What is ARTsmart?

Students at Clinton Street Jr. Public School in Toronto have access to a unique visual arts program called ARTsmart. The program is run by Friends of Clinton (FOC), a registered charity supported by volunteers from the Clinton school community. FOC was formed in 1989 when Clinton celebrated its 100th year. The Clinton community wanted to mark the centennial by creating the unique visual art program that is still vibrant today. A former student, Beatrice Minden (1910-2009), gave an endowment gift to ensure visual arts activities at Clinton would continue. Beatrice had fond memories from being a student at Clinton and she held a strong belief that primary and junior students greatly benefit from visual arts instruction. The Art Room on the first floor at Clinton School was dedicated by Beatrice.

The ARTsmart program provides students with opportunities to work with professional artists and artists living and working within our school community. The program is based on a close collaboration with Clinton School teachers. Each May, Clinton hosts an annual Art Night to showcase and celebrate Clinton student’s art work.

How to Donate

Charitable donations to ARTsmart help with the cost of running the program, including materials, artist fees and a modest bursary for guest artists.

Apart from charitable donations, supplementary funds are raised at pizza fundraisers during school concerts as well as support from School Council generated from the annual Fall Fair.

Your donation helps make visual arts enrichment possible for all Clinton Public School students!
A charitable tax receipt will be issued for your donation.

Here are three ways to give:

• Donate through our website

• Contribute to ‘Friends of Clinton Street Public School’ via your United Way workplace campaign

• Donate online here: CANADA HELPS : Friends of Clinton Street Public School

  
  If you have any question about donating or if you would like to donate in honour of someone, please contact Danica Thrasher (Chair).

We’d love to meet new parents who would like to collaborate with our charity!

We are looking for parents, with or without art experience, to get involved. We have monthly hour long meetings with activities and pizza for your children. It is a great way to get involved in the Clinton community and contribute to your child’s education. All are welcome!

ARTsmart News – January 2021

Check out our NEW website and do ARTsmart at Home!

ARTsmart News - December 2019

Wow!!! That was a very quick 4 months!
The first unit was the selfie - and as always I am amazed and inspired by the depth and breadth of our creative community. 

I can’t thank the countless parent volunteers that have been making appearances in the ART room. It means so much to me, and I can plainly see how cool it is for your children! THANK YOU!!! And since it is the season of giving thanks, a very big thank you to the Teachers for going the extra mile to make this program click. It couldn’t happen without you. I am grateful.
 
We are looking at craft in the next couple classes and I have been giving some ‘hard skills’ of stitching. A running stitch, a cross stitch and sewing on a button. Showing them the textile art of various people from Canada and around the world!
 
The younger children got to use pony beads, blunter needles and the plastic canvases to make some pretty nifty things! The older children used the embroidery hoops and sharps with thread and various yarn. Some of them took naturally to it - some needed an urging, and push. Everyone HAD TO TRY and they DID!!!

ARTsmart News - November 2019

We have finished the self-portraits and are now investigating craft. Practicing our running stitches, cross stitches and button sewing skills, we will use these to make lines and build up areas of colours and textures for images. It may not look like the Mona Lisa - but we’re amazed with the effort and excellent results! The greatest thing about stitching is that if it doesn’t turn out the way you want - you can unstitch it! Or you can live with it and see where it takes you…
Stay Creative Clinton!

ARTsmart News - October 2019

Hello from ARTsmart! We continue our look at the history of the self-portrait digging 30,000 years back into some cave drawings found in France, to Albrecht Durer’s amazing works in the 1500’s. Continuing on with Pablo Picasso, Artemesia Gentileschi, Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh we jump into modern times with contemporary photographer Cindy Sherman rounding out the roster. We have also been questioning WHAT IS A SELF PORTRAIT? These have been some pretty interesting discussions so far, and the resulting work is fresh while pushing a few boundaries and expectations. Have a look and see yourself!

ARTsmart News - June 2019

There was a whole lot of art going on during the month of May! We accomplished 22 art classes and did everything from papier mache, learning to build 3 dimensional shapes and making little cities, painting the natural world outside - when it was warm enough! We discussed Graphic Design in both protest posters for May Day and looking at sports imagery of the Toronto Raptors. GO RAPTORS! There was also a lot of ink drawing, and Eduara Sousa coming in for a special guest appearance in some of the classrooms doing printmaking.

Finally, we had Art Night. The whole school jumped in to help install works all over the school with Ashley Weger directing traffic and doing a lot of heavy lifting. Ekin Yagman and Jennifer Klein were matting and mounting, jumping in to even help with a few last minute classes. I couldn’t have done it any other way - thank you Clinton for being AMAZING!!!! A special shout out to our wonderful caretakers Alex, Chris, Eric and Shea for going along with my crazy idea of exhibiting on the cafeteria tables in the gym and keeping everything together.

While this year is winding down, and we are still messing around with art, I am looking forward to next year. Hamish might be graduating this year, but I am going to be staying on next year as Art Room Co-ordinator. Jumping in mid-stream has been wild, full of challenges and I found that I LOVE this job. I’m so honoured I have been asked back. See you in the Art Room!

~Liz

Current nomination list for the 19/20 ArtSmart Board:

Anette, Jennifer, Sean, Ekin, Virginia

For those interested in becoming a board member next year here is the description.

Board Member Job Description:
- Attend hour-long monthly ARTsmart meetings from September to June
- Volunteer at one or several ARTsmart activities and events (assist Art Room
Coordinator in the Art Room, organizing and helping with pizza  fundraisers at
school concerts, organize ARTsmart activities at Fall Fair, help with Art Night
and any new activities)

ARTsmart News - May 2019

We are looking for parents to join our board of directors for the next school year. Please contact Anette Larsson, chair, for more information. 

All are welcome to our Annual General Meeting on June 6 at 6pm in the Art room. 

Thanks to everyone who visited Art’s Night on May 16th. There was incredible talent on display by our students. The gymnasium plus the hallways on all three floors contained all sorts of wonderful art that was created by the students over the past school year. Thank you to the students, staff and ArtSmart especially Liz for an amazing night unlike any other in the school year.

Our Art Room Coordinator, Liz Pead, did ink drawing with several classes, (Ms. Cook’s class’ work is installed in the Art Room currently). Liz also did some blind contour drawing where you spend more time looking at what you are drawing instead of looking at your paper. Students drew their hands and it resulted in some awesome works. Students also worked in painting and some MonoPrinting - where you paint on a plastic or glass plate, and take a print from it, with each print being a one of a kind. One of the painting exercises comes from a workshop Liz did with Anne Meredith Barry many years ago. She asked the artist to think of a big colour…put it down, relate your smallest colour to that, keep going with all of your colours! A few of the classes even went the step further - trading off their painting with a buddy and painting a copy of their friend’s painting. 

ARTsmart News - April 2019

The Art Room is in full Spring Cleaning! The younger children are diving into a few of our favourite painters (Van Gogh and Seurat so far), with the Colour Theory of Johannes Itten inspiring us to look a little more carefully at these great paintings. 

The older kids are gearing up to answer the age old question of “What should I make today?” with a design and drawing exercise I learned as The Circle Game. Stay tuned on that one; but please don’t be alarmed if you find your child drawing doorhinges, electrical plugs, tv remotes, and other mechanical things. Below are some pictures highlighting some Art Room sessions. 

We learned about Art For Change... and then made some of our own!

ARTsmart News - March 2019

Amanda Wyman has left her role as Art Room Coordinator to dedicate her time to teaching at TDSB. We thank Amanda for all her work with Clinton students this school year and wish her all the best as a teacher.

We are thrilled to announce that artist and Clinton parent Liz Pead is our new Art Room Coordinator, starting the first week of March. Liz is known to many Clinton students and parents as a long-time volunteer at Art Smart. She created the beloved tree sweater project in conjunction with the 2017 Fall Fair and has done many workshops in the Art Room, including indigo and Shibori dying.  A graduate of New Brunswick College of Craft and Design and  OCADU. Her work is currently on display in the group exhibition Power Play: Hockey in Canadian Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Windsor until May 12. Liz has extensive experience working with students and we are thrilled to welcome her in this role. www.akimbo.ca/hitlist/?id=503

The next ARTsmart meeting is on March 21st from 6-7PM in the Art Room. All are welcome to attend. We need more people involved to help run our charitable organization that provides visual arts enrichment at Clinton School. Please contact Anette Larsson, Chair, for more information at anette.larsson@sympatico.ca.

Arts Night - May 2018

We received great feedback from students, staff and family members who took in this incredible showcase of art created at our school this school year. Big congratulations to Art Room Coordinator Eduarda Sousa, Clinton teachers, staff and volunteers who made Arts Night a great success.

January 2018

Our Art Room coordinator has continued her work with the students this term in drawing and painting. Students were introduced to acrylic paint and will be going back to charcoal drawing to reinforce the importance of practice with a familiar medium. She has also introduced printmaking to several classes, and worked with Ms. Harding's class to make prints for the Parent Council fundraiser. Eduarda has also started preparing with the teachers on the pinhole camera project. Below are a few examples of work that has been done: (kettle, is by Room 205 students, poppies are by Room 213 students, and the fish is by Room 209 students)