Raising Funds for Free Arts Programming

We’re on the verge of a cultural shift in which the arts can deliver potent, accessible, and proven solutions for wellbeing…because now, we have scientific proof. - “Your Brain on Art”

Hi, I'm Nadia.

Firstly, thanks for allowing me to make this pitch. I’ve never done this before, and so yes, I’m nervous.

I’m reaching out to get your support for a cause and project I’ve been involved in over the last few years.

It’s about the arts and the emerging data confirming the links between art, creativity and brain health. Researchers like those at the Arts & Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have found that just 20 minutes of art can alter our brain, and much more.

I’ve launched a little studio with this in mind that's focused on forming partnerships with organizations and artists to amp up creative programming and fuel outreach to diverse, in-need communities.

This summer, together with Story Planet and Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers, 2 non-profits with 10 years of deep impact work under their belt, the studio is coordinating a series of writing and art workshops in Toronto’s most dense and diverse community, Thorncliffe Park. The workshops will take place in the resident-led gardens that have become a treasured oasis among the over 30 high-rise apartment towers in the neighbourhood.

We’ve run these workshops in the past, and with your help we can continue to offer them for free to the local community. Your support will also allow us to extend the project to a teen group that’s eager to participate.

All funds will go toward purchasing materials, building a learning space, paying workshop facilitators, and expanding the workshops to more communities.

Our creative intelligence is powerful.

It's the muscle that allows us to see and think in looser and bigger ways to transform us and our world.

Help me and my partners get programming and tools into the hands of people who are looking to build this muscle in them.

Thanks again for allowing me to make this pitch!

A bit about me:

I'm a writer who, over the past 7 years, has gone deep into researching and participating in the creative process. Before becoming a full-time writer, I worked in social innovation and communications for Canada's largest social enterprise SE Health, and I spent some time in public radio news and the private sector. You can find my work at nadiashahbaz.com or subscribe to my newsletter on the creative process where I interview artists who've built up a discipline to create what doesn't yet exist https://nadiashahbaz.substack.com/.