PROFILE: Just BGraphic

Just BGraphic is dedicated to empowering emerging artists by providing safe, inclusive, and accessible programs that inspire students to explore and develop their creative identities within a creative agency. Each summer, they host their annual Summer Arts Academy a vibrant six-week program for high school students in grades 9–12. Through hands-on experiences in Digital Arts and Media, Visual Arts and Performing Arts, students gain valuable artistic, technical, and leadership skills in a supportive and collaborative environment. This year, it was held at Humber College Lakeshore Campus in the Media Arts Building, allowing for students to express their creativity in a professional studios and creative settings.

FOY staff gain the exclusive opportunity to spend their summer learning, creating and enriching their interests and love for the arts through the Summer Arts Academy. On a typical day, they start with their morning streams from 9:30am to 12:00pm and in the afternoon from 1:00pm to 3:00pm they work on their passion projects. However, every week is something new. During the beginning of the Summer Arts Academy, they learned about photography and cinematography. In the following weeks they had guest speakers come in to talk about disciplines such as sound, lighting and stop-motion.

Some of the passion projects that the students have been working on include sculpting, video game development, graphic design, acting and film. One of our FOY students, Ashanti, is creating a custom ice skate for a large-scale outdoor skate installation as part of a visual arts project for YZD Skate Night. Another FOY student, Oleksii, is designing an interactive video game experience as part of digital arts & media project for the YZD arcade system and is developing animated content that supports digital storytelling across the site. As for the other two, Jordan and Laylah, they are producing short films for Runway Reels, a public-facing storytelling platform designed for screening and community engagement as part of their performing arts project. There is no shortage of creativity for our staff and students participating this summer! Just BGraphic truly offers a space for creatives to explore a variety of different activities and skills related to the arts.