THE PASSION

For as long as we remember, the art scene was always referred to in the context of "survival". You hear the words "starving artist" more than you do "successful artist". This gives art a bad rap, and turns young talent away from their artistic impulse. Why wouldn't it? Community art is underfunded, it lacks opportunity for anyone who does not have built-in wealth, race, gender and other privilege.

Meanwhile, we're seeing power structures and social constructs crumble, and people are looking for new ideas, someone to imagine a new world. Where do you think that comes from?

There is power in numbers. DROM Artist Collective is a grassroots organization created to support artists with resources—tools, creative services, a network of mentors and advisors, and more, to help artists realize ideas that are radically challenging the status quo. As we build this collective from the ground up, we aim to uplift makers from underrepresented and marginalized communities who may have uneven access to these resources.

THE VISION

Discover and support emerging artists. Empower marginalized voices. Challenge the status quo in ways that facilitate meaningful connection and affirm our values of inclusivity, integrity and community. Do it with class, with care, and with joy.

THE OPERATION

DROM Artist Collective has two arms to its operation: COMMUNITY and MEDIA.

COMMUNITY brings artists, musicians, writers, industry professionals together. It's where the cross-pollination of ideas happens—events and workshops, mentorship connections and other programs.

MEDIA is where the ideas are realized via content and released into the world—think editorial projects, video and other content.

Stay tuned for more on upcoming projects and how you can support.

OUR STORY

Right before the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020, a couple pals from Drom Taberna and La Palette got together with an idea. An idea to build a platform in service of a community. A community of people representing every corner of our interconnected world, based here in Toronto. A young city, a teenage city, as our community leader Shamez Amlani has always said. A city we can shape, nurture and grow together.

We live on fertile, yet stolen land. We have neglected knowledge and wisdom from our ancestors, and from the stewards of the land, the world around. But we have an opportunity to build something together, harmoniously.

David Gulyas, Celeste Ganon, and Rashid Mohiddin slowly turned this plot into reality. In the early pandemic, we created a poetry booklet, a guidebook on the history of the police, and a stunning photo essay. As the pandemic deepened, we were connected with a variety of creators in our community, including Conrad Gluch, Devin Loran, Jack Considine and Camille Neirynck-Guerrero who helped expand our vision into the world of audio-visual production. At the behest of Misha Artebyakin, we started to formalize ourselves, slowly laying down the groundwork to create an artist collective. An artist-owned, driven and focused collective, now officially registered as a non-profit.

Over the years, our volunteer-run organization has filmed dozens of live musical performances from across the city, created stunning music videos and captured the soul of a community. We have branched out into community magazines, to physically represent the visual tapestry of our lives, an archive of a time and a place, where everybody from everywhere can have a voice, a platform, a place to be seen, heard and acknowledged.

As we careen into 2026, a full quarter century into the new millennium, we find ourselves with a tremendous opportunity. We represent the crossroads of cultures, the interwoven thread that weaves its way through village to hamlet to city in every corner of the world. We are bound together by our love of music, food, dance, literature, photography and most of all: storytelling. Stories give our lives meaning, they splash colour all over a grey world and tie us to the elemental bonds of our common humanity.