Spring forward into art with Cultural Centre’s Centre-Pieces

March 18, 2021 · 0 Comments

Spring is a time for renewal and if the season that is set to arrive this week is also a time for renewed creativity for you and your family, the Aurora Cultural Centre has a way to keep those creative juices flowing at home.

Beginning this week, the Aurora Cultural Centre will launch “Centre-Pieces: Springing into Art”, a tote set with four activities “embracing visual art with etching, craft, paper and water colour painting.”

Free to registered families thanks to sponsorship from local Desjardins agent Richard Gong, the totes will be ready for curbside pickup at Town Hall this Thursday and Friday, just in time for Saturday’s equinox. The launch of the tote program also coincides with Nowruz, the Persian New Year and, from here, the tote takes root with a specially recorded talk and demonstration for participants on Saturday, March 20.

Hosted by local artist Mahtab Abdollahi and Stephanie Nicolo, Events Coordinator for the Cultural Centre, the session will guide you through the steps of painting your own watercolour of symbols used on this special day.

All this will be done on canvas and paints supplied in the tote.

“We couldn’t be coming together for our community-focused events where these types of activities would be happening in person, so we wanted to create an environment to try and recreate those moments, so it is quite a large amount that we’re giving out to the community and that is a big thank you to our sponsor, Richard Gong,” says Ms. Nicolo. “We want the activities to be child friendly and family-oriented so that parents and older siblings can all come together to help one another create the activities – and activities that are culturally inspired.

“Nowruz happens on the equinox and it is celebrated by a large community, many of which are part of the Aurora community, so that inspired this first tote bag. Other tote bags that are going to be coming out throughout the year will also be based around solstices and equinoxes. There is so much cultural material that happens around those times of the year.”

Working from home has allowed Ms. Nicolo to flex some different creative muscles in putting these bags together for registered families. It has been a matter of looking at materials to see what is practical to be packaged – large canvasses were nixed early on in the process! – along with what could be connected to the various cultures and traditions that are now part of this community’s tapestry.

“For me, watercolours really connect well with the spring and water itself,” she says. “It implies growth and new life, and that’s what spring is all about. A lot of the test-driving is definitely needed but we wanted to make sure they are at least wide enough so that anyone who gets one of the tote bags don’t feel confined within an activity. Although we have our watercolour activity, for example, there is a demonstration with a local artist so there are some steps that she’s laying out in the demonstration. You don’t necessarily have to follow her demonstration and you can create your own watercolour painting.”

As she looks ahead to launching the totes this week, Ms. Nicolo says she hopes the packages themselves not only become tradition for local families, but working together creatively as well.

“I do hope families will continue to come back to them and have them well-used and well-loved, she says.

For more on the Centre-Pieces program, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca/event/springing-to-art-equinox-edition.

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter