March Envisioning Health Art Night with Nadleh Whut’En

This month’s gathering of Envisioning Health with Nadleh Whut’En was attended by community members of all ages, who began working together to build a mixed media mural. To spark ideas for the mural, community members were asked the question, “What does health or wellness look like to you?”


After a delicious dinner of roast chicken and baked potatoes, community members started creating different artistic pieces to become part of the mural. Some people began with creating individual squares that illustrated their ideas of a healthy self-portrait. Self-portraits could be drawings, paintings, or collages of pictures or words that are representative of their visions of optimal health and wellness. Others started working on creating a group painting for the backdrop of the mural illustrating wellness at a community level. There was plenty of conversation and story-sharing as people moved around the room to fit different parts of the mural together. Many of these stories were weaved into the artwork.

The community mural will be an ongoing art project and new artworks will be added and arranged over the next month. Once complete, the mural will be displayed on a wall within the Nadleh Whut’En community centre. You can view photos of the mural beginning to come together below. We think it already looks quite spectacular!

 


Envisioning Health is a partnership project with Dr. Terri Aldred and the community of Nadleh Whut’En. Gatherings occur monthly to explore creativity, health and wellbeing after sharing a community meal together. The project began in the spring of 2018 and employs arts, community- and strengths-based approaches to explore what optimal health and wellness means to community members of all ages. Evening gatherings include socializing around a meal and participating in individual and group expression through a variety of activities. Thank you Nadleh Whut’En for continuing to welcome the Health Arts Research Centre to share art making and friendship with your community!