Family Fun
We engage young art lovers and their families in high quality art-making activities and discussions through Power Kids workshops, a young art collectors program and fun art talks just for kids.
Budding Art Buyers
We are committed to nurturing the next generation of art admirers and collectors. Art lovers 14-years-old and under, are invited to purchase affordable and quality works from TOAF participating artists at a $5-$20 price point to start their budding art collections. No adults allowed!
“I went to Budding Art Buyers right when it opened on Friday, and I was thrilled to be there. It has definitely made me want to become an art collector. My great-grandmother is an artist, and this is, perhaps, where my love of art stems from. I eagerly await next year’s Budding Art Buyers, so I may buy even more beautiful pieces of art to add to my collection.”
Dovid K. (Age 10), Budding Art Buyer
2024
TOAF X Museum
36 Questions That Lead to a Green TO
By Museum of Toronto
Do you see nature as an escape from city life, an integral part of leisure, or an economic booster? As a Torontonian, do you feel in touch with nature, or are you left wanting something else? Explore your connection to Toronto’s parks, green spaces, and natural environment through a series of participatory activities in this pop-up installation.
36 Questions That Lead to Loving Toronto Green Spaces invites visitors to explore the many ways Torontonians appreciate and find connection with green spaces in the city—highlighting the interplay of urban living with nature, parks, and wildlife.
Power Kids 2024
By The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery
Join this year’s Power Kids workshop for a reflective exercise in self-expression where participants will create tactile, abstract self-portrait collages. This process is inspired by the Power Plant’s exhibition of June Clark’s reflective work.
2023
TOAF X Myseum
36 Questions That Lead to Loving TO
Toronto Outdoor Art Fair Edition
36 Questions that Lead to Loving TO: Toronto Outdoor Art Fair Edition is an interactive pop-up experience that invites you to explore the commitment you have to the city and to each other. 36 Questions that Lead to Loving TO presents 36 questions that ignite the spark to fall in love with Toronto – for the first time or all over again.
You are invited to answer all of our questions or only the ones that speak to you. You can get deep, have fun, and be brutally honest about what you love or hate (and everything in between).
TOAF X Gallery 44
Fun in the Sun: Cyanotypes with Gallery 44
Make your own cyanotype print in just fifteen minutes! Join members from Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography as they guide you through arranging a composition, exposing a print in the sun and finishing your print in a water bath. Learn about this historical photographic process and get creative. This workshop is free and open to all ages.
Power Kids Workshops
Power Kids 2023
Join this year’s Power Kids workshop to create an abstract painting with yarn and watercolours! This beautifully tactile process is inspired by the paintings of Esther DOË Kim, last year’s Power Plant Emerging Artist Award recipient. Curated for young art makers, but all ages are welcome!
Power Kids 2022
Colourful World
Dive into a world of colour, collage, and layers as Nilou Salimi facilitates this Power Kids workshop inspired by Biba Esaad, last year’s Power Plant Emerging Artist Award recipient. Explore a favourite memory or a dream for the future by creating outline images and layering on colour, texture, and design! Curated for young art makers, but all ages are welcome!
Power Kids 2020
The fun and joy of the Power Kids program has moved with us online! The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery has once again partnered with TOAF to offer an interactive activity to engage your kids in the world of art, and create some art of their own for children ages 7-12 for FREE. Tours and workshops are led by Erica Cristobal, Power Kids and Outreach Coordinator and Dominika Gudaniec, Education Programs Teaching Assistant.
Download PDF Instructions and Template
Watch the Instructional Video Here
Power Kids: Take Flight
In 2017, The Power Plant presented Amalia Pica: Ears to Speak of, an exhibition that reminds us of the importance of listening and communication. Amalia created three sculptures made of cardboard, to-scale versions of concrete sound mirrors built along the coast of England in the 1920s and 1930s, intended to detect incoming airplanes. Whereas concrete reflects sound, cardboard absorbs sound. In this art-making activity, we will create our own cardboard airplanes in response to Amalia’s cardboard sound mirrors.
What You’ll Need:
- Cardboard
- Scissors
- Elastic Band
- Glue (hot glue would be best)
- Markers (not essential)
- Plasticine (not essential)
Power Kids 2019
Making Magic
This year’s Power Kids workshops are inspired by the work of artist Kima Lenaghan. Lenaghan’s illustrations are inspired by narratives of magic, environmentalism and consciousness. In this workshop, TOAF visitors are invited to create mini-illustrations following the artist’s playful yet thoughtful narratives. First, we will paint different shapes and blobs using watercolour, brushes, straws and salt. Then, using markers, we will challenge ourselves to turn our shapes into animals, people and objects to create mini illustrations of magical worlds!
Power Kids 2018
Colourful Collagraphs
These workshops for our young visitors begin with an engaging group discussion and tour, followed by an art-making activity. Drawing upon the work of artist Katrina Jurjans and her interest in patterns and layers, participants are invited to make their DIY collagraph prints.
Power Kids 2017
Power Kids: Toronto Time Travellers
This year’s Power Kids sessions draw upon the themes of discovery and reinvention highlighted throughout the exhibition this year. Each workshop will begin with an engaging group discussion and tour inspired by artists in the exhibition, followed by a hands-on art-making activity resulting in a personal response. In these workshops we will act as fictional time travelers reporting from Toronto’s future landscape! Inventing our own imaginative architecture and cultural scene, we will design and write postcards describing our observations and adventures in the new city. Then, using watercolour, ink, and collage papers, we will bring our postcards to life and mail them to family and friends across Canada.
