Culture Days is a national celebration of arts and culture. At the end of each September, millions of people attend thousands of free participatory arts and culture events across the country both in-person and online. For Culture Days, Art With A Heart hosted a series of individual events such as sampler sessions for our Self Expressive Saturdays and Teen Artists Unite programs. We hosted events throughout October 2022 including themed Halloween events such as: “Art in the Park” and a pumpkin painting challenge.

We headed up and developed a program in partnership with Durham Family Court Clinic (DFCC) working with 20 students and their social workers from their day-school program through two 16-week weekly evening programs.

We had oversight of 10 artists working with  the youth through their different art form specialties. The program was an exploration of various art mediums with the expectation that the students would eventually chose their favourite medium and made a finished piece to enter into an art show and art auction.

The group worked with a writer who helped them to develop artist statements and biographies.  They were also taught interview skills “live” as part of the program. 

The culmination of the project at the final event was a huge success, all pieces were auctioned off at a gala and money was given back in bursaries to each participant. Students esteem skyrocketed during this process and especially with the attention given on the final evening. 

The program was a great success, partially because of the end, but throughout the 16-weeks there were many relationships developed and the opportunity given by facilitators to open up a dialogue between the youth about different situations in their lives – many of which were challenging, and for them to offer compassion and support to one another.

Youth were moved by the attention at the gala and learned some valuable art skills.

The Legacy Project was an eight-month intergenerational and collaborative arts based project bringing together residents in a long term care facility with staff, caregivers, family, friends, youth, and the local community around the subject of Legacy and what that meant to them.   Art With A Heart inc. had a team of 10 people – and interacted with 2000 participants. Our social media campaign had over 8000 followers. The final Artscape was5 (five) – 3 foot by 5 foot mosaic panels that were installed in their garden on a wall as a permanent installation.

This program united a community after a challenging time due to a large fire at the facility that was under construction. It saw new relationships being developed in families, community members coming into the facility, caregiver staff, and staff that often did not interact with residents (kitchen etc.) joined and helped make the final mosaics. This captured the imagination of the community. A brief documentary was also made by The Region Of Durham.

Art With A Heart Inc. was able with Trillium funding, to come alongside of an existing Skills Link program to offer 12 weeks of experiential programming through an Expressive Arts Therapy model that focussed on identity, self worth, life skills, talents, employability, and exploration of finding areas of interest for job prospects with approximately 15-20 youth.  Use of the arts, role play, movement, use of areas of interest such as spoken word, music & percussion, and experiential discovery were utilized to explore frustrations and challenges in finding employment as well as being used as a catalyst to having the youth attend the existing program with more consistency.  This program strongly provided the space and time for the youth to be able to find their voices to explore their career and educational interests and goals for the future.

Animate was a series of five expressive arts therapy workshops that helped seniors animate their lives through the learning and experience of arts activities that included movement-based art (clowning play, creative movement); music (listening/responding artistically and through movement); poetry (writing, reading); the creation of visual arts (Zentangle); clay-work, and painting.

These art forms were chosen for their ability to help seniors break down communication barriers, improve their mobility and tap into creativity more quickly. By combining two to three art forms in each session, participants gravitated toward their learning type (text, visual, audio, kinesthetic) and in the process stimulated their minds and other senses.

Previous experience has shown that expressive arts therapy workshops help seniors improve their communication skills, help them to regulate and explore their emotions, increase movement/mobility and fine motor skills, and help them to become more engaged.

This pilot project was for seniors attending the day program at the Lighthouse Retreat in Ajax. We continued this partnership piloted through the DCF funding, and we were able to expand the expressive arts therapy model through additional workshops delivered with the assistance of other funding sources (New Horizons for Seniors Funding).  These workshops encouraged seniors to live more vital lives, to expand and deepen new artistic experiences, and helped new relationships to form within their peer group attending the program.

We hope to continue our good work at this location in Ajax when we find additional funding.  The project was very successful, and the seniors were very excited to continue the program in the future.  Their limited resources would not allow the seniors to carry the full costs of a program, but the benefits and results of the program were experienced and expressed immediately.

This project encouraged more active seniors to work alongside of less functioning  seniors.  It definitely increasing sociability, and caregivers, some family members, and youth volunteers participating with the seniors at four different senior’s facilities – Durham Christian Homes – Strathaven, Durham Christian Homes –  Marnwood, The Courts of Brooklin, and day program The Lighthouse Retreat in a variety of Expressive Arts workshops in different modalities.

Over the course of 12 visits ranging from 1- 1.5 hours to different sites 291 residents/participants were engaged, 41 Staff members of our project partners, 15 family/visitors, 10 students (AWAH facilitation helps) , 50 Facilitator events, , 1 volunteer (from AWAH).

Participants from each location were involved in separate sessions in  Zentange,  Poetry and Percussion, and Music and Movement.  Sites were strongly impacted by the level of participation of their residents and the capacity levels that their residents participated at.  There was quite a bit of surprise in the residents ability to make poetry and to do fine drawing work through the Zentangle.  One site was surprised at how much our facilitators were able to get their residents moving during Music and Movement sessions.

Two particular sites (Strathaven and Marnwood) were amazed at how lively their residents were during these sessions, levels of engagement were much higher than with other programs run, and participants moods were brightened and interactions with other residents/staff was very high.  All sites have expressed an interest in having new and ongoing relationship with programs from AWAH.

Art With A Heart Inc is proud to announce that we have been selected as a 2020 Emergency Community Support Fund (ECSF) Round 2 grant recipient by the Government of Canada’s Emergency Community Support Fund and Durham Community Foundation.

This grant will support our Mental Wellness Through the Arts Project. Mental Wellness Through the Arts prioritizes art, expression and mental health and wellness for Frontline and Essential Workers and marginalized community members. This project provides vital resources during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, including one-on-one therapy, group therapy, Connect and Create Sessions and Virtual Let’s Create Sessions. Stay tuned as we announce more details this week, including how to register!