Editor’s note: This story appeared in the April edition of the South Cowichan Connector, a publication for and about the South Cowichan Valley. Look for our May edition starting May 2.
Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”
The grown ups of Cowichan South Arts Guild help children and youth of all ages in the community harness their creativity through their Inspire Youth Arts program. Studies show that the arts promote creativity and encourage neural connections while developing self expression and building healthy self esteem and relationships. CSAG president Jennie Stevens, who is also the coordinator of their IYA program, said the guild created the IYA arts tent as a way to provide art activities and keep youngsters engaged, and entertained at community events such as Cobble Hill’s Music in the Park series.
“It has since been very successful,” said Stevens.. “We have anywhere from 60 to 80 kids that come through that art tent every Thursday night in the summer. We set up open-ended activities for both kids and their families who come out, and we provide all the materials for free through the arts guild. Whatever they create, they get to take home with them.”
After years of networking with various organizations and sharing their space — the guild welcomes their new Community Art Caravan warmly nicknamed ‘Whimsy’ that sprung forth on March 19 (spring equinox) to coordinate with the guild’s Community Spring Equinox Singalong on March 21 at Shawnigan Lake’s Elsie Miles Pavilion, and their two Art of Storytelling events that took place inside the Shawnigan Lake Community Centre lounge.
“We are super excited about it,” said Stevens. “The first year running our popular art tent all our equipment and supplies were stored, transported, loaded and unloaded out of the directors’ cars and studios. It wasn’t sustainable. Luckily the CSAG had acquired a BC Arts grant which was perfectly suited to design a Community Art Caravan.”
According to Stevens ‘Whimsy’ had humble beginnings as a vegetable and plant stand when she caught Steven’s eye at the side of the road one fateful rainy day in April 2023. Her next adventure now is to help inspire Youth Arts under the direction of Cowichan South Arts Guild coordinators Stevens and Kayla Dangerfield.
The CSAG used the grant money towards purchasing the small trailer and wooden structure which was rebuilt and customized to suit their needs through the magic of builder extraordinaire Marek Olsen.
“Marek has skillfully created a beautifully sweet and sturdy community art caravan with a personality and charm befitting of one who has a big role to play in our Arts Guild’s future. We are super excited about it, and the community is too.”
Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a community to construct an art caravan. Stevens would like to express her gratitude to Bruce Stevens for being a preliminary design consultant for CSAG and initial work on the original caravan, to Darrell Mellott for decommissioning the old caravan and to Jonas Schandel and Ace Hicks for generously providing space in which Whimsy was built, and last but not least Chris Knight of Windsor Plywood for their very generous donation of materials that transformed the dream of ‘Whimsy’ into a reality.
The guild’s new mobile art house will be a multifaceted arts facility which will also be used as a gallery, and for storage when needed. It will serve as a unique home base that will house and transport everything needed to the various locations and communities where the guild offers their outdoor and indoor programming. Stevens couldn’t be happier about this new addition as she has been the one responsible for transporting supplies. She wants the program to continue to be sustainable for when the day comes that she is not around, so began thinking outside the box, or tent if you will. Stevens said that their new art caravan will not only be utilized at events such as Music in the Park, hosted by the Cobble Hill Event Society, but will also be used for a myriad of community-based events including the outreach program they do with schools in the community.
“The school might reach out and say they are doing a family festival for Earth Day, and ask if we can come with our art tent, so now we’ll be able to come with our caravan and set it up to do some type of activity with the kids,” said Stevens. “It will open up even more opportunities for outreach; we just need loads of volunteers so it’s not always the same few people doing it.”
Those who want to become a volunteer can email hello@cowichansouthartsguild.com. Stevens hopes that their new arts caravan ‘Whimsy’ will catch on beyond schools, and community events and that opportunities may arise through businesses such as grocery stores like Thrifty’s where they will be able to set up shop in their parking lot and hand out art materials, and packages for people to take home with them.
“I think ‘Whimsy’ will really draw attention to arts as an important thing to be involved in at a young age and draw the community together because we will have people coming out to meet each other as it happens just like at music in the park,” said Stevens. “We won’t even have to necessarily be teaching something, just handing things out. It is just another way to keep promoting the arts guild, and draw more of a membership, which in turn draws more volunteers that then helps to promote our artsy community.”