Etobicoke School of the Arts Contemporary Art has won a reputation as one of the world's most important art programs.  

This is due in part to a simple reality - we do not focus on teaching people art.

Instead, we provide the structure and clarity, time and space, materials and environment, and most significantly - the community - that allows people to determine fundamental aspects of themselves.  We build our futures upon this awareness that include many things, including art.  

ESACA takes responsibility for critical elements essential to honest communication within an understanding of the work of human achievement.  

Members of our international community commit to an engagement that is empathetic, vulnerable, and as unconditional as possible.   

We practice restructuring international systems.  For example, in 2013-2014 ESA won 50.5% of all International Regional Art Awards in the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Competition,  83% of all Film Awards, and 21% of all Writing Awards in the world outside of the USA.   In the National Round, total awards placed the USA in first, ESA in second, Korea in third, and the UK in fourth.

We may receive the most full scholarship offers and the highest number of top scholarships of any high school program in the world.  

Approximately half our students enter portfolio-based post-secondary programs, the majority of the other half moving towards math and science.  What we do in ESACA closely mirrors contemporary thinking in some of the more creative academic fields today.  

Our students are enormously successful.

ESACA offers our students an annual selection of local, national, and international exhibition opportunities, that include the Saatchi Gallery in London UK, and the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo NY.   Keep in touch to experience what we do by attending exhibitions and Art Talks every year.

Portfolio Day has generated more than $100 million dollars in scholarship offers for our students. In 2019, PD10 saw more than 80 post-secondary schools and programs from 5 countries send 140 representatives to see our 80 exhibiting grade 12’s. Each students exhibits their work in a curated solo exhibition, and we are joined in the evening by members of the public for a celebration of their achievement.

Our program is built by and supported by our students and graduates. It is an amazing place to be. For audition information, check www.esainfo.ca late October each year for application forms.