Two years ago, in the depths of the Covid-19 worldwide pandemic, this story brightened my day. More truthfully, it brightened my year and continues to make me wonder at its unfolding.
On January 20, 2020 I sat around the big boardroom table in our art space at Brookside Youth Centre with four artists, two clinical staff and three officers. We were brainstorming about our newest group project: making all of the decorations for a Christmas tree for the Capitol Theatre’s Festival of Trees and Lights. More than one staff commented that Christmas was 11 months away when we brought in our naked tree and set it up in a secure place. I had a feeling that we needed to be starting early because you never know what wrenches get thrown into life behind the fence. I’ve played this game before.
Every Thursday afternoon, we worked on our decorations. One youth who is a Muslim, made beautiful geometric paintings. We framed them. Because string or yarn or thread is not allowed in Art Program for safety reasons, he pulled out an elastic from his sock and used that to hang his piece. You can see it in the middle of the photo below.
Things were going smoothly until mid-March when Art Program came to a halt. Because of government restrictions due to the Covid-19 virus, no visitors or volunteers were allowed behind the fence. The program languished for a few weeks, but our artists were missing art and started asking for it. Brookside’s wonderful addictions counsellor bought them sketchbooks to use in their rooms, but that wasn’t enough for them. She contacted me for ideas that maybe they could do without me. Origami came to mind.
At first Kait and our artists struggled to make simple origami projects like the cats below. She told me that more tries ended up in the garbage than got completed.
Then, something amazing happened! I’ve seen this happen many times at Brookside: you get what you need. In this case it was, you get who you need. A new artist joined art program and he knew how to make 3D origami! He trained Kait and together, they trained our other artists. No scissors are allowed, so they ripped thousands of tiny rectangles of paper, folded them into the small components from which their creations were formed. They spent months working on them.
Below is an example.
Isn’t that the cutest little bird you’ve ever seen? Next they made butterflies that move…..
....... and this amazing cartoon character .......
..... and another one, with a Santa hat .....
…. and my personal favourite, Sid the Sloth.
Not only did our artists create origami ornaments, they also hand-painted dozens of wooden Christmas ornaments: reindeer, snowmen, stars and snowflakes. One staff member even took some home to paint with her fiancé while they were in lockdown. It was becoming a community affair.
If you look closely at the tree, not only will you see 48 glass vials with corked tops, but you will see beautiful hand-painted boxes like the one below. Inside there are personal notes from our artist community. There are Christmas wishes, Christmas jokes, personal stories…. all to communicate best wishes from our artists to whoever wins our tree.
So folks, here it is! It has been set up near the bar on the main floor of the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope. From Thursday, November 12th to Friday, December 18th, 2020 you will be able to see (and buy tickets to win) dozens and dozens of beautifully decorated Christmas Trees. They are set up everywhere in the theatre building. You will feel like you are on a self-guided tour of the newly renovated facility. It’s beautiful.
When the tree was completely set up, we lingered around it for a half hour. There were so many stories to share about each piece and the artist who created it. Some of our artists have now been released. But, others will still be with us over Christmas. Our deputy will be printing a poster of their tree for each living unit at Brookside. Hopefully, our artists will be reminded of how they took on an unforeseen challenge and overcame it.
And, one family will be blessed with the results of their hard work.
And, then there's the rest of the story:
I had a chat with Kait Leia, the addictions counsellor at Brookside this morning. Here is her story about yesterday’s art program. She named it “My Christmas Miracle”.
Because there was a deadline for the Capitol Theatre’s Festival of Trees & Lights project, she had chosen to use her addictions programming evening times to making art. There are two units operating behind the fence now. She was going to go to one unit between 5 and 6 and to the other between 7 and 8. In the afternoon, she happened to be in one unit and the youth there said that they weren’t coming to art. (There is a bully in that unit who intimidates the others) Kait tried to convince them to go, but they said they weren’t going.
She arrived early for the first evening program and was completely blown away when ALL of the youth from both units arrived with 5 officers. They all got involved in the making of ornaments. The letters B R O O K S I D E Y O U T H C E N T R E and tiny wooden ornaments were painted, and 3D origami characters were put together. Everyone was helping out.
Part way through their time there, one of the artists asked everyone around the table to say 5 good things about themselves. Kait was wondering if anyone would say anything. But they did! Around the table, each artist and adult said 5 good things about themselves and then it was the turn for our Mandala artist. He declined. Immediately, the other artists started saying good things about him.
The power of the arts and the power of love.
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