In Mount Dennis, one group is teaching youth the skills to become budding artists in the West End.

While downtown Toronto has a thriving arts scene, there are fewer opportunities in the West End of the city.

The Toronto Arts Council map shows over 600 arts programs and organizations that are funded in the downtown core, compared to only two arts programs in neighbourhoods like Mount Dennis.

So, Weston-Mount Dennis locals decided to start 4 The West End, a community-led arts organization that partners with West End artists to build up West End youth.

Midyan Samson, the 25-year-old executive director of 4 The West End, says, “We’re kind of redefining the narrative of our neighbourhoods and we get to document it and tell it through an art lens,” explains Samson.

“Oftentimes when we hear

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