{"id":27228,"date":"2023-11-06T05:41:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T05:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/"},"modified":"2023-11-06T05:41:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T05:41:56","slug":"nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">In the ongoing struggle to establish artistic spaces in North America, every accomplished endeavour feels like a tremendous victory. With the newly established location for the Nia Centre for the Arts in Toronto\u2019s Little Jamaica, the city has a victory to celebrate for itself as well as for its Black artist community.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nia Centre is the first Black centre for arts in Toronto, the not-for-profit behind it has been running since 2009. Originally geared toward addressing youth violence and disconnect, it soon veered toward fostering youth creativity. The Nia Centre itself aims to be a hub for connection, creation, and promotion, <a href=\"https:\/\/niacentre.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">as evidenced by its website\u2019s statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe Nia Centre is a space built with purpose and dedicated to Black artists and young creatives. Designed to serve a wide array of multi and interdisciplinary arts, the Centre provides the community with a multi-purpose performance theatre, event space, a digital media lab, exhibition space and a dedicated youth hub.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Executive Director Alicia Hall speaks to the difficulty of Black artists navigating historically white and barrier-laden institutions. Describing the new centre as \u201ca vessel for our culture,\u201d there is a clear passion and community strength at the heart of this latest endeavour.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Executive Director Alicia Hall; courtesy of the Nia Centre.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The first artist in residence at Nia Centre is Apanaki Temitayo Minerve, a multimedia fibre artist with a multi-disciplinary background originally from Trinidad. Her work with Nia will centre around art quilting with a Caribbean focus as she creates a quilt collection inspired by this cultural connection. Speaking to CBC, she stated, \u201cTo have a space like this, in Little Jamaica, to be run by mostly young Black women who are at the peak of their game, and engaging community is a dream come true literally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Nia Centre for the Arts.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nia Centre has already had a busy year\u2014their figures tout eighteen programs run, three hundred and seventy artists worked with, and one hundred and sixty-two mentor\/mentee pairings. They also clearly maintain their focus on youth and student programming, with three hundred youth having been helped by their Creative Connect program and a November 9th-10th audition listed for their inaugural Youth Showcase at the new centre.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Nia Centre is a clear victory for those behind it after almost a decade of work and holding a lease for the space since 2015. After three years of $12 million renovations, it\u2019s a moment of celebration more than earned. With a bright future ahead of this space and its programs, this will certainly be a meaningful arts centre to keep an eye out for.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the ongoing struggle to establish artistic spaces in North America, every accomplished endeavour feels like a tremendous victory. With the newly established location for the Nia Centre for the Arts in Toronto\u2019s Little Jamaica, the city has a victory to celebrate for itself as well as for its Black artist community. \u00a0 Nia Centre [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre - United Arts Agency | UAA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre - United Arts Agency | UAA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the ongoing struggle to establish artistic spaces in North America, every accomplished endeavour feels like a tremendous victory. With the newly established location for the Nia Centre for the Arts in Toronto\u2019s Little Jamaica, the city has a victory to celebrate for itself as well as for its Black artist community. \u00a0 Nia Centre [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"United Arts Agency | UAA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unitedartsagency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-06T05:41:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-06T05:41:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-06T05:41:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/\"},\"wordCount\":448,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Call for Artists\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/\",\"name\":\"Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre - United Arts Agency | UAA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-06T05:41:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-06T05:41:56+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/\",\"name\":\"United Arts Agency | UAA\",\"description\":\"Globally representing innovative artists, emerging arts, entertainers, and brands.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"United Arts Agency\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/UAA-2-e1542834753294.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/UAA-2-e1542834753294.png\",\"width\":100,\"height\":38,\"caption\":\"United Arts Agency\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unitedartsagency\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre - United Arts Agency | UAA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/nia-centre-for-the-arts-is-torontos-first-black-art-centre\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nia Centre for the Arts is Toronto\u2019s first Black art centre - United Arts Agency | UAA","og_description":"In the ongoing struggle to establish artistic spaces in North America, every accomplished endeavour feels like a tremendous victory. 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