OATA Moments. Art Hive. 2023
Revisiting an Evening of Making and Mingling and some OATA-TATI Moments.
Peer to Peer: The Nature of Well-Being 💜 Art Hive and Social 🌿
The Nature of Well-Being was held within one large collective space to increase connections, amplify inspirations, and to learn from one another, Peer to Peer.
As OATA gears up for their next Conference-Retreat later in 2025, I thought it would be enjoyable to revisit moments and share photos from 2023. OATA members and TATI faculty and students mixed and mingled at this lively Art Hive Community Social. And, here is a link to our most recent OATA-TATI art hive collaboration.
“An Art Hive is a community art studio that welcomes everyone as an artist. From an art pop-up in a local library to a community studio or gallery, at its heart, an Art Hive is about inclusion, respect and learning. It’s a welcoming place to talk, make art and build communities. Responding in creative ways to things that matter.”
Cynthia Morin (Art Hive Pop Up), TATI instructor and our OATA virtual art hive facilitator in 2022, was on hand with her poster table display to share her art hive experiences and projects, and welcome individuals into the space.
“Art Hives are free art studios open to the public, offering a therapeutic philosophy of art for all. They recognize everyone as an artist, a form of welcoming and democratizing, while honouring the strengths and creative capacities of each participant. An art hive “fosters self-directed experiences of creativity, learning, and skill sharing.”
🌿 Our Clean-Studio Art Hive.
As our ART HIVE needed to be a ‘clean-studio’ hive without messy art materials in the beautiful Art Gallery of Burlington space, so began creative problem solving with Susan around how this mini-art hive could be implemented, still be fun and engaging, without however, the usual generous and overflowing buffet from the art hive model (often comprised of all sorts of fabulous and MESSY media!!!).
🌿 Creative Offerings of Our Mini Evening Hive.
In addition to providing materials for the creativity tables listed in the image above (and the photo collages below), the main hive ‘supplies buffet’ included additional nature elements and materials to create cards, intention bookmarks, and ‘postcards to self’.
✿ 1. Supportive Hands Table Cloth Table • Invitation for collective art making where guests could gather, socialize and take a moment to trace their hand and make their mark on the community cloth.
✿ 2. Eco-Art Connecting Circle • Invitation for guests to add natural elements to our community mandala (Thanks to Heather Johnston for the gifted Mandala cloth).
✿ 3. Eco-Bundles • Invitation to create individual nurturing nests and/or bundles from natural materials (Thank you for the inspiration Taylor!)
✿ 4. Relaxing Water Painting • Invitation for ‘in-the-moment’ soothing mark making and collaborative line conversations at the buddha board station.
✿ 5. Transforming Art-Branches Centrepieces • Invitation to add mini art tags and/or meaningful words to our branch table centres throughout the evening art hive/social and again during the retreat and conference the following day.
“Art is not a part of life, it is not an addition to life, it is the essence of those pieces of us that make us fulfilled. That give us hope. That give us dreams and provide the world a view very different than what it would have been without us.”
“In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.”
“Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.”
“The arts, as media of the imagination, are disciplines which give form and substance to our capacity to be who we are. Each artistic medium embodies the imagination in a concrete and specific way”
“When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.”
OATA’S 2023 INVITATION:
Join us on Friday evening for our 2 hour Art Hive and Social to ‘make and mingle '
View and Connect with presenters Peer-to-Peer: Posters Displays Exhibits
Relax and Engage with Your Community in the Art Hive
Enjoy light refreshments as you mingle
View the Opening Art Display at the AGB on its opening night.
Add your name to the door prize draw.
💜 Art Hive/Friday Evening Gratitude for:
✿ The beautiful and accommodating venue: Art Gallery of Burlington
✿ The poster-table display contributors: Sarah Brody, Cynthia Morin, Kimberley Bird, Marillyn Saffery, Derrick Nearing, Kikki Abbot-Moore, Susan Beniston, and Rapinder Kaur who took such care to provide visually interesting, informative and relevant displays for guests to engage with
✿ A special thank you to Sarah Brody for her generous sharing of her time and scripted offerings to members throughout the conference that added such a beautiful and interactive piece to the experiential art hive setting
✿ Thanks to the TATI student contributors: Kikki Abbot-Moore and Derrick Nearing.
✿ The eco-bundle creative prompt that was inspired by Taylor Bourassa (from her eco-based column for the CATA/ACAT newsletter: Envisage).
✿ The donated door prizes for friday evening: thanks to Jenny McSpadden, Jean Penny, Marillyn Saffery, Olena Darewych, Hannah Sherebrin and Lisa Iturriaga (Other prizes provided from my Decorate and Donate Program)
✿ OATA board members Melita Richardson and Susan Beniston for assisting with the art hive prep and planning
💟 Thank you to ALL of our OATA members, TATI students and guests who attended and engaged with our art hive offerings
✿ Follow and Connect with the Ontario Art Therapy Association.
Website: www.oata.ca
Follow on Instagram: @ontarioarttherapyassociation
OATA - Conference, Retreat and AGM. 2023. ✿ NEWS info. on ‘Peer-to-Peer: The Nature of Well-Being’
Blog Posts/Stories • OATA Listing. Sharing News. Updates. Stories. Reflections.
https://www.aprilpenny.com/ogblog/oata-listing-news-updates-stories-reflections
“Given such tumultuous times, sharing positive vibes for OATA through news, stories and reflections. Kindling the creative-caring actions that we know are happening daily in our community, can support and nurture our collective spirits”
✿ Follow and Connect ART HIVES and with ART HIVE POP UP.
✿ ART HIVES.
Website: www.arthives.org Downloadable Guide: art hives how-to guide 1
Follow on Facebook: Art Hives / Les Ruches d’Art
Monthly Art Hive Community of Practice • online the last Thursday of Every Month
✿ ART HIVE POP UP. Cynthia.
Follow on Instagram: @ArtHivePopUp
2025 • Evergreen Brickworks and Art Hive Popup is running every Sunday in April 10am-3pm 〰 IG Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIPX6veyOkb/
“Cynthia is passionate about the therapeutic potential of creativity in community with others. She is interested in creating free community art-making spaces (Art Hives, J.Timm-Bottos) where individuals can learn about themselves and others through art-making and dialogue. Cynthia believes that through these spaces individuals and communities can heal and thrive.”
✿ SHERIDAN ART HIVE. Susan. Kirsten.
Follow on Instagram: @sheridanarthive
2025 • The Sheridan Art Hive is running weekly at the Sheridan Trafalgar Campus! Current Art Hive facilitator: Kirsten Abrahamson
Founded by Susan Beniston 〰 Sheridan College Art Hive Initiative + CollectiveEYEdentity: Connecting Community Curation
✿ ART HIVES. TATI x OATA 2025
Hybrid Art Hive at the Toronto Art Therapy Institute • 124 Merton Street, Unit 407, Toronto, ON., M4S 2Z2
Mending, Weaving, Repair • Friday March 7, 2025 @taticommunity IG art hive post
COMING UP: Astrology Theme • Monday July 14, 2025 • 5-8pm
✿ Follow and Connect with the Art Gallery of Burlington.
Website: www.agb.life
Follow on Instagram:
1333 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON L7S 1A9
“The Art Gallery of Burlington is Burlington’s public art gallery and community centre. We are a place of intersection where creators, cultures and communities meet and share in the wealth of human creativity.”