A local arts program is adding colour into residents' lives through opportunities to get creative and form friendships.
Supportive Arts for Young Adults with (dis)Abilities is a free inclusive arts and mindfulness program for participants and their caregivers.
It is held at Elora Centre for the Arts four times a week. Started in 2017, the program now serves 60 participants, including day programs and individuals from Guelph, Fergus and Mount Forest.
One of the arts facilitators, Judy Anderson, said aims to celebrate differences and believes everyone is an artist.
"As we've developed these long-lasting relationships with our participants, we've really built a community and watching their confidence grow in art making and just general in the classroom in the way we support each other, and compliment each other, is pretty heartwarming," said Anderson.
Originally focusing on arts and music, the program changed during the pandemic to focus on mindfulness. The other arts facilitator, Stephanie Lines-Toohill, said the mindfulness aspect of the program started at the request of participants.
"The mindfulness component connects people to the process of art-making, and really, underneath the foundation to the art-making, it helps people find their voice," said Lines-Toohill.
Every week, the art project is led by either a professional artist or an arts educator. Volunteers also help to support the program and participants during the two-hour sessions.
"Each class is guided, so we take a project step-by-step, and if someone wants to take their own path, that's wonderful," said Anderson.
On Monday, Supportive Arts hosted a group of 10 participants from Live & Learn Centre in Guelph. Courtney Turner, a participant in Supportive Arts and Live & Learn, said her favourite part of the program is seeing the instructors and creating art.
"It's important for me, because otherwise I would be sitting at home reading books and doing puzzles," Turner said about the program. "It's the social part, there's a social part here and a social part at Live & Learn. I crave it."
"It's definitely one of the highlights of their week," said program facilitator for Live & Learn, Rose Murphy.
During the pandemic, Murphy said Live & Learn participants insisted on continuing with Supportive Arts online.
"It's not just fun, it's important for their development and life skills," adds Murphy.
Supportive Arts is currently funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Anderson said the foundation hugely supported them the past three years and the funding will be coming to an end in June.
"We're going to look for generous donors, we'll be fundraising and we're looking to keep the program going next year and beyond," said Anderson.
Sessions for Supportive Arts will run until June 2023. To learn more about Supportive Arts, go to eloracentreforthearts.ca.
