Company Description

ARTSPEAKS started as a one-year pilot-project intended to offer women and female-identifying folks impacted by sexual violence, addictions and concomitant mental health issues, the opportunity to engage with professional artists in arts-based-learning towards the creation of personally meaningful and exhibition-ready art works.

Starting in April, 2017, women/female identifiers, ages 18-60+, worked in-studio with three visual artists--a painter, a photographer and a storyteller--learning the basics of art, design and narrative processes in the service of sharing their personal experiences.

A variety of art forms were explored in four separate workshop series of six sessions each, held once weekly for 3 hours per session:

Storytelling and Mixed Media Processes

Photography and Sculptural Processes

Painting Methodologies

Re-constructed Books as Social Commentary.

A final exhibit, Re-purposing Trauma, was staged in the studio at 724 Queen East in November 2017.
,
Session size was limited to 8 participants from partner organizations: Breton House, Phoenix Rising Women's Centre and SAH's Sexual Assault Care Centre.

To engage with an audience beyond our partner agencies,
'Art-Drop Fridays', were created, offering a gender diverse community—cisgendered women, female-identifying folks, transwomen, two-spirit, non-binary folks and youth (ages 16+)--not involved with The ARTSPEAKS Workshop Series, the opportunity to come together in the process of making art that speaks to their experiences in contemporary society. Project artists facilitated these primarily self-directed art-making sessions. Sessions were free-of-charge.

Project Facilitators:
Maria Parrella-ilaria, Project Co-ordinator/Visual Arts
Chandra Barnett, Photography/Visual Arts & Digital Media
Joanne Robertson, Storytelling/Visual Arts

​The ARTSPEAKS Pilot-Project was generously funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and represented the partnering of three local agencies invested in women's health: Breton House, Phoenix Rising Women’s Centre and the SAH's Sexual Assault Care Centre. Many thanks to the directors, counselors and staff of our agency partners and to our community partner, SuraciCPA, for their awesome support.

Today, the ArtSpeaks Project has seen an evolution from its structured, thematic workshop series of 2017 to the 2019 creation of the ArtSpeaks ArtHives, free access community art sessions for adults and youth (16yrs+) impacted by trauma.

The Art Hive is a safe space, welcoming all creatives to work together yet alone in the company of others, skill-sharing and supporting eachother in self-directed art-as-therapy art-making explorations. The ArtSpeaks ArtHives are housed in the Education Room of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum and is funded by the Sault Museum, Breton House and the SAH's Sexual Assault Care Centre.

In 2020, ArtSpeaks was honoured to receive special arts funding from the City of Sault Ste. Marie's Cultural Advisory Board.

In March 2020, due to the arrival of the COVID-19 Pandemic and subsequent nationwide lockdowns, the ArtHives became a virtual presence, starting with our first Cyber-Hive on March 18, 2020. Our cyber hives are streamed via our social media pages--Facebook Live and Instagram Stories and are offered bi-weekly on Wednesday evenings.

Photos & Videos

Products & Services

Storytelling and Mixed Media Processes ,   Photography and Sculptural Processes ,   Painting Methodologies ,   Art-Drop Fridays ,   Re-constructed Books as Social Commentary