Youth Art Mentorship Program

Black and white collage of various landmarks from Peterborough, Ontario, over a colourful, black, yellow, magenta, and cyan graffiti background and white dots

Youth Art Mentorship Program

Now in its second year, the Youth Art Mentorship Program (YAM) offers senior high school students the opportunity to work directly with professional mentors in a gallery setting. Successful applicants will develop a new body of work and participate in a paid public art exhibition at the Art Gallery of Peterborough along with a group of their peers.

Training in visual arts and creative administration can open doors to a range of professions including careers in animation, industrial design, architecture, and the non-profit sector. This program offers participating youth the chance to develop valuable and transferrable employment skills to better equip them for a career in the arts and other sectors after high school.

About the Artist Mentor:

Caucasian male, bald with glasses, wearing a lime green sweater and arms crossed. He stands in front of a wall with paintings hung in a grid pattern

Spencer J. Harrison in his studio

Spencer J. Harrison (he/him) is an Artist, Activist, and Educator. Spencer has been painting and creating installation-based art for forty years, and his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

As an activist, his focus is on human rights for all who are marginalized, with his greatest focus on youth. For instance, he is the founder of Camp fYrefly, Ontario (a camp for LGBTQ2S&A youth) and has been an Artist-in-Residence with the Toronto District School Board for fifteen years. In this role, Spencer operates an open door, public studio where he has produced many works, including the first painted PhD dissertation in Canada.

Additionally, Spencer has been teaching in the Drawing and Painting department of OCAD University for more than ten years, where he has assessed more than 50,000 portfolios for the admissions to the University.

In conclusion, Spencer believes in the power of art and youth to change the world and is thrilled to be working in this program at the Art Gallery of Peterborough.

About the Other Assessors:

Fynn Leitch (she/her) has been the Curator at the Art Gallery of Peterborough since 2014. She has an MA in Visual culture and a BAH in Art History from Queen’s University and she is the former Director of Artspace (2011-2014). She has participated extensively in committee work, juries, and conferences regionally and nationally; including, the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO), ARCA National Conference, the Arts Culture and Heritage Advisory Committee for the City of Peterborough and the Electric City Culture Council.

Caucasian female with blonde hair, wearing a black coat and pants, sitting in theatre seating with her feet up.

Kelly Egan (she/her) is an associate professor in Cultural Studies and Media Studies at Trent University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (2001) in Mass Communication from Carleton University, Master of Fine Arts (2006) in Film/Video from Bard College (2006), a Certificate in Film Preservation from the Selznick School of Film Preservation at George Eastman Museum (2012), and a MA (2003) and PhD (2013) in Communication and Culture from the York/Ryerson Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture.

Her award-winning experimental films have exhibited extensively nationally and internationally at festivals/venues including the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Images Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Cinematheque Quebecois, Pacific Cinematheque, TIFF Lightbox, Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, George Eastman Museum, Anthology, Belvedere 21, Smart Museum of Art, Block Museum of Art, Northwest Film Centre, Antimatter Film Festival, PleasureDome, IMA Institut für Medienarchäologie, Foreman Art Gallery, Struts Gallery Espace Virtuel Factory Media Centre Evans Contemporary, amongst others. She has lived and worked in Peterborough since 2014.

Highlights from the 2022 Youth Art Mentorship Program

Details of (clockwise from left): Enzo Stimpson, "Complexity"; Toula Pappas "Warped"; Sama Hojabri "Prototype"
From left to right: Fynn Leitch (Curator), Sama Hojabri (Artist), Enzo Stimpson (Artist), Toula Pappas (Artist), Andrew Ihamaki (Education Programming Coordinator), and Spencer J. Harrison (Artist Mentor) Image credit: Anita Pappas
Sama Hojabri (Artist) speaking with friends in her installation. Image credit: Anita Pappas
Spencer J. Harrison (Artist Mentor), Toula Pappas (Artist), and Fynn Leitch (Curator), chatting with other youth in the exhibition spaces. Image credit: Anita Pappas
Fynn Leitch (curator) speaking with Toula Pappas and friends in her installation. Image credit: Anita Pappas
Fynn Leitch (Curator) and Enzo Stimpson (artist) chatting with visitors in Enzo's installation Image credit: Anita Pappas

Being in the World, works from the Youth Art Mentorship Program exhibition

Peterborough Examiner – “New works by young Peterborough artists on exhibit“

Peterborough Examiner – “Art Gallery of Peterborough launches youth mentorship program”

For more information about the program, or to inquire about how you can support youth artists, please contact:

Andrew Ihamaki
Education Programming Coordinator

705-743-9173 ext. 2025
aihamaki@peterborough.ca