Cultural Hotspot Projects showcase local artists and organizations that celebrate creativity, culture and community. These projects are free and provide opportunities for the public to participate in arts activities and events. Browse upcoming Cultural Hotspot events.
A project for youth that aims to foster an understanding of mental health and explore the diverse therapeutic potential of the creative arts through a series of workshops and monthly initiatives.
Funding Recipient: Black Creek Community Health Centre
A project that creates training and opportunities for Black youth to contribute their voices and perspectives through augmented reality digital art, tying original works to existing murals in Jane and Finch under the guidance of professional local artists.
Funding Recipient: AstroSankofa Arts Initiatives
A two-day community arts festival featuring an artist showcase and small business market that celebrates women and gender-diverse residents of the Jane and Finch community.
Funding Recipient: Flaunt It Movement
A project that engages Jane and Finch-based youth to receive instruction from shoe artist and designer, Deanna Livoti, to create a customized pair of sneakers and showcase their artwork in a gallery setting.
Funding Recipient: The Neighbourhood Group Community Services
A program that connects artists with youth to receive mentorship in an artistic discipline to empower them to share their human rights stories with a culminating exhibition at the farm’s annual Farm Festival.
Funding Recipient: JAYU Festival Inc.
A series of monthly events and instructional programming delivered by professional artists prioritizing local youth participants from equity-deserving groups.
Funding Recipient: Black Creek Community Farm
A project that features youth artists in live-recorded performances alongside a professional band, sound engineer, photographer and videographer in the library of James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic High School and A Different Booklist.
Funding Recipient: The Greenprint Network
A community co-created project that centres intergenerational exchange through an Afrofuturistic lens to transmit cultural traditions, stories and beliefs to younger generations while working together to envision an equitable and vibrant future for Black people within the Jane and Finch community.
Funding Recipient: STEPS Public Art
A youth mentorship project on content creation, artist engagement and music marketing. Two events will celebrate participants as they release album singles and the final album launch on digital streaming platforms.
Funding Recipient: New Tradition Music
A series of weekly literary and performing arts workshops facilitated by experienced artists, educators and mentors that will culminate in a public performance.
Funding Recipient: Black Diamonds Writers’ Collective
Weekly workshops for youth creatives from equity-deserving communities in Jane and Finch to learn branding guidelines that includes a final event to launch the participants’ brands.
Funding Recipient: theclassroom
A project that will equip Jane and Finch youth with essential photography skills, covering topics such as manual shooting, composition, editing, and the creation of their own artistic projects through hands-on learning experiences, including photo walks and culminating in a community exhibition.
Funding Recipient: 4 The West End
A project that focuses on artistic development for BIPOC emerging creatives through workshops co-facilitated by prominent artists from Jane and Finch, covering the essential elements of DIY audio recording, collaborative song writing, and DJing.
Funding Recipient: Sydanie
A series of workshops exploring fibre arts for African, Caribbean and Black communities to learn traditional artistic practices in textile arts, printing and beadwork from Ghana.
Funding Recipient: Kelewele Club
Honouring the announcement of the Little Jamaica Community Land Trust to Black communities in Toronto and Canada, this project features an in-person celebration event with performances from prominent reggae artists from Little Jamaica in spring 2024.
Funding Recipient: Black Urbanism TO
A vendor market that partners with local businesses in Eglinton West strip between Marlee Avenue and Keele Street to bring live musical and DJ performances to storefronts in the area.
Funding Recipient: Black Business and Professional Association
Enhanced programming of the initial Little Jamaica Rising Stars Signature project that offers free arts and culture festivities, as well as portraits of community members taken by local photographers to be featured in an exhibition with live music and performances.
Funding Recipient: Keele & Eglinton Residents (K.E. Residents)
Community project that produces a Little Jamaica zine that highlights the history of and visions for the future of the neighbourhood, highlighting voices of elders and youth.
Funding Recipient: Reclaim, Rebuild Eglinton West
Arts and culture workshop session for Black fathers and their children, held in partnership with the EarlyOns Centre. Project culminates in a community celebration with food from local restaurants.
Funding Recipient: Macaulay Centres for Children
A curated virtual showcase of Toronto’s roots reggae history connecting the communities of Little Jamaica and Jane and Finch through the stories, experiences and artifacts of roots reggae pioneering artist Dennis Reeves.
Funding Recipient: Amexem Mu Centre
A mural project for 504 Oakwood Avenue building that involves artist-led youth consultations, workshops and mentorship sessions. Collaborative mural creation completed by professional artists and local youth.
Funding Recipient: For Youth Initiative
A celebration of movies and documentaries made by local and international filmmakers, exploring themes of African liberation, spirituality and displacement. Films screen in the Eglinton West neighbourhood over three days with an opening night reception.
Funding Recipient: Lori Beazer