About Us – Scarbrite Collective

ABOUT SCARBRITE

We are a hyperlocal community arts organization.

We are dedicated to brightening the streets of Scarborough through co-creating visual works of art with members of the community that bring to light the stories of this suburb.

We do this through… making murals, leading workshops, and designing community-engaged art projects.

Our core values...

Accessibility + Art with Purpose

We believe that art-making should be accessible to everyone regardless of their age, sexual orientation or background. We create art for wellness, healing, fun + to create social change.

Co-Creation + Collaboration

We believe that we learn best when we engage with one another and build on each other’s ideas. We are open to collaborations with people from all walks of life--from community members to small businesses, you name it!

Mentorship

We believe in sharing knowledge + resources. There's already enough gate-keeping that happens in the art world... We want to change that! We offer mentorship + professional development opportunities for emerging artists as a way of giving back to the community.

How it all started...

*HINT: A whole lotta Scarborough Pride and LOVE for the arts.

In 2015, our co-founders, Frannie Potts and Sylvie Stojanovski met for the first time at a festival for emerging artists in Scarborough called the Start Youth Presenting Art Festival. Inspired by each other’s work, they stayed in touch over the years, until by complete chance they found themselves working on the same community mural project in late 2019.

Drawn together by a passion for community art-making + driven by the lack of public art opportunities for artists in the suburb they call home, the two Scarborough residents decided to come together to found Scarbrite and brighten the streets of Scarborough together.

To date, the team has brought a sense of hope, colour and positivity to over 500 Scarborough residents through programs like the #ChalkforChange, Drawing Connections, and Malvern HERstory.

Our Team

Born and raised in Malvern, Frannie Potts is a mural artist and workshop facilitator. Much of her public art meets at the intersection of whimsical and surreal, captivating viewers’ attention with brightly coloured figures and abstract backgrounds. In the past eight years, Frannie has created over 30 murals of varying sizes that can be seen across the Greater Toronto Area. Through her experience, she has found that art and community have a symbiotic relationship that brings out the best in each other, and this is something that she loves to foster through her work.

From the 💛 of Scarborough, Sylvie Stojanovski is a multidisciplinary artist and community organizer. Her creative work explores the myriad of relationships we have with the contemporary natural world. Sylvie creates alongside nature and communities, inviting them to become active participants in the genesis of work. Sylvie has over a decade of experience leading arts-based workshops in Toronto and abroad in a wide variety of disciplines including visual art, poetry and embodied movement. She is currently completing her Masters in Art Education at Concordia University and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts Management and Studio from the University of Toronto Scarborough as well as a certificate in Graphic Design and Web Development from UforChange.