Awesome Arts
250 Holland Ave. K1Y 0Y5 Ottawa, ON, Canada

Missing this so much!!!!!! One year ago today we held the 5th MASC Awesome Arts Festival in partnership with the Sandy Hill CHC / CSC Côte-de-sable. 200 neighbours, aged 5-85, participated in over 100 workshops creating murals, dance choreographies, original song and music video, animation, and storytelling performances. The creations were shared to a standing room only packed gym on November 15, 2019. The workshops and festival were captured in photos by Bill Juillette and a... group of youth from the community. Programs were led by MASC artists: JustJamaal ThePoet, Suzan Richards and Julianne Lavertu of The Cultural Arts Studio, Tina Le Moine, Jacqui Du Toit 8thgeneration Storytelling, Alicia Borisonik World Folk Music Ottawa, Bboyizm Dance Company, Claudia Salguero Community Engaged Artist & Muralist / Digital Artist, Bboyizm Dance Company and Nicole Bélanger. We also worked with two amazing interns, Kseniya Tsoy and Tanya Desbarats, thanks to our partnership with Arts Network Ottawa / Réseau des arts d'Ottawa's Neighbourhood Arts Ottawa. We also had amazing Workshop Assistants: Afrah, Adaora, Dada, Shaianne, Caleb, Marianna and Samuel. Festival team included Liz Clarke, Darryl Hall, Randy Kelly and Ben Jammin as well as many amazing volunteers and community supporters from Ottawa Community Housing - OCH, Christie Lake Kids and Viscount Alexander Public School. Many thanks to our funders Ottawa Community Foundation and the City of Ottawa! And last but not least, our incredible international volunteer, Noelia Oshiro, who came to Canada for two months to work with MASC on the Awesome Arts project! Looking forward to the day when we can do this again together! See more

We've been fortunate to have Junkyard Symphony as workshop leaders and performers at Awesome Arts programs and Festivals in the past. They are incredible at engaging a community through the arts!

Can't believe it's been three years since our epic trip to Washington DC! What an honour to accept this award alongside MASC artist JustJamaal ThePoet and former Awesome Arts participant and current MASC Board Member Akuol Luala. Awesome Arts might look a little different this year, but we look forward to continuing to connect and build with the youth in our communities.

So many great Awesome Arts programs, including those led by cj! Learn more about this incredibly talented artist who leads every project she takes on with her heart. <3

Happy World Students Day! In our work, we're lucky to collaborate with so many inspiring and passionate students. Today we'll be sharing several music videos an...d projects created by MASC artists and students of all ages. The first one, SUPERGIRLS, features students from Lowertown in Ottawa working with JustJamaal ThePoet (songwriting) and Tina Le Moine (stop motion animation). Share with the powerful young girls and women in your life!

What an incredible list of artists! We're proud to have arts educator JustJamaal ThePoet as part of our team, and to see one of his mentees TwoTiime soar to new heights in his own career. Read more about these two artists and check out their work from 2016 in the comments below.