and works with people of all ages.