Non-profit Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming (SCYAP) closes doors after 23 years
SCYAP kept the arts accessible to all kids, artist says
After 23 years in the community, the Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming (SCYAP) is closing its doors. Community members say it's a grave loss.
The Saskatoon non-profit helped at-risk youth through art and employment opportunities, and created more than 60 large-scale mural projects since its inception in 2001, including along Broadway and on the parkade wall of St. Paul's Hospital.
"We found since COVID-19, there were less opportunities in the granting process. So, we failed to secure any long-term funding that would make it sustainable for the future," Clay Shaw, SCYAP's former operations manager, told Saskatoon Morning Monday.
"It came to a point where unfortunately we just couldn't continue."
Social media has been flooded with posts expressing loss and shock at the closure.
Before relocating to its 33rd Street location, SCYAP was based downtown, serving a lot of "the street level people who needed a safe place to go," Shaw said. He said the organization offered a drop-in space where free art supplies were available to all.
"We used art as a tool for breaking down the barriers. Our main programs were employment readiness. Through personal development programs for redirection, we gave clients the tools to succeed for their first entry level jobs."
Shaw said he is concerned about long-term clients who "are heartbroken and feeling a little bit empty." He said he is referring them to other organizations in the community.
SCYAP 'put me on the right path': singer
Raven Reid, an Indigenous singer-songwriter in Saskatoon, knows the importance of SCYAP first-hand. She attended the centre in her early 20s.
"At the time that I went there, I was struggling with addictions, homelessness and poverty," she said.
"I feel that the SCYAP program has put me on the right path to being who I am today."
She said she feels sorry for the "future youth" that SCYAP could have helped youth get off the streets, overcome addictions and heal through the arts.
"SCYAP was a very accessible program at the time that I utilized it. I was homeless, so to be accessible like that to people of less fortune is very important," she said.
"I know as an Indigenous person, sometimes I don't feel comfortable walking into big art galleries. And I'm an artist myself, so if it's hard for me, then it's probably hard for other people that are not artists."
Reid said the closure leaves a "big gap" in the community. She said as a product of the Sixties Scoop, she learned about her Cree culture at the centre. She even took her kids to outreach art classes at SCYAP.
Sad loss for the community: artist
Tanya Negrey, an art therapist, said SCYAP was an integral part of the city and province. She said the community has lost a creative place and a safe space.
"SCYAP was incredibly important because it provided that space where people, regardless of their background or their resources, were all welcome and they could come in and make art. There's a community," she said.
Negrey said the non-profit used to target a lot of at-risk youth, and its preventative arts-based programming helped address mental health.
"What are their alternatives? What other resources do they have? So where can they go and do something that's creative and welcoming and supports their overall well-being?" she said.
"It's beyond my understanding why a program like that would be cut, because to me it's preventative, healing and nurturing, and it supports community and it supports success."
The SCYAP gallery and studio space was a venue for artists without professional training to showcase their art, Negrey said, as many other art places are not accessible to all.
"It's very elite. You have to not only be very good and proficient as an artist, but you have to know the right people."
Negrey said many of her clients "who came to the city and didn't know how to fit in" found solace and social belonging at SCYAP.
"It's a very sad day when SCYAP is closing due to lack of funding," she said.
"It had an indelible impact on our city."
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With files from Saskatoon Morning