Art for healing and social change
Allie Brenner, program director at Button Factory Arts in Waterloo, sent me a note a couple of weeks ago about a special “Outreach Program and Exhibition” currently happening.
The initiative, which began last August, has been connecting artists and art therapists with a range of community organizations, starting with the Sexual Assault Support Centre, YMCA Newcomer and Youth Programs, and the Working Centre’s Green Door Arts Space.
Ray of Hope Youth Addictions Services and Reception House Waterloo Region have now also become part of the program.
The exhibition features a selection of work created during the outreach program. Brenner invited me to the opening, which took place May 11, but I have a standing commitment on Fridays, so I couldn’t make it.
This week I finally got to see the exhibit, talk with Allie Brenner directly, as well as with Button Factory executive director Heather Franklin.
So this is late notice: There is only one opportunity left to see the exhibit this Monday, May 28 from 6 to 8 p.m., in conjunction with a highly recommended talk by participating art therapist Suzanne Thomson.
It was Heather Franklin who originally conceived and developed the project.
For the last nine months, Brenner and her associates have been developing workshops and collaborative projects that match the particular interests and purposes of each or the partnering organizations.
Suzanne Thomson, for instance, led a series of “Embodiment in Clay” sessions. Her practice as an art therapist “integrates mindfulness and sensorimotor psychotherapy to facilitate healing and community engagement.”
Thomson’s talk on Monday is called “Transformation by Fire: Clay as a Tool for Social Change.” The title is a reference to a project she was cocreated at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, which received the 2013 Ontario Museum Association Award of Excellence in Exhibitions.
Thomson will talk about the part she played in the outreach program, her work at the Gardiner, and her ongoing commitment to using art, especially clay, as a medium for storytelling that can be individually and collectively transformative.
Participants are encouraged to concentrate on working with clay as a tactile experience, rather than on the final product. When they’re done, the material is recycled. There’s nothing to take home or to show in the exhibition.
The May 11 talk was with artist Hiba Abdallah, who led a project called “Memory Cookbook.” This involved collaboration with participants of the YMCA Healthy Lifestyles program for newcomer women to Canada to create a cookbook of recipes made from memory.
Each contributor has shared a favourite recipe “through drawings, storytelling and alternative signifiers.” Framed examples of the results are featured in the exhibition. A printed collection of the recipes, including Nigerian Stew, Jamaican Chicken Wings, Bibimbag from South Korea and Apple Fritters from Poland, is available for sale.
Heidi Argyle, an accredited art therapist currently associated with the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre, led workshops that “explore the expressive art of altered books, which are a form or retelling or rewriting a story through visual arts.”
Programming at the Green Door Art Space included a workshop series with artist Michele Braniff entitled “Creating Marks, Memories & Mischief,” which included “experiments in drawing inside and out, at the market, drawing people, and drawing with the ‘other hand.’”
The work continues: Cartoonist Trevor Waurechen has been “engaging the community in the creation of personalized and collaborative comics.”
Newcomer youth at Reception House decided they would like to create “a collective zine to creatively communicate their experiences.” Allie Brenner is leading an after-school program to create make this a reality.
The end result is the most ambitious and wide-reaching initiatives Waterloo’s community arts centre has ever undertaken. Support from the Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation has made this all possible.
Martin de Groot writes about local arts and culture each Saturday. You can reach him by email at mdg131@gmail.com.