Art Advocacy and Leadership
I am a steadfast advocate for the arts with an unbreakable belief that all people have great creativity within them.
The key to creativity is simply a matter of promoting, encouraging and supporting people’s ability to embrace art as a form of communication, and provide a safe and open-minded space to express. This is where art meets the power of healing which is another area I am very passionate about = Art as Therapy. The power and importance of art for humanity is in its role and function as a universal language which breaks down the borders and boundaries of spoken language to further open the way for communication, exploration and innovation. Science has shown to maximize the human brain potential requires full stimulation and function of both sides of the brain, the left for analytical and intellectual faculties and the right side for creative and intuitive abilities.
Our character is built on personal experiences of challenge and joy and over the course of our life we build an arsenal of skills and distinct methods of communication that define our voice and viewpoint. This is where the power of art and its inherent characteristic of free expression opens the way to express free will. Faith is the manifestation of free will. Art is the way the express this phenomenon. Realism allows the documentation of that which we can see, while abstraction opens up new ideas, and the vast opportunity to document that which we imagine within the world of the subconscious and unknown.
AGO Art Gallery of Ontario / smART scKOOL Community Access Program
In January 2009 SMART SCKOOL became a Community Access Partner with the AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, and in 2010 became a full member. This partnership enables participants of the Community Arts Group visit a major art gallery that would otherwise not be possible due to issues surrounding mental health and financial challenges.
Participants have experienced many profound benefits learning art, art history and architecture in such an awesome and inspiring environment. For many people the opportunity to visit the AGO represents their first chance to visit a major art gallery, see the great masters, hear discussions about the history of art and learn how to draw within the gallery setting.
The Therapeutic Impact of the AGO Art Gallery of Ontario
The AGO Community Access Partnership represents a major resource for the public, and for our “ART as Therapy” program. The myriad of changes both large and small that our participants have undergone is profound and the experiences have stimulated them to reach out for much more in their lives.
Mental Health professionals have noted the positive impact SMART SCKOOL Community Art Group has on their clients. It breaks them free from the bonds of isolation, gets them out into the public, gives them a chance to contemplate, and be stimulated by creativity without any pressure to personally produce. The exploration of art develops the skill to see, in turn offering people opportunities to see the world more clearly, see the value in themselves by having a chance to be a part of a prestigious place they would otherwise feel unwelcome or uncomfortable in, and recognize they can change their future that’s different from where they are.
We attend the AGO for more than just recreation. Learning to draw at the AGO is a special opportunity for participants. SMART SCKOOL co-founder Shelley Batcules discusses art history, subject matter, styles, techniques and expressive qualities in each piece while teaching participants to draw. The experience stimulates people to explore latent abilities and be more fearless about embracing their personal creative potential. Special AGO staff members contribute a sense of being welcome and encourage social interaction while we draw.
To Whom It May Concern:
The Art Gallery of Ontario has had the pleasure of working with Jim Torma and Shelley Batcules the co-founders of smART scKOOL. For the past two years Jim and Shelley have been great ambassadors for the AGO, bringing groups of marginalized individuals and mental health survivors to explore our collections and sketch in the galleries. We have been very pleased by the feedback from these visitors, who have taken great time and effort to express the pleasure they get from visiting our art museum and the impact it makes on their lives.
I am certain that most, if not all, of these individuals would never have crossed our threshold if it were not for Jim and Shelley’s gentle guidance and encouragement. Jim and Shelley consistently break down the “shell” that art museums may have for individuals who are struggling in our community and they open up the art museum experience for them to enjoy and learn in. We hope that Jim and Shelley continue to bring their groups to the AGO on a regular basis and introduce all the benefits an art museum can offer to all members of our community.
Beverley Carret Manager, Government and Community Relations, Art Gallery of Ontario
Community Art Group
POV: Points Of View on Poverty: “Two Sides of the Coin & the Great Misconception”
smART scKOOL Community Arts Collective
POV: Points Of View on Poverty: “Two Sides of the Coin & the Great Misconception”
A Community based Art Program presented by Community Action Network - Community Arts Collective, Jim and Shelley co-founders of smART scKOOL and Daily Bread Food Bank fighting Poverty and Homelessness. “POV: Points Of View on Poverty; Two Sides of the Coin” is a community based art program which offers participants opportunities to explore creativity in a safe environment, feel the therapeutic benefits inherent in the act of creation and learn to express their feelings and circumstances using art as language.
People among us who are marginalized by poverty and hunger come from all walks of life. Many speak what we think of as our own language. Despite grammatical, syntactic, and vocabulary similarities, people who are poor are often not heard by those in power, something akin to speaking a different language, from being from ‘somewhere else’. Indeed, many of the folks who rely on food banks were born outside of Canada.
This fact reflects the fact that Canada is a poly-cultural mosaic and although this diversity contributes to the richness of our country it also poses challenges to people trying to acclimatize and adapt to a new home. Newcomers often find it a challenge to fit into the community due to language among other kinds of systemic barriers that prevent them from moving forward in their lives.
The principal goal of the Community Arts Collective is to empower people who are confronting poverty in their own lives by using the visual as their voice to express their personal experiences around their struggles, their stories. This endeavour is undertaken in a safe environment free of the fear of having to verbally speak.
The group will create projects incorporating titles which inform and clarify viewers about contemporary views and attitudes surrounding poverty and homelessness. The creation of the thesis artworks involves the production of two large scale collaborative artworks from two distinct perspectives (the haves and have not’s) which serve as the visual thesis, focal point and catalyst of the art program along with individual pieces of each artist and their final group exhibition.
To whom it may concern;
It gives me great pleasure to write on behalf of the founders of SMART SCKOOL, Mr. Jim Torma and Ms. Shelley Batcules. I have followed with great interest Jim and Shelley’s creative efforts to establish SMART SCKOOL as an alternative educational and business entity. I have specifically followed one of their programs, the Community Art Group which is based on Art, as a form of Therapy. SMART SCKOOL is an alternative basis of assistance and guidance to those who require loving and caring support beyond the present social and mental institutional means provided by today’s society.
SMART SCKOOL has been recognized by the Toronto Police, Art Gallery of Ontario, Trillium etc. as a “cutting edge” center within the community where the city’s marginalized members can seek emotional support and caring assistance via the benefits of art as an educational support based on art therapy.
SMART SCKOOL’s social contributions within the community are numerous. Many of them aim to help the disadvantaged within Toronto’s community. One such endeavour, for example, is the event, which occurs every Thursday night at The Emmanuel Howard Park United Church on Roncesvalles Avenue. Each Thursday evening SMART SCKOOL presents a free program for all in the community to come and participate in art making; reading and discussion and to partake in a four course hot meal cooked by Shelley and Jim thanks to provisions supplied by Peter’s No Frills, local business owners, farmers of Niagara and residents of the High Park/Parkdale area. Respect, moral guidance and art instructions, are offered by Jim and Shelley to help teach struggling individuals how to integrate better into the community.
Another endeavour is the partnership that SMART SCKOOL has with the Art Gallery of Ontario. SMART SCKOOL is a member of the AGO as well as a participant in the AGO’s Community Access Partnership Program. This program, in partnership with the AGO, has helped numerous people come out of their shells and begin their journey toward a new future.
Jim and Shelley’s perseverance to have SMART SCKOOL remain a needed reality within the Toronto community has come at a great personal sacrifice, both financially and time wise. However, their goal has never veered from the prime focus to ensure that SMARTSCKOOL retains a permanent place within the social, educational and business fabric of Toronto. Now SMART SCKOOL is embarking on the next phase of their development, which is the SMART SCKOOL Habitat, a learning centre, a live/work complex, marketplace and a new age form of sustainable free enterprise.
In this context, I highly recommend without reservation SMART SCKOOL, Jim Torma and Shelley Batcules’ vision is truly forward thinking.
Sincerely Yours, Bogomila M. Welsh-Ovcharov Professor Emeritus, History of Art, University of Toronto
Shelley meetings with Moore at the AGO
A Revelation Story:
Henry Moore and Grandfather Gardiner fought together in the War.
Shelley and Jim co-founded smART scKOOL and formed a community outreach program partnership with the AGO Art Gallery of Ontario where Shelley taught mental health survivors art as therapy.
Shelley spent hours drawing Henry Moore sculptures with participants, always wondering in the back of her mind why she was so drawn to Moore’s captivating large-scale women. One day, while touring the AGO with her mother following a long separation, her mother finally disclosed the story her Great Grandfather fighting alongside the famous sculptor Henry Moore, aged 19, during World War II. Henry Moore returned home, unfortunately Grandfather fell. In 1940, Moore drew the London underground during the blitz. Moore’s “shelter drawings” were recognized as a powerful response to the war, and Moore became the official war artist. Shelley’s drawings are featured in the art section.
Every century experienced a zeitgeist, a significant change in tradition, a big marker of the time, a new age, defined and expressed through the artworks of the day, which had a monumental impact on how society would adjust to change within the social structure and system.
