Arts for All Helps YMCA Children Connect to Their Communities Through Art

What happens when we let children not just live in their communities, but become part of creating them?

Over the summer, across Kinder Connections and YMCA Beyond the Bell®, 11 YMCA sites participated in Artasia, a summer program run by Arts for All. Arts for All is a charitable organization of the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, with the goal of making the arts accessible to everyone. 

"The arts through Artasia, is used to provide children with tools in which they can express themselves," says Setareh Masoumbeiki, Program Manager at Arts for All. 

"We know that children communicate in many, many different ways. In Artasia, through the arts, we are giving them ways to discuss those things, tools that they can use to communicate their thoughts to us."

The relationship between the YMCA and Arts for All didn't start with Artasia. It started in 2013 in after-school programming with a vision of helping young people connect to their communities through art. 

"It doesn't work without community," says Victoria Long, Program and Operations Director at Arts for All.  

"There was great support [from the YMCA] from the start," she says. "Supporting our board, supporting those initial programs, shaping it, and that work continues today in YMCA Beyond the Bell® [and Kinder Connections]." 

“We wanted to connect children to the broader community and expose them to opportunities they may not have otherwise experienced or considered,” says Shawna Maclellan, General Manager of Child Care in Brantford. “We loved that the instructors were skilled professionals and experts in the arts, which added tremendous value to our program.” 

“Thanks to this partnership, we’ve been able to expand programming and now offer it in Hamilton and Brantford. Our goal has always been to ensure all children have opportunities to explore their community, discover new interests, and engage with experiences they may not have had access to otherwise,” she says. 

Every year Artasia has a theme. This summer they wanted to learn more about how children experience their neighbourhoods.   

"[It was] sort of like a neighbourhood audit. Looking, slowing down, noticing with them," says Masoumbeiki. 

"We all know that children notice things in many, many different ways. They collect rocks. They look at a sidewalk [and see] little flowers coming up. They notice those things—there are things that are important to them. They're always paying attention," she says. 

For five weeks, the children explored their neighbourhoods using their senses. Each week focused on using a specific sense. Week 1 was touch, week 2 taste/smell, week 3 sight/seeing, week 4 hear, and week 5 imagination.  

Following each week the Artist Educator from Arts for All would reflect on what the children noticed, and the results are nothing short of beautiful.

  Click to see the children’s art and read artist’s reflections

“The project encourages children to consider what they notice in their communities, where they feel welcome, what changes they would make to their city," says Long. 

"It just gives that space for expression. Children and youth are citizens too, and their voice matters," she says. 

In the end, Masoumbeiki says Artasia 2026 was not so much about teaching children about communities, but rather helping communities remember how children experience them.

"More than anything, I think what we learned from children this year was that the children already know [what a community should look like]. They know and they have ways to communicate with us." 

"They're part of the city. They're part of the areas that they inhabit and the importance of gathering their ideas or their thoughts, their ways of living and paying attention and all that is just so, it's very huge."

"It was a very moving experience for all of us," she says.