I co-facilitated a series of art workshops with
Syrian refugees
and other new Canadians at the
Art Gallery of Peterborough.
To say that it was a wonderful experience
would be putting it lightly.
We communicated not through language,
but through paint and clay and pencil and ink,
through laughter and tears.
We built bridges (literally) and explored the
concept of ‘home’.
We made collaborative posters and banners,
with colours and images and words from
many cultures.
We ‘heard’, through drawings,
the struggle and terror and instability
that brought our new friends to
Peterborough Ontario
at the edge of the cold and dark
Canadian winter.
Somehow, despite the weather,
that studio was always filled
with colour and music, with light and love.
