Let’s mark The AMY Project’s 15th birthday with 15K!

We have had a very exciting season so far at The AMY Project as we celebrate 15 years of mentorship, community-building, and artistic excellence with young women and gender non-binary youth in the Greater Toronto Area. As we celebrate this milestone, we look back at all we have accomplished and all that is to come with so much excitement. This was a significant year of growth for AMY: we took our programming national with Trans Gemmes, a performance creation program for young trans women and trans feminine folks of colour, and we launched Fat Fables, a program for queer and trans fat-identified folks to build skills in creation and performance. In February this year, Trans Gemmes performed a three-night run in front of a full house at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre during the Rhubarb Festival. We continue to run our Write-On Residency Program, in partnership with Tarragon Theatre, have provided film and story-boarding workshops to new participants, and continue to partner with Summerworks, Scadding Court Community Centre, and Canadian Stage on our Theatre and Curation Programs. 

While AMY has faced challenges this year, including cuts to Ontario arts funding and now the difficulties we all are experiencing with Covid-19, we continue to adapt and provide quality programming and support for our communities. We see the importance of our work now more than ever. These are seriously challenging times, and we know that our community members are struggling. Covid-19 has shone a spotlight on the many, many injustices in our society, and has made life even more difficult for folks already living on the margins. We’ve been taking our lead from our participants, who are still craving connection, creative collaboration, and support. The Theatre Program continues to meet via zoom and will be collaborating with the Film Program for the summer to produce a short film together. AMY core and program staff are providing emotional support, financial support through participant fees, programming, mentorship, and creative avenues for exploring grief and difficulty. It is important for us to continue to provide programming regardless of what happens in this post-Covid world. 

AMY has developed into one of the most highly respected community arts programs in the Greater Toronto Area. Our programs have broadly influenced the sector, and our practice of working in close partnership with other community and arts organizations and with a range of artists has embedded us deep in the arts ecology of the region. Our goal is to raise $15,000 so we can continue to provide impactful, meaningful, and accessible programming. 

Helping us to raise 15k will mean we will be able to increase honoraria we pay to participants, continue to provide one on one mentorship and to financially compensate mentors and mentees, increase staff salaries to be more in-line with industry standards, and provide a diversity of programming both during and after this pandemic. By contributing, you will be supporting the sustainability of a vital community arts organization as we navigate new ways of working, and as we face new barriers to sourcing funding as the world adapts to these new realities.