Art, new friends, and warm hearts!
by Tristan Arsenault
The year 2024 has seen old programs revived and new projects launched. Here are some of the ways that the artists, makers, and creatives have kept developing this important part of the center over the last year.
The Art Hive
The Art Hive continues to shift and transform as new participants take part in our art program both from within the community and as neighbors of the centre. It has been wonderful to see how naturally artmaking can draw people who have such different life experiences together! At Art Hive, we see profound moments of care, laughter, and support over this common table of creative self-expression. In particular, I would like to commend our weekly guest Jean, and his extraordinary ability to connect with any and all members. Participants like him are such a catalyst for creativity and art-making.
Dance
Corps-Maison has been reinstated after a little over a year of hiatus. This amazing project was created and facilitated by Ariana and Camille, both contemporary dancers, teachers, and artists. The project consists of dance workshops, performances, and reflective exercises that invite the members to consider how we may all better tend to our bodies physically and emotionally. Paul who has taken part in the project in 2021 and 2022 has attended all of their weekly programming since we recommenced in April of 2024.
Now that Ariana and Camille have secured their funding stream, we are extremely grateful to have two more years of programming available to us at the center! Just before we closed for the summer break, the St-James participants created and performed a dance piece for the Maison de la Culture Janine-Sutto. The audience turnout was so lovely and the performances by members were profound and captivating.
Creative Writing and Art
TheBeat! has been a community platform for sharing our stories, art, and writing for many years now and we are happy that this project has only grown as of late! It has been a delight working one-on-one on creative projects that can be found within its pages. Lighthearted, joyous, and filled with jokes, the Beat gives a stage to the wicked wit, keen insights, and bright imaginations of our members. Creativity has no bounds with silly horoscopes, niche crosswords, musical artist biographies, and farcical novellas made by members. The Beat also serves to document the artistic practices of our members, with each edition bearing recent artworks chosen for the cover pages and throughout the printed booklet.
Internship Programs
Internship Programming is such an important part of the art program. Nothing brings more joy to our members than new faces and new activities at the center. While we as a team work on finding how to be consistent and supportive to our members, we can’t independently fulfill their social needs. Helping fight against the effects of social isolation requires both the cultivation of long-form social engagements as well as meeting new people. That is why I’ve prioritized internship partnerships this year to bring new faces, points of view, and insights to the arts programming.
In the near term, a self-directed internship undertaken by Magali, an undergraduate Concordia student, is in the making which includes art shows, online art sales, and archiving artworks by members. This project is set for a mid-January 2025 rollout and looks very promising!
Casting our eyes to the future of the program, we have put a great deal of effort into defining the future of the art program. To remain a step ahead in our vision-building for the future, we have talked both internally and sought expert advice from consultants. Levinia Jones, who has 20 years of programming experience in cultural centers has spent time connecting with both staff and members to find the core values and define sustainable plans for building on the foundation which we’ve already constructed. We look forward to applying the valuable insights that she has come up with through her involvement here.