I wanted to give back to the Burnaby North community by teaching a series of art workshops to seniors at the local senior centre. Art classes at the centre were getting expensive, with the popular classes filling up very quickly, and many had long waitlists. A number of seniors informed me that they felt left out but still wanted to learn.
Since I had decades of design and illustration experience, I decided to hold a series of workshops for seniors to create and connect outside of formal art classes. These drop-in workshops would be open to all with a focus on pen & ink with watercolour and other techniques. However, the main focus was for everyone to have fun learning and connecting with each other.
A few seniors decided to take the initial art projects I handed out and run with their own ideas or spin on paper.
We had a “throwdown” after each session, where all the artwork was assembled against a wall for everyone to see. Even though everyone worked from the same lesson, all the art pieces displayed showed how different, unique and personal each piece was.
These “throwdowns” allowed others to see what everyone else was doing. Everyone was very encouraging and supportive.
I’ve also had seniors who missed a session come up and ask me for extra copies from the sessions they missed.
Thanks to NSG, I was able to provide watercolour paper, a few watercolour sets, watercolour brushes, and other needed supplies to those who didn’t have any or forgot to bring them. This was in addition to the sets of photocopied lessons I prepared before each workshop.
Everyone came away learning something new, whether a new skill for their art toolbox, or having an epiphany moment or developing a new appreciation for some technique or noticing something in public.
Afterwards, I have had seniors come to me and say, “Thanks to your class, I now notice this and can see how it was done,” pointing to an ink drawing on the coffee cup sleeve or the cover of a menu.
