This collaborative community arts project targeting youth (kindergarten to grade five) in North Central Regina at Kitchener, Sacred Heart, Wascana, Herchmer, and Albert schools. The United Way approached Common Weal to think about how to look at community futures in North Central. Project managers Damon Badger Heit and Heather Abbey engaged five artists to work in five schools over the course of two weeks. The artists included Danny Fernandez, Mike Jozsa, Erroll Kinistino, Valerie Kinistino, and Josh Goff each in turn spent a full day in each school, working with several classes to develop artistic work reflective of the Washington Park community, specifically posing the question “What do you like about your community?”
The intent of these sessions was to combine the artistic outcomes of these workshops to culminate in a community celebration, which was held at the Regina Performing Arts Centre on March 15, 2006. The project, not without its challenges (for example, the school bus drivers were on strike on a cold day), was a huge success: instilling a sense of community pride through creative collaboration. The legacy of this project was not only the artwork and performances developed, but also the relationships, dialogue, and understanding that were fostered through the process. The National Film Board and Joe MacDonald, to capture the community process and artistic outcomes, produced a documentary film.
