DareArts: Daring to Dream

Marilyn Field remembers her first taste of the arts.

"I used to sneak out at night, over to the farmer's field across the road and dance," recalls the former teacher, "because I could sense I was dancing with my mother in the sky."

It was through that childhood experience that she came to know the power of the arts, and the role it can play in helping one to deal with tragedy -in her case, the death of her mother from breast cancer.

Field is President of the DareArts Foundation, a charitable organization that assists low-income, at-risk youth in exposure to the arts. The organization reaches 7,500 students from 35 schools across the GTA, and includes aboriginal youth in its programming.

Through grades four to eight, participants are exposed to a mix of theatre, dance, opera, and ballet, and have the opportunity to explore their own creativity as well.

Companies like Soulpepper, the Canadian Opera Company, and the National Ballet (to name but a few) help DareArts in exposing kids to the sort of art they wouldn't normally get the chance to see or participate in.

"From my experience as a schoolteacher in Scarborough," she explains, "I knew we needed stronger arts education. I was shocked when I had to create maps to show kids how to find Front and Yonge streets in the city of Toronto -it shocked me into starting DareArts."

April 2nd marks the 2008 DareArts Cultural Leadership Awards, which recognizes figures who expose youth to arts and culture outlets. This year's recipients include Soulpepper Artistic Director Albert Schultz and Canadian boxer George Chuvallo.

Field says the awards are about "Canadians who have done something that parallels DareArts' aims in terms of youth and children bettering world."

For those who might raise in eyebrow to a boxer being chosen to receive an arts award, Field offers a passionate explanation.

"Culture can be on a wider scale," she says, "it's more than a paint brush -culture itself is broader than that."

"What I respect about (Chuvallo) is that he's gone beyond his own tragedies - he's using his fame and accomplishments to now reach out and help those who have lost their way, to find that path. It's the perfect parallel with us -that is, what do you need to replace those negative activities? The arts are a perfect activity to replace them. Whether it's the arts or creativity, it can come in sports as well as in arts, as well as in science -whatever passion one has."

Schultz, however, with his extensive resume of arts involvement, is the obvious cultural choice.

"It was absolutely a no-brainer to choose him," she says, "(Soulpepper) have always been very open to having DareArts be part of their outreach program, even in younger years. They seem to be steering more to older teens, but it's so nice for us to be able to have a group like (them) who we can lead our children towards."

According to Field, both school administrators and parents have noticed a difference in students who participated.

Julian Sale, the Vice-President of DareArts, concurs.

When he began photographing participants for brochures, he says " I really saw how DareArts was making a real change in their lives."

Sale, who is retired from Agfa, volunteers his own photographic experience for DareArts participants.

"We use photography to help see the world differently," he explains, "Most are inner-city kids. They think the city is boring. We challenge them, and they say at the end, they will never see the city or the world the same again. It's opened up a whole new world for them that is rich in colours and textures, and patterns -and relationships. Something as simple as photo can have a huge impact."

John Hastings, School Trustee in Etobicoke North, currently offers DareArts programs for roughly 40 kids in his area.

"The students are offered the opportunity to see things they probably wouldn't, given their parents are involved in three or four jobs in the city," he says, "and given we have a low-income demographic here. Instead of sitting in front of televisions or playing software games, growing up hanging around malls and apartment buildings, we want them get out and do things. I definitely see the value of DareArts in setting that up."

As Sale explains, "the aim of DareArts is not to create artists or not to create people who are going to take a career in the artistic or cultural field", but, as he notes, there are exceptions.

One particular past participant "had a real artistic flair to him that even he didn't know about."

Through a combination of luck and talent, found himself in a Canadian Opera Company production of Verdi's Falstaff.

"He will definitely have a career in the artistic-cultural field -that's an opportunity he never would have even realized, one that he wasn't even initially interested in."

"Kids at this age are absolutely bursting with creative energy," Sale says, "If they don't have a good, positive outlet for that, it comes out in a negative way. We already have enough negative leaders out there to spear them the wrong way. Our biggest challenge now is raising funds fast enough to expand the program, and getting word out there more will help us do that."

Expanding DareArts across Canada is something Marilyn Field aims to do.

"The program is set up so it's a template that can be dropped in to larger communities first, then altered for smaller communities. All it takes is having the right people in the other communities ready to pick up the template and run with it, and also corporations that are brave enough to support this on a national level."

In addition to Schultz and Chuvallo receiving honours, six students selected from the program this year will also receive awards.

"It's been hard to choose," Field admits, "there have been so many through the program. The six are good spokespersons -they get a scholarship for further education, and they have a chance to tell their story. These are six people who have a sense of leadership and accomplishment, simply by leading their own lives, being strong enough to stand up to negative forces, and following the goals they set for themselves."

"These kids have discovered they can do something," explains Field passionately, "it's not just a matter of 'let's go play', but they worked to accomplish something, and in a short enough period of time that's measurable for them emotionally. I cannot ask for anything better than that -that sense of self, that sense of, 'if I can do this, what else can I do? if I can do this, what dreams can I have for my whole life?' It helps kids to know there is a broader world within their access -and they dare themselves to seek that broader world."

Dare to dream big is the message. DareArts, it seems, is the medium.

The DareArts Cultural Leadership Awards takes place April 2nd at the Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District.

For more information, go to www.darearts.com.