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Leveraging community-arts for immigrant integration

Workshop held in Toronto to show the art of Chinese papercutting
Project Lead

Project leadership:

Alka Kumar (applicant)

Co-applicants: Anna Triandafyllidou, Zhixi Zhuang

Partner: Annie Katsura Rollins, Mabelle Arts (external link) 

Contact: alka.kumar@torontomu.ca

Overview

This cross-sectoral project is a partnership between CERC Migration and Mabelle Arts (external link) , a community-arts organizations; and its goal is to advance academic knowledge in relation to the role of community-arts, as offered and practiced by the partner organization, Mabelle Arts. The research will focus on building in-depth understanding about why and how their program is impactful for newcomer artists and for participating community members.

Objective

The objective is to assess the role and efficacy of community-based arts approaches and methodologies for immigrant engagement, mobilization and integration facilitated by the Welcome to the Neighborhood (WTTN) program at Mabelle Arts. The three areas that will be assessed are:

  1. Whether and how community-arts projects foster among participants a sense of attachment to the local community,
  2. Whether and how participation in such projects contributes to employment prospects and improves labour market integration for newcomer artists and other newcomers and immigrants,
  3. Whether and how participation helps create a socially engaged neighborhood space that supports inter-community connections and contributes to an inclusive and resilient urban environment.
Research questions
  1. Are community-arts programs successful in fostering integration and belonging for newcomers and immigrants in the GTA; and if yes, how is this impact created?
  2. Can community-arts initiatives support newcomer artists in integrating into the arts eco-system, and being successful in their labour market integration?
  3. How do community-arts projects help in creating safer and more resilient communities through helping foster supportive inter-community connections and neighborhood-based hubs where newcomers and immigrants can come together?  
Background

The research will investigate how community-arts projects that engage newcomers produce individual and collective outcomes that benefit immigrants and the wider community, including helping enhance their social networks and employment integration.

A variety of cohorts participate in WTTN programming. These include: 

  • newcomer artists and artist ambassadors, who receive foundational training in community-arts with Mabelle Arts, followed by internships and mentoring opportunities with an arts organization or community partner;
  • community members and residents of community housing in the local neighborhood on Mabelle Avenue, for instance, low-income seniors, newcomers, immigrants, youth and children;
  • clients of immigrant-serving agencies who partner with Mabelle Arts, (e.g. Arab Community Centre of Toronto, Rexdale Community Health Centre, etc.).
Methodology

The methodology includes the following approaches and initiatives:

  • Desk research involving a review of the programs, reports and activities of Mabelle Arts and their outcomes;
  • Conducting an environmental scan of other community-arts programs with an assessment of funding models;
  • Interviews with 15 participants of the WTTN program and two focus groups with 16 Mabelle Arts staff members and partner organizations;
  • Convening a hybrid workshop with participants from civil society, the arts, researchers and interested residents showcasing the results of the project ;
  • Creating a Toolkit as an output of the project.
Current status

The project commenced on June 1, 2024

Expected completion

May 2025

Funding

Social and Sciences Humanities Research Council (Partnership Engage Grant)

Mabelle Arts is a community-arts organization that supports arts-based projects, and this partnership project focuses on the specific Mabelle Arts program titled Welcome to the Neighborhood (WTTN), first launched in 2020. An IRCC-funded project, it partners specifically with immigrant-serving agencies, its broader goal being to build bridges between community-arts organizations, newcomer artists, and Settlement Providing Organizations (SPOs).

Key words

migration, immigrant Integration, community-arts, newcomers, immigrants, refugees, urban place-making, immigrant-serving agencies