Hot Pizza Studio started as an experiment in late 2023 out of Julia Dault’s own West End studio. A professional artist, she was looking to find a fun counterweight to her artistic practice …
Our mascot and fearless leader, Mona Pizza
Since then, Hot Pizza has become a deeply community-oriented social art project. Now in its own dedicated space, the studio employs twenty-six artists (and counting!) and has bustling after-school, evening, and weekend programs. Kids learn printmaking, realistic drawing, how to take up space with sculpture, collage, storytelling through comics, and more. We teach adults to slow down, appreciate the craft of making, and to stop the constant churn of self-critique. We cannot overstate the value this has had for us as artists and humans.
At Hot Pizza, we learn creative skills, but we also learn how to strengthen executive function, implement pro-social behaviour, default to mutual kindness, and celebrate who we are.
We believe that creative expression is more important than ever and that it is foundational to social connections, critical thinking, problem-solving, and joy. We also believe that art is just like pizza: you make it just the way you like and then share it with others.
We support all learning styles: we have noise-cancelling headphones available for students at the studio; a fully-stocked library for chill/calm time (with Dog Man, Minecraft, Pokémon, encyclopedias, and more); and provide students with options when approaching a lesson or project. Our pedagogical philosophy is that by offering students choices, they feel empowered to build new skills, practice, experiment, and foster their inner stick-to-it-tiveness.
We’ve seen students of all ages overcome deep fears; falter, but not give up; take ideas to fruition through effort; and get so excited that they are breathless. At Hot Pizza, perfection [yawn] does not exist and mind-boggling discoveries can hit us when we least expect them. Here, we learn creative skills, but we also learn how to strengthen executive function, implement pro-social behaviour, default to mutual kindness, and celebrate who we are.
Hot Pizza has a Bursary Program to subsidize families in need. We also donate to many local school-fundraising auctions; host an annual free community Hot Pizza Fest; mentor recent art-school grads, emerging artists, and high-school students; work with differently-abled youth school programs; and hire under-employed creative workers. Hot Pizza is a certified Ontario Living Wage Employer.
Listen to Hot Pizza founder Julia Dault discuss the studio and her own art practice on CBC’s Q radio show →