A thoughtful approach to connecting Greater Trail seniors with art — and young creative counterparts — has received much praise from all involved.
“I just wanted to share that students are loving these projects,” teacher Ms. Houde said to the VISAC volunteers. “A few comments heard in class while weaving included ‘I love this!’ and ‘this is so much fun.’ Thanks for all of your hard work putting these kits together, much appreciated.”
Creating Connections; ArtBoxes & Art PenPals for Seniors was launched earlier this year by the VISAC Gallery. The downtown Trail nonprofit offered art supplies and instructions to seniors, along with a hand-written note and sample art piece by Kootenay Columbia students, as a tactile way to ease isolation during the ongoing pandemic.
“The ArtBoxes are fantastic! VISAC, along with sponsors, should be very proud for supplying this to local seniors,” said one thankful recipient.
“Can’t thank you enough for the wonderful weaving kit! It filled many of my hours and I’m really happy with it, enough to now continue on my own,” said another.
“These are amazing and my 95-year-old mother was so surprised and happy with her weaving one,” said an appreciative local. “She has it hanging on her wall. Thank you!”
Mena McGill choosing a student postcard for one of the seniors’ watercolour ArtBoxes that went out for delivery this month. Photo: Submitted
The VISAC team worked very hard the last couple of months not only to create the two ArtBox units, but also to liaison with local schools, senior housing/organizations, and local businesses that supplied materials for the themed projects, explains VISAC director Kristen Chester.
“We had heard from input gathering that many seniors do not have the technological means to take online art classes or can feel overwhelmed by online offerings,” she said. “Our input also indicated that seniors either have a hard time allocating limited funds to art supplies or are not able to source art supplies due to stores being on back order.”
The VISAC reached out to as many local seniors as possible to ask what kind of projects would be most interesting. From the feedback, they concluded what ticked all the boxes was a ‘weaving’ project for February delivery and a ‘watercolour’ themed project for March delivery.
“VISAC was granted sufficient funding to involve local students as ‘Art PenPals,’ a great part of the project suggested by our gallery assistants” Laurie Broadhurst, VISAC volunteer, explained.
“Each month, at least six classrooms from … Rossland to Fruitvale were provided a similar, smaller art project for each theme the seniors were going to get that month. The students’ artwork also included a personal note as a gift and inspiration,” Broadhurst said.
“Seniors were encouraged to respond to their Art PenPals on cards and we facilitated several options of returning those cards.”
Art cards created by students.
The weaving unit was completed last month and just over 50 per cent of seniors were able to respond to their student pen pal. The watercolour art boxes were delivered last weekend with student artwork, a watercolour postcard, included.
“There has been a terrific positive response to both the caring contact from the students and the excellent supplies provided to both classrooms and seniors,” said Broadhurst.
The project has collectively engaged over 260 students with 130 seniors and created many welcome connections.
“It has been quite an amazing and worthwhile project. I’m so proud to be a part of it,” Broadhurst said. “A big shout out to the teachers and students involved.”
In the fall of 2020, VISAC was made aware of a grant opportunity from the Le Roi Community Foundation for projects that aimed to support those affected by COVID-19 and serve vulnerable populations in Greater Trail. The VISAC team of Mena McGill (high school art student), Ellie Knox (art student), along with Broadhurst and Chester, met to talk about possible projects that would meet the gallery’s mandate and that of the grant. Out of the brainstorming session came the idea Creating Connections: Artboxes & Art Penpals for Seniors.
“So many businesses were very supportive once hearing about the project,” Chester said.
She thanks Sarah Elizabeth Fibre Works, Rossland Healthcare Auxiliary, Silverfern Framing, Rebecca Weatherford and the Beaver Valley Guides, the Rossland Museum and Discovery Centre, The Bailey Theatre, the libraries in Trail, Rossland and Fruitvale, and funding body, the Le Roi Community Foundation.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
