Kasia Mychajlowycz

Sketch is sometimes a noisy place, filled with street-involved youth creating every kind of art from fashion to music to sculpture to food to flyers in a big open studio. Fellow Forum editorial collective collaborateur Erin Vahidi and I spent a few afternoons in the space, seeing what activist art the youth using this arts program are working on, hoping to get some of the work into this issue of Forum Magazine. Sketch is an arts program offering studio space, workshops and projects for youth who are homeless, are on the brink of becoming homeless, or are street-involved. “The arts offer neutral and accessible territory that breaks down barriers and gets us to work together,” says their website. Through arts-based learning, Sketch’s mission is to “offer a compelling alternative that allows youth to set their own pace for healing and personal transformation.”

What we discovered in the second-floor studio, filled with every material and media imaginable- including a recording studio, a sewing space, a print-making space, a woodworking studio, a kitchen and my personal favourite, a button-making machine- were ideas, creativity and artwork that were exactly what we had been searching for this issue. Erin and I joined in on the self-directed studio time, but Sketch also offers classes and workshops on everything from gardening to animation, as well as helping young artists sell and exhibit their work.

The open-minded and welcoming atmosphere of the studio became more apparent to me every time I went back, and it wasn’t long until I was creating
with my own two hands- buttons, a collage and even some peppermint lip balm! Sketch proves that everyone- street-involved youth and editorial collective
members included- has something to say, and gives a marginalized community of young people a thousand and one ways to say it.