MacPhee Centre Programs
Check out our program schedule
Registration for our Fall 2023 Program is now open. Click the button below to take you to the registration portal.
Program Philosophy
Founded off of Bill Stickland’s ‘Manchester Bidwell Model’ - the MacPhee Centre believes when youth are given beautiful supplies, material, equipment, facilitator – they become beautiful people.
Through partnerships with local artists, creatives, musicians, entrepreneurs who are inspired to help youth find their creative passion, the Centre provides high-calibre instruction and mentorship that complements traditional education. The creative learning programs also demonstrate to youth career and entrepreneurial opportunities that are possible when you develop a love of life-long learning.
By taking youth out of their usual environment, the MacPhee Centre nurtures the natural creative ability of students and highlights career opportunities. It works to eliminate barriers to accessing creative learning for youth who are eager for these opportunities, but have difficulty accessing it. There are no limits to the imagination, especially when given the right conditions to flourish. Youth who participate in the programs offered leave with a renewed sense of their own potential and the ability to give back positively to society as part of the creative class and the creative economy.
The unique programming at the MacPhee Centre is an effective entry point to re-engage youth in order to improve academic outcomes, provide direction, assist with career objectives, while also decreasing dropout rates and increasing cultural development.
Attendance in our programs can also be used to gain 0.5 or 1 of a Personal Development Credit (PDC) in high schools. Want to learn more about how to earn a PDC through the MacPhee Centre? Check out the information page here.
It’s reinforced for me that it’s not odd to like and do art.
- Youth Participant with AIS
Community Standards
The MacPhee Centre is a space where each person is given the opportunity to share the conditions they need to be surrounded by to feel safe. We like to call these our ‘Community Standards’, as they are a collaboratively created, mutually agreed upon series of standards that each person is held to while occupying the space. While they change on a term-by-term basis, depending on who is in the space, we have three non-negotiable standards that show up wherever MacPhee programs do:
Respect Eachother
Ask and respect people’s pronouns and share yours if you are comfortable.
Ask consent before touching or commenting on one another’s creations, materials, bodies or identities.
Be mindful of other’s sensory needs when in the space. If you’re unsure, ask for clarification!
Respect the Space
Clean up your space – materials, supplies, garbage - you know the drill. Even if you didn’t actively make the mess, help the group clean at the end of a program.
Take what you need and share so others can use what they need to also.
Have Fun
This is your chance to explore a variety of creative outlets, and figure out which you like the best – while also understanding yourself and those around you. So have fun in the process!
We’d like to give recognition for the folks at HeartWood as the organization that inspired our implementation of Community Standards into MacPhee Centre programs