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Picture a drawing class, but with the vibe of a dance club party.

While that may seem like an unusual mix, it’s exactly the kind of environment that Erin Finley loves to create. The �������� alumna and a faculty member at OCAD University is hosting . At these events, participants sketch a live, clothed model while enjoying music, dancing and snacks.

“What I love to do with the Drawing Discos is bring people together in an environment that is relaxing and not intimidating academically, so that they can learn through chance and creativity together,” says Finley, who teaches drawing in the Faculty of Art.

For Finley, these events serve two purposes. She wants to foster community by bringing people together to learn in the same space. She also works to make the experience feel manageable and welcoming. “It’s designed so that people actually are facing each other rather than being in rows or a conference setup,” describes Finley.

“When people are learning it's great to sort of face something. When we turn our bodies to each other at the drawing disco so that it encourages conversation.”

Drawing the path to her passions

The inspiration for Drawing Discos began as Finley was completing an Artist-in-Residence role at the Gladstone Hotel in the Toronto’s west end. Duringher time there, she had the power to program events themed around her craft. “You can hold a little conference or panel, whatever you'd like to do,” she recalled. “And I wanted to make it fun, cool and I wanted it to help people beat the winter blues.”

The first Drawing Discos were intentionally held during the winter , to help folks combat seasonal depression. With the pandemic’s grip easing, people were also still struggling to connect in-person.

“That's how amazing it was, it was meeting a need,” she said. “Because it was the end of the pandemic, and a number of people I knew most – because they would go to OCAD, or they'd be friends of friends of friends – they all wanted to be at this event because it was just such a great way to unwind, and after we had been so isolated and lonely.”

Finley, who institutes a care-based pedagogy, is active in leveraging her gift to support all learners. She is the creator of “,” which helps older adults boost brain power through drawing. The project is named after Finley’s late mother, who herself was an artist and a teacher.

At her drawing events, she introduces a technique she created called "ambi-drawing," which encourages ambidexterity.

Finley’s commitment to helping others extends beyond the classroom. “Before teaching at OCAD, I was teaching at CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health,” she says, “and being there helped shape the way I view students and what they're going through – very specifically, with how I saw art making as having the capacity to help people heal.”

Finley has fond memories of ��������, where she earned a Bachelor of Education in 2000. She has vibrant memories of the connections she made in the classroom, as well as the lasting impact it had on her love for visual arts. She even met her husband at �������� — they had English class together, and he asked her on their first date in the building.

“It was really charming, very cute,” she recalls, “and it was life changing in terms of it being a very young me – being optimistic and all of that.

Finley would go on to earn a Master of Fine Arts and join the OCAD faculty in 2012. “It opened my eyes, it made me very excited about teaching. I got very excited going to �������� and really, it was the beginning of that chapter of my life.”

To grab tickets for the next Drawing Disco, on March 12, .