Art therapist Sarah Peacock didn’t try painting until she was in her mid-20s.
“There’s a stereotype as art as something that’s elite. For me, I was always really nervous to even do art,” said Peacock, now 30. “We need to take it back as a community… Each person is creative. It’s an innate part of what we are as people.
She and four other women have formed a group called Magpie’s Nest Community Arts Space to realize such a place in Vancouver.
“We just really value creativity and there’s not many spaces where people can go and feel at home,” Peacock said. “People can create with members of different generations, different cultures in a way that people don’t normally come together.”
Peacock said she and the other artists and art therapists involved envision a storefront equipped with coffee, tea and materials where members could drop in to make something or attend a special workshop that’s led by a peer who’s sharing a skill, rather than an expert or teacher. She said they’re considering charging members a monthly or yearly fee that would be less expensive than taking an art class. They hope to be offer a pay-what-you-can option.
In the meantime, Magpie’s Nest has been holding pop-up studios since April at the Pacific National Exhibition fairgrounds, Astorino’s and Britannia Community Centre.
The group will run a free “upcycling” workshop at Artful Sundays, Aug. 18, at Napier Street and Commercial Drive from noon to 5 p.m.
Participants of any age can use chopsticks, shells and bottle caps to fashion mobiles or whatever else their hearts desire.
Peacock said the group came together last year when the city offered artist residencies in its field houses. Their application wasn’t successful and neither were their grant applications to national bodies, but they’ve snagged community grants.
Their passion convinced diners at Britannia Community Services Centre’s East Feast community micro-funding project to give Magpie’s Nest the $1,000 raised in ticket sales for the June event, which convinced Peacock the group should focus on grassroots fundraising.
Magpie’s Nest launched an Indiegogo fundraising campaign Wednesday to raise $7,650 to cover three months rent and bills to build its membership so the space could become self-sustaining. The organizers have found a space in the Hastings-Sunrise area that they’re interested in.
Peacock, who works alongside two other Magpie members in the Artworks Studio at the George Derby Centre veteran’s residential care home in Burnaby, just returned from studying community art studios through Concordia University in Montreal.
She wants to see more community-based creative activity for all ages in Vancouver.
“I see a lot of people taking their kids to things,” she said. “But we really want to reach the parents, too.”
Artful Sundays runs until and including Sept 1. Each Sunday features a different group of local artists, demonstrations and workshops, live music and tealeaf reading.
For more information, see magpiesnest.ca.
