{"id":37505,"date":"2026-01-22T16:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37505"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:53:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:53:32","slug":"future-grads-train-their-creative-eyes-on-the-world-ahead-of-mayors-celebration-of-youth-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/future-grads-train-their-creative-eyes-on-the-world-ahead-of-mayors-celebration-of-youth-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Future grads train their creative eyes on the world ahead of Mayor\u2019s Celebration of Youth Art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It can be a rough world out there, and we need a lot more joy in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the view of Claire Thorne, a Grade 12 student at Aurora\u2019s St. Anne\u2019s School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A passionate artist, finding joy in the world around her and expressing it through her work has been a key focus as she finishes up her last year at St. Anne\u2019s \u2013 and it\u2019s that joy she hopes to spread to the wider community as one of more than 60 local Grade 12 students set to take over the Aurora Cultural Centre later this month as part of the annual Mayor\u2019s Celebration of Youth Art. (MCOYA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating students are in the process of putting the finishing touches on their work before curating and installing their pieces at the Centre on January 30 in what promises to be the largest and widest-reaching MCOYA yet. This year\u2019s show is bringing together 191 pieces of art created by 61 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of very personal projects, but it\u2019s really diverse in the way they\u2019re expressing it this year,\u201d says Adora Lau, Gallery Assistant at the Aurora Cultural Centre who is taking the lead on MCOYA once again this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This diversity was evident when The Auroran visited St. Anne\u2019s to speak with some of their participating art students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thorne says the opportunity to exhibit her art in a formal gallery setting for the very first time was too good to miss, and she looks forward to hearing the thoughts her works inspire within viewers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to spread as much joy as we can,\u201d says Thorne of what inspires her and helped determine what she wanted to put front and centre in the show. \u201cOne of my pieces is about me and my mom making Christmas cookies every year, and that quality of time, as well as just saving time to participate in all of your hobbies and thinking about bringing your childhood whimsy into your adult life because it can be really depressing. Then it\u2019s kind of melancholy looking back on it when it shouldn\u2019t be. It should be something you should integrate into your life in a positive matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joy is a feeling Thorne says she discovers in the creative process, finding it calming when there isn\u2019t too much pressure around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, fellow student Zara Martin says she\u2019s found the power in art to foster empathy, particularly when training her artistic lens on today\u2019s social issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that empathy is a really important theme that art can help with,\u201d says Martin, pointing to a painting she completed inspired by Picasso\u2019s Guernica, interpretated as a meditation on war and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArt is vulnerable,\u201d she says. \u201cHaving this experience [in MCOYA] is going to be really interesting, being able to see other people looking at my art and the different perspectives that can come from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lindsay Fu is also looking forward to that \u201cconnection\u201d having her work publicly displayed for the first time will foster, particularly with her artistic peers around York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fu says among the themes that inspired her work for this year\u2019s exhibition include professionalism and the social constructs related to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kind of use my art to bring about the absurdity,\u201d she says, pointing to a painting of a girl on a toilet with a chuckle. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny when we\u2019re expected to not talk about certain subjects. I use my art in a satirical way, too. I\u2019m exploring how [through] fashion, you can see how someone\u2019s expressing themselves and going against the societal norms. The way we dress, I feel it\u2019s really confined sometimes and you can\u2019t dress in certain ways because it\u2019s not professional or it\u2019s not seen as good, but sometimes with what you wear can also go against societal norms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar themes are also being explored by Bettina Zeng who says she \u201ctakes a lot of inspiration\u201d from the media she consumes, including TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I tend to focus on is very metaphysic themes as well as societal themes, whether it\u2019s social injustice\u2026 and I submitted a piece on the over-sexualization of women in media. It\u2019s just a broad range. I feel like my pieces are introspective and reflective as well. I just feel like [it\u2019s important] to question the world, to look below the surface level, and to really question everything you\u2019ve consumed and you surround yourself with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For art teacher Miranda Ly, the chance for her students to participate in MCOYA was important because \u201cbeing able to exhibit art and to show it to a public audience is one of the joys of making art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artists, she says, can sometimes be insular, and it is a \u201creally great opportunity\u201d for students to share something so personal \u201cin a safe space like the Aurora Cultural Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m super-proud of them,\u201d says Ly. \u201cI think they\u2019ve really put a lot of time, effort and thought into the work they create. With this program, I\u2019m just trying to make it so it\u2019s a safe space for them to grow, try things, see how they go, and if they run into difficulties, be able to navigate those because I think that\u2019s one of the skills that we really need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lau anticipates nothing but smooth waters ahead as students put the finishing touches on their pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mayor\u2019s Celebration of Youth Art opens at the Aurora Cultural Centre on Friday, February 6, with an opening reception from 6.30 \u2013 8.30 p.m., and running through April 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It can be a rough world out there, and we need a lot more joy in our lives. This is the view of Claire Thorne, a Grade 12 student at Aurora\u2019s St. Anne\u2019s School. A passionate artist, finding joy in the world around her and expressing it through her work has been a key focus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2026-01-22-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9KV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 07:40:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37507,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37505\/revisions\/37507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}