The impossible dream — like that recurring one where you’re a skilled hacker who not only knows how to kick some serious butt, but can also throw down some killer beats — isn’t all that far from reality when you’re a student at Parkdale’s Academy of the Impossible. In just over a month since it opened, the new school is quickly creating believers out of the city’s wildest dreamers.
Initially, the academy itself was an impossible dream of sorts. Beginning two years ago, the institute grew as an extension of the works of its co-founders, Jesse Hirsch, who created the Metaviews media firm, and his wife, Emily Pohl-Weary, who runs Toronto Street Writers.
“Every year, [the Toronto Street Writers] would grow and more people would come out,” says Hirsch. “So much expansion came out of it: a hip hop group, a poetry group.”
Soon, the duo were running events at the Toronto Reference Library, but they didn’t want the overheads and dreamed of running their own place.
The idea of merging Hirsch’s technological know-how and Polh-Weary’s passion for expression and creativity sprung the idea to make a new kind of educational institute. Hirsch says the academy aims to “meet the attention levels that the Internet has nurtured and the skills one needs to acquire to survive in a society.”
So what are these skills? They range from public speaking to self-defense to even running a political campaign. Computer courses run the gamut from learning how to upload YouTube videos to hacking (conscientiously and legally, of course). Upcoming programs will include workshops on graphic novels and comic books.
“In a word, [our] mandate is empowerment,” says Hirsch. “Generally, it’s about helping people. If they can express themselves, if they can create a strategy with whatever their impossible idea is, then we will be better off.”
As for the ultimate academy student, Hirsch’s ideal is “someone who is open-minded and who is curious about the times we live in, especially someone who is interested in the Internet and the media and the accessibility of it.” Hirsch is looking for students of any age, but says they must not be “a passive recipient but an active and engaged individual.”
The prices for the classes vary. Pohl-Weary’s writers group is funded by arts agencies and other grants, so they’re free for everyone. Hirsch’s programs are free for academy members; some programs are available to non-members, who usually pay an entry fee.
The Academy is purposely made to be accessible to all. “It’s about helping society beyond the economy,” says Hirsch. “It’s about helping people adapt to a changing world.”
And, it’s about achieving impossible dreams, of course.
Academy of the Impossible, 231 Wallace Avenue
