How art is helping Summerland evacuees of B.C.'s Bald Range wildfire

How art is helping Summerland evacuees of B.C.'s Bald Range wildfire

Penticton & District Community Arts Council offering art as an outlet to evacuees

At a comfort centre for evacuees in Penticton, B.C., tables are filled with paper, markers, buttons, and stickers.

The paint hits the canvas, with each stroke helping keeping kids and adults stay present, and away from the horrors of the Bald Range wildfire.

It’s part of an initiative by the Penticton & District Community Arts Council, which has been providing art as an outlet to evacuees.

“It is something that we put together last minute just because we believe in the value of art, and how it can bring comfort and occupy those who are waiting in a time of crisis,” said managing director Tristan Boisvert.

When Summerland poet Stephanie Lines was evacuated from her home, she turned to what she knows best: she started writing a poem.

“Being able to put pen to paper allows me to be able to explore and understand things that I don’t really even understand or fully comprehend right now,” Lines said.

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Around the table helping kids and adults navigate their complex emotions is Heidi Abbott. She’s an art therapist volunteering her time to help.

“It gives a lot of people an opportunity to just sit and not talk about things," she said. "They can just give their nervous system a break.”

Abbott said participants don’t have to be particularly good at making art. Simple scribbles and doodles on a page are fine.

As more people sit around the table and take part, the community bond is nearly instant.

Constance Mosley helps run the programs as a summer student with the arts council. She’s also a Summerland evacuee herself.

“For me personally as an evacuee, I’ve been enjoying making art with the kids as a way to be in community with the people," Mosley said.

"I was talking to one of my neighbours who I’ve never met before, and he said I’ve met more people through this than I have walking around town."

The program is being praised by local Summerland artists.

Sculptor Elaine Brewer-White said that being without her art practice due to displacement has been tough — so tough, that she bought a box of clay to get going again.

"I'm going to be working somewhere, if not in a park, somewhere just to get back in touch with parts of myself that are sort of pining," Brewer-White said.

She hopes more people young and old use art as a way to process what has happened as the community of Summerland binds together to get through the devastating wildfire.

“It really is about how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about our world. That’s why it has been so beneficial for these children and families,” she said

“It’s really been a light in all this.".

Tiffany Goodwein is an award-winning journalist with CBC British Columbia who covers Penticton and the south Okanagan region. She previously spent six years reporting in Alberta and is happy to be back home in B.C., where she grew up. You can contact her at tiffany.goodwein@cbc.ca