Our Mission
Our mission is to reinfuse arts into daily life, democratize the arts, and use a community-powered approach to address community issues. We utilize the arts to build more connected and resilient communities and make Lakeshore Arts a community hub that is welcoming, inclusive, and fun.
As one of Toronto’s six Local Arts Service Organizations (LASOs), Lakeshore Arts has a commitment to provide accessible arts experiences and services to people living outside of the Toronto downtown core. We serve the residents of Etobicoke, with a focus on Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore.
Priorities
- We prioritize engaging with people who live in Etobicoke.
- We prioritize engaging with equity-deserving communities and artists.
- We prioritize supporting the development of artists to grow our city’s arts ecology.
- We prioritize cultivating long-lasting relationships and partnerships within the community.
Objectives
In order to build a connected and resilient community in Etobicoke, a community where everyone knows and celebrates their neighbour, we have planned a diverse roster of arts programming and arts services that welcomes in all residents, and can support long-term involvement and growth within the organization and community.
1 – We establish our community hub programs and events, which are offered at no cost to all residents, with a low barrier to participation. These programs are ongoing, drop-in, and require no previous arts experience. The community hub stream also supports arts-based community-led programs and projects.
2 – We continue to innovate our specialized programs serving equity-deserving participants. The programs ask for deep involvement from their participants, and build on their previous arts experience.
3 – We develop a pipeline for artist development and arts services, including professional development cohorts, paid artist residencies, and paid work placements within our programs, to diversify the arts sector and grow the city’s arts ecology.
4 – We continue to build and advance our relationships with community partners, with a collaborative approach, to enrich their work and expand the reach and impact of our arts programming.
5 – We establish an annual arts festival in Etobicoke that showcases the work of our LSA artists and participants, and welcomes everyone to partake in arts-engaged activities.