Connecting Canada, one town at a time

Cartier

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This article was published 08/11/2023 (729 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Elie is taking a community event to a global scale.

Cindy Fenske, a board member at the Cartier Senior Citizens Support Committee, came across the Mural Mosaic Global Roots project on Facebook, but ignored it a couple times before it caught her attention, she said. Now, she can’t suppress her excitement.

“This was something that just kept jumping out at me, so it was something I really had to look into,” Fenske said. “And I dragged my crafting partner along with me — ‘We’re doing this.’ And I do have to say that the whole community has been on board, from the municipal office to the (Elie) Community Centre, everybody has just been given their full support for this. So it’s already becoming a community thing already.”

The Global Roots project, which began in 2021 and was inspired by the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, aims to re-connect communities through art — first nationally, and eventually around the world. To participate, each community must order a number of tile packages to be painted at home by individual participants and then submitted online to be included in the final, massive mosaic mural.

The mural, which will begin to be properly developed in 2024, will then take the shape of a tree, using every tile received.

Canada Connects is the Canadian chapter of the project — in which the CSCSC is taking part — and it created the original mural at the beginning of the project, which will now connect to tiles from the United States, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. The end result will be like a large, collaborative puzzle made up of other puzzles.

Throughout October, Fenske and her craft partner (and fellow board member), Debbie Troche, gathered close to 50 people for a tile-painting event to be held in the new year. Although a firm date hasn’t been set, Fenske predicts it will come together in January.

Fenske and Troche have been co-ordinating artistic activities for the community for quite some time with their Take Part Art program. This mosaic event will be the biggest project so far.

“I think it’s important for community to get together, be there for each other,” Fenske said, adding that, in most of the art activities she and Troche put together, there’s a strong focus on everyone learning as they go instead of being told outright. “I think what this is going to be the same thing. I’m hoping everybody’s going to help everybody else, and maybe make friends. You’ll help each other, so you’ll have that sense of (being) there to help somebody.

“That’s really why I did it and I thought this was such a great idea. This is going beyond the community, though, because we’re doing it with other people in Canada. And when it comes together, it’s people from everywhere, and I find that amazing.”

The event will take place at the Elie Community Centre, and is funded with the help of an art grant from Southern Health, which will help the CSCSC rent the facility and supply lunch for those coming out to paint.

Fenske hopes this will be the first stepping stone to many more Global Roots projects.

“I don’t know what will come of it,” she said.

“It’s just nice to be part of something (larger) than the community itself. It’s for the community, but we’re part of something greater than that.”