Battle of the Brushes
Fundraiser critical to future of youth outreach program
Fundraiser vital to keep art studio for youth open
Art can be an invaluable therapeutic tool, especially for young people. It channels creativity, offers an outlet for pent-up emotions, teaches organizational skills and builds self-esteem.
You can see it at work at a small drop-in centre on James Street North, through a doorway wedged between Hawk & Sparrow clothing and I Fiori florist. It’s called the ReCreate Outreach Art Studio.
Open three days a week, its art programs are aimed at “street-involved youth,” ages 16 to 25, but any young person with an urge to pick up a paint brush, pencil or pair of scissors and glue stick is welcome to participate. Last year 234 of them dropped by. More than a dozen people were there early Monday afternoon. Many were waiting when the doors opened at 12:30 p.m. Emily Goyetche, 19, went to work clipping pictures from magazines to decorate ID buttons to be worn by artists at ReCreate’s second annual Battle of the Brushes fundraiser Friday night at the nearby Spice Factory on Hughson Street. With the help of a button-making machine, she’ll laminate the clippings onto rounds of metal. “Art is very, very therapeutic,” says Goyetche, a Sherwood Secondary School graduate who also has interests in photography and filmmaking. “It’s really opened a lot of doors and helped me explore. I love art.” Gordon Taber, 18, is painting oil on canvas. It’s a picture of the Skeleton Brothers, two characters from his favourite video game “Undertale.” He prefers sketching and admits he doesn’t always have the patience to apply paint. But this one is coming along nicely. He’s already signed his name to it in bold letters. “I’ve been drawing since I was three or four,” says Taber, who didn’t quite finish his Grade 12 at Sir John A. Macdonald. He’s been coming to ReCreate for the past year and a half. Taber learned about the studio from a leaflet handed to him by outreach workers who found him at the library — “two nice people coming up to me just about every day.”
“Now I try to come whenever they’re open,” adds Taber, who lives within walking distance.
Taber also built a complete suit of armour out of cardboard at ReCreate. He’s thinking about wearing it and standing guard at the entrance Friday night for the Battle of the Brushes fundraiser. But he can’t decide what kind of weapon he should make to complete the armour.
“It should be a giant paint brush,” says Meghan Schuurman, the studio co-ordinator and only full-time employee. “It is, after all, the Battle of the Brushes.”
A successful Battle of the Brushes fundraiser is vital to keeping ReCreate open. About 16 local artists participate in the competition, each one trying to create a work of art in just 30 minutes. The audience votes on their favourites and then the battle enters a second round with just eight remaining artists.
Last year’s Battle of the Brushes, held in the back room of the studio, raised some $3,000 with admission tickets selling for just $5.
This year, they’re moving to the roomier Spice Factory with tickets selling for $10. There will be a raffle as well, and the completed art will be auctioned off.
Schuurman, who studied curating and art criticism at the Ontario College of Art and Design, says a successful fundraiser is needed now more than ever. ReCreate, supported by the Christian counselling agency Shalem Mental Health Network, has flourished with the help of a three-year grant from World Vision Canada. That grant ends, however, in October.
“We’re entering into an unknown period as an organization,” says Schuurman, who is also working toward her Master of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. “Shalem is going to keep us going but we’re looking for long-term funding. We’re looking for donors.”
Schuurman, who has been with ReCreate for almost five years, has no doubt about the therapeutic value of art.
“An essential part of being human is being able to express yourself,” she says. “Art is an amazing way to get the creative juices flowing, it is an important way to process emotions, feel released and develop a voice … And to create something that is recognized as good by others is an extreme boost in selfesteem.”