Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP Billy Denault presents Anya Gansterer from Ottawa Valley Creative Arts with a grant of nearly $231,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Robert Fisher
Staff Reporter
KILLALOE – Ottawa Valley Creative Arts is assured three years of stable program funding following announcement that the organization received an Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) grant of nearly $231,000.
The grant will fund the Art Helps program, which offers workshops focused on the intersection of art and wellness.
Artistic Director Anya Gansterer said research has shown, “if you combine art making with social connection and the outdoors,” there are positive benefits to people’s well-being. The findings are based on a survey of past Art Helps workshop participants.
Nearly 54 per cent of participants left the workshop feeling more creative than before they arrived and half felt they were more connected to other people following the workshop.
The workshops have been outdoors and 29 per cent felt they had a greater connection to nature following the event, however, more than half of participants already felt connected to nature before attending the workshop. Nearly two thirds, 62 per cent, reported they felt better after the workshop.
The Art Helps program kicked off in 2024 and the organization conducted workshops into 2025.
“The new round of funding, it’s a three-year grant from OTF,” Gansterer explained and the funding will be used to expand the program beyond visual art making into performance and media arts. The next round of workshops is slated to begin in September. Gansterer said the organization hopes to begin working with new partners, as well to expand the reach of the programming.
“We’re hoping to work with more community organizations to integrate the Art Helps model into how they operate,” she explained.
Gansterer also hopes to work with other local well-being groups to collaborate on programming under the Art Helps model, “to either work with their existing clientele or let them know that there are these workshops available that they can refer people to.”
The director spoke about one of the previous workshops as an example of what the program does. Attendees went into a wooded area and learned how to make a small loom from sticks they found in the area. Once they’d made their loom, they learned how to weave using natural materials. During another workshop, participants worked with clay. They went for a walk to find natural materials which they could imprint onto the clay to create designs.
The funding will allow OV Creative Arts to hire a co-ordinator to help plan the new programming. Gansterer anticipates there may be a theatre aspect or workshops could focus on things like music and sound production. “There might be more digitally-connected arts,” as well, such as video and audio visual, and using cell phones as part of the creative process, she noted as possibilities. She wants to have programming specifically designed for youth groups, as well.
Gansterer also noted that the programming would include an Indigenous component, saying, “we’re already working on some partnerships with the Circle of Turtle Lodge,” to see how the two groups may be able to partner.
Gansterer emphasized that the workshops are very simple for people to attend. They don’t need to bring anything, all supplies and materials are provided. “They’re always catered, as well, so there’s local, nutritious food to support people.”
Workshop participants, “are really being held in an environment of care and then that supports people in being able to really just dive into the creative process,” which feeds into the wellness aspect of the program where people can, “enter into that state of flow and not be thinking about your to-do list or what you have to afterwards and what you were doing before.” Freeing the mind to be creative.
Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP Billy Denault presented Gansterer with the grant award during a recent photo opportunity.
robert@thevalleygazette.ca
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