Minden Hills Cultural Centre staff member Megan Randall sits and writes in front of display cases for the Hopes Fears and Dreams exhibit in the Welch Family Room at the cultural centre. Hopes Fears and Dreams is a project of the Art-Making for the Health Of It! group where participants share their aspirations and anxieties in an artful manner and where community members are asked to do the same. It is on display until Oct. 19. /DARREN LUM Staff
By Chad Ingram
An installment at the Minden Hills Cultural Centre explores the aspirations and inner turmoils of participants and asks community members to share pieces of themselves.
Hopes Fears and Dreams is a project of the Art-Making For The Health Of It! group which has been gathering weekly for the past four years. Part of programming offered through Haliburton Highlands Health Services and Haliburton Highlands Mental Health Services participants are guided by Fay Wilkinson a registered expressive arts practitioner.
“Each person has done a scroll that represents their hopes fears and dreams” Wilkinson says.
A release she’d prepared reads “We were inspired by seeing many different ways to use a scroll to express our thoughts around the theme; we looked at symbols and colours that represent the theme adapting them and making them our own. The pieces combine found objects fabric paper paint fibre natural materials poetry and much more. This work comes from the hearts of our group members. This display gives you a glimpse into who we are.”
The display is set up in the Welch Family Room (formerly referred to as the common room) at the cultural centre and the group is inviting community members to come and check out their work and to participate by adding their own hopes fears and dreams.
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These guys have made themselves quite vulnerable and we’re asking the community to do the same” Wilkinson says. “It’s not about making something beautiful. It’s about making something honest.”
For the purpose of the exercise a hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen; to want something to be true. A fear is described as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous; likely to cause pain or a threat; anxious concern. A dream is defined as a cherished aspiration ambition or ideal.
Participants of any level of artistic ability are welcome to join the group.
“We operate under the premise of honesty without judgment” the release reads. “We don’t necessarily create works of art but we make the art work for us – we welcome all skill levels; all mediums are explored and encouraged from visual art to sculpture fibre arts to mixed media to collage and poetry.”
The installation will be on display until Oct. 19.
