Events
Communitas Art Show Celebrates 50 Years!
A new art exhibit at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford celebrates Communitas’ 50th anniversary. The exhibit uses traditional elements but gives them a twist creating an unexpected experience for the viewer.
The vision for this exhibit comes from Communitas’ graphic designer, Veronica Harms. She wanted to facilitate a project that would include as many people as possible while celebrating the organization’s milestone anniversary.
“People are at the heart of Communitas and this exhibit is a reflection of that,” Veronica says. “Rather than have one artist create this work, it is a collaboration, bringing together pieces from people we serve and staff in every community where we live.”
The exhibit is made of two components. The first is a timeline that puts a creative spin on the traditional timeline. Rather than creating a linear piece that notes important dates, this timeline tells the story of Communitas’ evolution over the decades through 6 panels using text, photos, and creative elements like paintings, shadowboxes, and plaster hand casts.
“Each decade panel has an art piece created by someone we serve and the hand casts are made of hands of staff and people we serve,” Veronica explains.
The shadow boxes each represent a Communitas home. Some include photographs of the people who live there, others use words to communicate what the people who live there value most. Some use three-dimensional objects to reflect activities or pets in the home. A few of the homes extended their art beyond the confines of the box.
“We have one shadow box that has a front yard, another one is surrounded by wings, one has been mounted to a canvas and has lights attached to it,” Veronica says. “It was amazing to see the lengths to which people went to visually describe their home.”
The second component of the exhibit is fifteen pinatas created by staff and people served through the many day services (and some of the homes) offered through Communitas. Veronica and her team chose the pinata because it is a fairly simple, creative project that many people could participate in at once.
“We wanted to give everyone a chance to create something for this exhibit,” Veronica says. “We were absolutely blown away by the creativity that our people put into these art pieces. So much work and thought went into each one. They’re beautiful!”
The art exhibit is currently running at The Reach Gallery Museum until January 4th. When the exhibit comes down, the timeline will move to the Communitas offices in Abbotsford and the pinatas will return to their creators, who can fill them with goodies and have a party of their own.
This art exhibit is the final event in a year of celebrations marking this milestone for Communitas. Visit our stories section to learn more about other events we’ve held this year and the work we do every year!
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