urbanNOISE is an annual initiative working to unleash the positive potential of youth in the culturally rich Rexdale and Jamestown communities through a FREE urban arts Youth Training Program (YTP) and Festival that values leadership, community, and social change.

A project of Expect Theatre and Arts Etobicoke, urbanNOISE is aimed at creating an ongoing space where the urban arts are fused with social activism as a means of encouraging and energizing youth to critically identify, examine, address, and improve their personal conditions and those of their communities.

Overview

For four consecutive weeks from July 16th to August 9th, 2007, the artists (Javid and Iah) held two workshop sessions every Tuesday and Thursday.  The AM workshop (9:30am-Noon) had approximately 12-15 youth aged 13-18 years old. The Microskills and Albion Boys and Girls Club counselors were active participants in the program, and were of assistance at all the right times. The PM workshops (12:30-3pm) were for younger participants, aged 9-12 years old, and they numbered between 10-13 youth for each session, although there were 20 in the first two sessions. All sessions were conducted at the North Albion Collegiate Institute, and painting was conducted in the parking lot of the school.

The program began with the youth choosing an alias and developing their tag. Many of the youth already had a nickname so the transition into building style was a lot smoother than expected.

The first few workshops were focussed on technical and historical aspects of mural art and graffitti, including watching Style Wars, lettering and figurative drawing workshops. The following week, we moved into priming canvas and building a piece.

Having been prepped in the health and safety risks of aerosol art as well as technical aspects of using aerosol systems, the youth began experimenting with the style they developped in their sketchbooks.

The artists provided full scale demonstrations and 1-on-1 tutoring to the youth. By the third week, the youth were split into teams and were tackling pieces together.

By the sixth workshop, it was apparent that the youth were really enjoying and excelling at spray painting. These two pieces were examples from the PM Workshop youth (aged 9-13). The youth wanted to play with a Pirate-inspired subject matter.

"JIGG" was produced by our AM Workshop youth (aged 14-18) and demonstrates their understanding of color and composition. Everyone was happy with the work produced and the youth were visibly excited by their progress.

Produced by the PM youth, "LAB J's" is a really nice example of the development of the youth over the course of the workshop series.

Some of the most talented participants were selected to work with Iah and Javid on the urbanNOISE showcase pieces, including this one, exploring the theme "TRAPPED IN A BOX."

One of these standouts was Rose, who truly blossomed over the course of the program. Much love goes out to Rose for her dedication, discipline and enthusiasm. We hope she never gives up her artistic vision.

Iah and Javid broke it down for the community at the Mural Release Exhibition at Rexdale Library at the conclusion of the urbanNOISE workshop series. Much love goes out to all those that came out to support, and to all our participating funders and sponsors for their time and effort to make this program a success. We hope we can run the program again next year and perhaps leave our mark in Rexdale by having the youth work with us on a wall!