Creative Empowerment
Newcomer Women's Creative Empowerment is a program to support and inspire newcomer/immigrant women! This innovative, creative arts programming led by newcomers (and other diverse groups) for newcomers builds community, promotes anti-oppressive frameworks, empowers women to tell their unique stories, and emphasizes arts for well-being. The artistic objectives of this program are centered around the empowerment of newcomer women's voices. Women will have the opportunity to sell the creations and build their own entrepreneurship as part of this program.
Women have the option to bring their children to do art activities as well. Participants will receive an honorarium for attending and will be able to sell their creations on May 24 and 27 at the market.
Farmers Market Sharing Day - May 24 - 2:30 & 3:30 p.m.
Celebration and Activation Day - May 27 - 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Session Information
The creative empowerment session comprises of personal stories shared through storytelling, crafting, painting, movement, digital media and more! To read and learn more about the individual participants stories, click here!
Storytelling
In this four week workshop, newcomer women of diverse backgrounds will be working with a professional Storyteller and Expressive Art Therapist to create personal stories triggered by historical photographs found in the Montgomery Inn archives. The women will explore their chosen photograph and explore a memory that derives from the image. They will then draw a picture from their memory creating a modern day Montgomery Inn image/photograph based on their personal memory triggered by the image. We hope that this project will inspire the wider Toronto community to welcome and accept our newcomer women not just as travelers but as residents and valued members of our diverse city!
Painting With Natural Dyes
We invite you to explore with us together in a journey of discovery, The Colors of the Earth. With our senses open we will see, smell, and embrace the different tonalities that our earth and this life have given to us. Our hands will feel and experiment with the various tints of flower petals, spiraling citrus peels, the flour of our ancestors direct from the kitchen, and of course the paint brush to materialize your ideas.
Movement
Through gentle movement, participants will be invited to explore their stories using gestures, the body and breath. This workshop is designed to be playful, fun and creative. It is an opportunity to become curious with the way we move and also an invitation to bring in more curiosity as we play & explore.
Digital self-portrait / photography
Digital Self-Portrait workshop is an exploration of the self, our stories and our journeys. It is a process of how we see ourselves and how we are seen by others, through photography. Self-portrait is a process carefully composed, creative and artistic. This workshop is an intimate connection and a therapy of self-esteem, reaffirmation, self-caring, kindness, self-love, joy, and collaboration. We will learn step by step about natural and artificial light, composition, shapes, posing, colors, props, editing, and become familiar with using our smart phones as our main tool to capture our own emotions on a portrait.
CRAFTING EMPOWERMENT
Crafting empowerment workshop is an avenue to draw from self creativity pool. The activity will focus on making decorative objects with your hands as a fashionable form of self-expression.