TATI x OATA Art Hive. 2025.
Art Therapists Connecting and Creating in Community.
So excited to be able to share photo collages from our Mending, Weaving and Repair Art Hive that capture the creative collaboration between the Toronto Art Therapy Institute and the Ontario Art Therapy Association on March 7th. At the bottom of the post additional resource and article links are provided plus a downloadable instructional page for creating circle cardboard looms by cc Chau.
Connecting and Re-Connecting.
The TATI and OATA community members gathered together for the first hybrid art hive at the beautiful new TATI location.
“This event came together through many threads - students expressing interests to learn more about textile / tactile arts-making in therapy; conversations about making / mending things that are useful and important to people’s lives as a way to resist capitalist / consumerist culture.”
OATA x TATI Collective Facilitation.
Cynthia Morin, Susan Beniston and I as hive facilitators were joined by Meghan Scott and TATI student facilitators Fern, Lucille, Natalie, with Nicole and Sophie online, to provide prep assistance and to create the welcoming ‘pop-up’ art hive space.
Skill Share. Each-One-Teach-One.
During the art hive there were skills-shares of cardboard weaving by cc Chau, visible mending by Susan Beniston and Stephanie Thorson. Cynthia Morin shared her rock weaving, and Ruth Luginbuehl shared a variety of plastic mesh materials that she had saved to stitch with for the first time, and brought them in to the Art Hive, because plastic mesh cannot go into recycling (it just becomes landfill).
cc Chau and Susan Beniston shared with our community stories of mending and weaving referencing specific Japanese techniques and traditions inspired by the Sashiko stitching style.
“Sashiko (刺し子?, literally “little stabs”) is a form of decorative reinforcement stitching (or functional embroidery) from Japan. Traditional sashiko was used to reinforce points of wear, or to repair worn places or tears with patches. Today this running stitch technique is often used for purely decorative purposes in quilting and embroidery. The white cotton thread on the traditional indigo blue cloth gives sashiko its distinctive appearance, though decorative items sometimes use red thread.”
In the spirit of radical hospitality art supplies were provided by OATA and TATI facilitators, and participants were also encouraged to bring their own art projects and supplies to work on together during the art hive.
“When you learn to make things with your hands, you begin to awaken an awareness of the beauty and value of things in your life. Hand making teaches us about slowness: the antidote to brevity and efficiency. It shows us, through the patience and skillfulness of our own hands, what goes into a thing.
When we put those long efforts into bringing beauty into the world, we are honouring that which made us by creating as we have been created. We are taught to respect the slow, attentive piecing together of the life we yearn for. Stitch by stitch, we apprentice the craft. We work in tandem with mystery, feeling its rhythms awaken in our bone-memory.
As the hands work, the mind is stilled and a greater listening is engaged as we drop down into the deep rhythm of devotion, where the whole world is in communion. The ferns unfurl, the daffodils trumpet, the rosebuds fatten, and the song of creation can be heard.”
Each-One-Teach-One.
“This comes from a street artist and housing advocate, Ron Casanova, (1996) who believed that each person is born with gifts to share. Regardless of who is usually considered an expert, we take turns in the Art Hives, being teachers and students for each other. We invite the creative contributions and skill-sharing to emerge from everyone interested in sharing of the bounty of their gifts with the community.”
Origins of this African Proverb below (each-one-teach-one):
“When one enslaved person acquired knowledge or skills including learning to read or write, it was a shared understanding and commitment to teach another.”
An art therapy totebag from Saba Rizvi and some wee prizes from my decorate and donate program to finish out the day 😊 … Our prize winners: Fern, Nga, Catherine and Jody.
✿ 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 • 3-6pm
@taticommunity IG art hive post
Astrology Theme • Monday July 14, 2025 • 5-8pm See You There!
✿ 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 - Next Gathering March 27th at 3pm.
✿ 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/
✿ SHERIDAN ART HIVE.
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
✿ OATA.
Website: www.oata.ca
Follow on Instagram: @ontarioarttherapyassociation
✿ TATI.
Website: www.tati.on.ca
Follow on Instagram: @tati.community 〰 Community of students, grads & friends, sharing info, news & love for art therapy & healing arts.
art hive stories on the connections blog
✿ Creative Science Shop. The Art Hive. 〰 art hive overview and news
✿ engAGE Living Lab Créatif. The Story. 〰 ENGAGE LIVING LAB 〰 sharing the evolution of this Concordia University project & art hives
✿ Inspiration|Exhalation: Breath-Taking-Time and The Space Within Us 〰 SUSAN BENISTON 〰 sharing community project and art hive roots
✿ My Journey to Art Hives. 〰 CYNTHIA MORIN 〰 art hive journey
✿ OATA Virtual Art Hive 2022. 〰 OATA NEWS: Art Hive Introduction and Art 2022
RELATED ART HIVE ARTICLE
✿ Janis Timm-Bottos (2011): Endangered Threads: Socially Committed Community Art Action, Art Therapy, 28:2, 57-63
VISIBLE MENDING
✿ Visible mending brings new life to old damaged clothes 〰 Video retrieved from ABC Australia Youtube Channel
✿ The Art and Craft of Mindful Mending 〰 Blog Post retrieved from www.thethriftystitcher.co.uk
✿ Upcycled fashion destined for landfill earns accolades for talented seamstress 〰 Video retrieved from ABC Australia Youtube Channel
SASHIKO TECHNIQUE
✿ What is Sashiko? 〰 retrieved from the Craft Atlas • www.craftatlas.co/crafts/sashiko
✿ Basics of Sashiko 1 | Tools, Materials and Alternatives for Beginners 〰 Video retrieved from Xiaoxiao Yarn Youtube Channel
✿ Sashiko 2 | Techniques and Tips for Beginners 〰 Video retrieved from Xiaoxiao Yarn Youtube Channel
✿Three Minimalistic Sashiko Patterns to Achieve Even Stitches and for Visible Mending 〰 Video retrieved from Xiaoxiao Yarn Youtube Channel
CARDBOARD LOOMS
✿ PDF instruction page (link) shared generously by cc CHAU
✿ How to Make a Cardboard Loom | Step by Step | Art for Kids 〰 Video retrieved from Art with Coach T Youtube Channel
✿ How to Weave for Beginners Step by Step | Art for Kids 〰 Video retrieved from Art with Coach T Youtube Channel
✿ Studio Lesson: Circle Weaving 〰 Video retrieved from Cindy Schramm Youtube Channel
✿ TEXTILE ART SHOW
World of Threads Festival • www.worldofthreadsfestival.com 〰 The festival takes place at Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre in Oakville, Ontario, Canada and organized and curated by Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate.
Next Show 2026: Wed. Sept. 23rd with the opening reception on Sat. Sept. 26th. (until Sun., Jan. 17, 2027).
Note: Photos shared with consent by the the TATI-OATA art hive participants.
