ARTS APPRECIATION IS BACK!

Sign up and get the scoop on free tickets to plays, concerts, exhibitions, and more around Toronto. *Limited spots available.

*Most events have a limited number of spots and not all those who register will be guaranteed a spot. When tickets for events become available, we will contact members who have registered for Arts Appreciation. Tickets will be distributed through a lottery system.

Once an event has reached capacity, we may have a wait-list. For events with a wait list, participants are also chosen through a lottery system.

You will receive a confirmation email directly from the Education Coordinator, Teyama, indicating whether you have been granted a ticket or placed on the wait-list.

For more information, please contact Teyama at teyama_alkamli@workmanarts.com

10AM - 6PM

EMAIL LIST

Oct 16 - Dec 15

Contemporary Art Femmes is an exploratory journey into the world of women, femmes, and non-binary artists, exploring their remarkable works and doing work inspired by them. In this course, we will dive deep into art made by femmes, drawing inspiration from their stories, techniques, and unique perspectives. We will honour their artistry and celebrate our own creations. Open to women, femmes, and nonbinary members. All skills.

Susana Meza is a Venezuelan artist and poet who creates art with the vision of a softer world. Susana's work is infused with intentional happiness and is a reflection on intersectionality and lived experiences of mental health, addiction, mourning, and immigration. Susana is a teaching artist and a certified peer-support worker. Most recently, Susana earned an MBA in Arts Innovation at the Global Leaders Institute (2023), building on their Yale University (2022) LET(s)Lead fellowship.

Monday

12PM - 2PM

Online

Nov 6 - Dec 11

In this class we will explore writing music and songs that can act as tools of resistance for both the Artist and the community. Our goal is to study the greats and use the songwriting and poetry skills we learn to create our own Revolutionary songs that help us to process this burning world. Participants are required to play a musical instrument and have access to their instrument. A computer or phone with a recording application such as Garage Band on it is also helpful and will suffice as instrument as long as participants know how to make music on their device with an application. Also required is a writing tool and a notebook or digital way for you to store your written lyrics.

Tasneem is a Multi-Disciplinary bi-lingual Artist with roots in East Africa. They have a focus on acting, writing, music and directing. As a musician They have appeared on the Saturday Night Live stage and performed at Carnegie Hall & Art Basel alongside the late Zaha Hadid. A graduate of New York University Tasneem has participated in CBS Diversity Sketch Showcase as a writer and in the OutFest InFusion NBC/Universal emerging filmmakers program. Their short film September 10th about 2 Queer Muslims the night before 9-11 which Tasneem wrote, directed, produced, composed the music to and stars in premiered at the Inside Out LGBTQ2S+ Festival In Toronto in June 2023. They are currently working with Massey Hall’s Project Lullaby which pairs songwriters with young mothers to create music, and teaching songwriting and storytelling at Workman Arts. You can hear their music on Logo Channel, Amazon On Demand, and the film India Sweets & Spices.

Monday

4PM - 6PM

Online

Nov 6 - Dec 11

In this course we will be using writing, painting, collage, and penwork to challenge ourselves creatively. Each class explores a different writing prompt that makes the base layer for our page; different paint technique to create depth and texture; collage exploration; creative lettering techniques.

The objective of this course is to help artists break down barriers that they have in their work. To encourage rule breaking, spontaneity, and fun in art making. Also, to create a safe space for these things to happen by holding space for things that come up when we challenge ourselves and encouraging support and encouragement amongst the group.

Anna Redish is a mixed media artist who loves to explore art making in all it's forms including textiles, yarn, and paper. Anna uses art making as a way of building community and connection. Creating an atmosphere where others can create with confidence and setting aside judgement is the goal in all her classes. Anna views being an artist as who you are not what you do, and tries to find creativity in all areas of her life. Anna lives in Toronto, where she's happiest when it's snowing. When she's not in her studio you can find her playing hockey.

Tuesday

2PM - 4PM

CAMH

Nov 7 - Dec 12

For writers of fiction, poetry, songs, graphic novels and picture books, stage and digital media scripts.

This course will promote imagination sparking, and building the muscle of illustrating resilience in the variety of topics we write about.

Writing, perhaps, about health care, kinship relations, economic patterns, housing, food provision, spiritual considerations, social justice, ecological phenomena, societal governance, education systems, etc. – we’ll promote ways these can manifest to our benefit, instead of feeling stuck by how they can destabilize! This experiment in intentionally generating resilient narratives asks participants to imagine independently your own satisfying visions, provides space to be inspired from existing literature samples, and by each other’s offered themes and techniques to begin composing treatments of topics together. We’ll build practice writing in multiple formats, i.e. positive journalism, formal and free verse poetry, literary and speculative fiction, mixed media including visual illustrations, etc. Practicing toward goals of presenting fantastical utopias, or more realistically imagined imperfect but improving scenarios, expect rejuvenating ideas and opportunity in community.

seeley quest is a trans disabled environmentalist, working in literary and body-based composition, curation and facilitation. In Canada since 2017, sie presented in San Francisco’s Bay Area 2001-14, with Sins Invalid 2007-15. Hir playscript “Crooked” is in At the Intersection of Disability and Drama, and first game narrative debuted for Canada’s National AccessAbility Week 2020. Sie created Buddies in Bad Times’ 2021 Rhubarb Festival’s ecological assessment, inaugurated a 2021 Quebec Writers’ Federation disabled writers’ workshop, and a Queer Disabled Joy workshop for Montreal’s Studio 303’s 2021 Queer Performance Camp. Employed in bookstores over twelve years, sie’s taught online with Toronto’s Workman Arts, and published in Canadian Theatre Review, Briarpatch Magazine, Immerse.news, Fiction International, and more. With mixed class, gender, and medicalized experiences since childhood, sie loves co-learning and social action. Not on social media, sie's available for artistic and equity consulting and design collaborations internationally.

Tuesday

6PM - 8PM

Online

Nov 7 - Dec 12

Acting for Stage: The Audition, will primarily focus on the audition technique used for stage. We will begin by touching upon improvisational work so that students can use the fundamentals skills of improvisation to elevate their character and environment. They will have an opportunity to develop skills that embolden self-confidence, spontaneity, and imagination in order to enhance auditions. We will then dive into monologue work and study the different kinds of genres in a diverse set of plays. By the end of the term everyone will have two contrasting pieces that are prepped and ready to be shared to the class with the hope of being used for future auditions.

Alexandra Floras-Matic is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist and educator. Alex is a graduate from the Acting Conservatory from York University ('21) and has pursued her craft both on screen and on stage. She began teaching with the Durham District School Board of January 2022 and it had sparked a passion for sharing the arts with others. Since then, she has begun teaching for the Toronto District School Board, the Nelvin Drama Academy, Soldiers in the Arts, Stagecoach Performing Arts and has been privately coaching actors in their self-tapes and audition techniques. Some of Alexandra's credits includes; Anne with an E (CBC/Netflix), Mrs. America (FX/Hulu), Good Sam (CBS/Prime), Five Days At Memorial (AppleTV+), I Woke Up A Vampire (Netflix), as well as others. This will be Alex's second instructing course with Workman Arts. She is thrilled to continue with the company and is looking forward to the artistic and educating opportunities that lie ahead.

Wednesday

2PM - 4PM

OFFSITE (180 Shaw Street)

Nov 8 - Dec 13

"Poetics of the Self" is a six-week workshop that examines ways of writing the "self" in poetry. We will be looking at confessional and lyric poetry where the self expands beyond the bounded individualistic "I" and extends its porosity into other niches of the world & cosmos. Every class will include a round of reading our selected texts aloud, then a discussion around how the self is a poetic construction, and conclude with time set aside for collective writing. Week 6 will feature "deep workshops" where each student will have a chance to discuss their work and receive feedback from the rest of the class.

The objectives of this course include:

- introducing students to five innovative contemporary poets

- introducing philosophical and aesthetic complexities to the notion of the "self"

- giving students confidence to experiment with forms in their own writing

- giving students experience in the act of reading out loud & orality

- learning poetic forms such as the sonnet, the lyric fragment, the epistolary

- gathering a small collection of poems together by week 6

Fan Wu is a poet, performance artist, and pedagogue. He is currently thinking-feeling through formlessness, uselessness, and nonknowledge in Zhuang Zi, Georges Bataille, and an eclectic collection of contemporary artists. His writing can be found online in C Magazine, Capilano Review, and Canadian Art.

Wednesday

6PM - 8PM

OFFSITE (180 Shaw Street)

Nov 8 - Dec 13

Utilizing classical atelier methods merged with my own process, this workshop will be broken into two parts to study the figure. Part one focuses on studying features of the body, practicing observations on the face, skin tone, and anatomy. Part two will utilize strategies and practices developed from Part 1 to create a full figure painting of the participant’s choice.

These classes prioritize safe practices that avoid solvents and toxic pigments. Participants will learn best practices while working with oils, using both direct and indirect application techniques like alla prima painting and glazing, as well as different methods for transferring drawings, and preparing surfaces.

Olivia Di Gregorio is an internationally exhibited and published artist in Toronto, having graduated from OCAD University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Design in Illustration, and a minor in Drawing & Painting. Since graduating, Di Gregorio was chosen as a finalist in the Traditional Art category for the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Art Prize in 2021, and has exhibited work in international galleries from San Francisco, Denver, South Korea, and the UK. Her paintings have also been published in Supersonic Art, and BOOOOOOOM’s ‘Tomorrow’s Talent’ Vol. II, and Vol. III. Currently, Di Gregorio has been invited to participate as a main show exhibitor for IX Art Show, and is a new contributing artist in Casey House’s ‘Art With Heart’ Charity Auction.

Thursday

4PM - 6PM

ONLINE

Nov 9 - Dec 14

(For Intermediate Photographers)

In this course, participants will learn about storytelling in photography. How can it be connected to the audience’s life experience? Why do we use storytelling? What are the benefits of storytelling? How can we improve our knowledge to be better storytellers? Moreover, how much will composition and visual elements, understanding rules, and breaking them be important and essential to achieving a better photo? How can photographs and stories match and support each other? And more!

Hamed Tabein is an Iran-Canadian photographer and artist. Hamed has been involved in the learning and teaching of film and digital photography and editing for the past fifteen years. He graduated in architecture and has been involved in numerous arts and photography projects, including workshops, and group as well as individual exhibitions, participating as an artist, instructor, and executive manager of photo festivals. These include over 35 exhibitions on three continents and collaboration with many photography associations as a photography instructor in Canada, India, US, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Germany, Armenia, Turkey, and so on.

Thursday

6PM - 8PM

ONLINE

Nov 9 - Dec 14

Participants in this course will learn sound recording theory and will have an opportunity to apply this theory by honing skills and working toward a project that is meaningful to them. Course objectives include getting the most out of a microphone, learning the basics of software designed for making music or sound projects, and will direct acquired skills towards a sound/multimedia project.

Nicole Marchesseau’s artistic and research practices explore spaces of process, method, and materiality. Nicole solo and multimedia collaborative artistic work has been featured in North America and overseas.

Don Vaillancourt is a French-Canadian sound designer, musician, Dj, vinyl collector, artist, lover, outreach & harm reduction worker, who found common ground marrying their passion for the arts and connecting with vulnerable communities.

Friday

12PM - 2PM

ONLINE & CAMH

Nov 10 - Dec 15