It is always in the best interests of a society to inspire a world of potential into the lives of their youth. Community and collaboration will always be best served when the collective are focused on a particular passion. As a part of CFN's YYC Community Builders, a series featuring a Calgary non-profit or social-profit organizations with whom we partner or collaborate, this week we take a look at our partners and friends at Antyx Community Arts.
Antyx was formed on January 1, 2010, when All Nations Theatre and Urban Youth Worx (ANT/UYW) merged and began operating as a single community arts organization. All Nations Theatre has worked in Calgary since 1991, engaging youth in participatory theatre projects that explored issues identified by youth. Founded in 1998, Urban Youth Worx has supported the development of Arts-based community development projects across YYC.
Antyx Community Arts is an organization that works to develop creative projects which channel the engagement of Calgary’s youth. Strategies for developing these creative projects come about with the needs of communities in mind. Some of these creative projects consist of mural painting, putting on live performances, and creative video production pertaining to relevant issues within our communities.
Antyx uses the arts to engage youth and spark their curiosity and commitment. Community arts projects provide opportunities for youth to make tangible contributions to their community and be recognized for those contributions. The arts open the door to self-reflection and self-expression, allowing youth to explore who they are and their place in the world. Like CFN, collaboration is central to their work. Antyx is well placed as a community resource that provides creative support through community arts processes to a wide variety of community groups and organizations that are working on many different issues.
One of the projects that was undertaken by Antyx consisted of a hashtag called #listentome. This involved some peaceful protesting with signs. Eventually, the movement began to evolve and turned into an art installation which caught the attention of the Forest Lawn community and its partners. The project was featured at the Boys & Girls Club offices, the CIWA Youth Forum, Genesis Centre Pink Shirt Day and International Women’s Day. As much or the work led by Antyx, the presentation of the installation conjured up some important conversations as to how the youth feel about some current social issues, in which some youth began to feel inspired about bringing about change in their communities.
Antyx has also worked and collaborated with artists, poets and writers in order to further build upon Calgary’s thirst for dynamic arts and culture, as well as to continuously inspire youth to make a difference through utilizing their passions.
For more info visit http://www.antyx.org/
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