By Paige Kidder
Starting this month and running every Wednesday until June 2023, the Kamloops Art Gallery (KAG) is relaunching its after-school art program “The Creator Space” which is a free series of guided workshops created by youth for youth ages 14-21 in the community. The Creator Space is designed to help connect local youth and encourage artistic expression. As we transition back to post-pandemic life, youth in the city are experiencing heightened feelings of isolation and disconnection within their communities, making this program at the KAG more important than ever.
Youth mental health has recently been at the forefront of news stories nationwide, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a recent article from CFJC Today Kamloops, “between the COVID-19 pandemic, climate-related events, and the toxic drug crisis, people are dealing with added pressure on their mental health.” Youth in Kamloops particularly have seen major events in recent years like the unmarked graves of children found at the Kamloops Residential School, which CFJC outlines has “added to that strain, especially for Indigenous youth.” In May 2022, Statistics Canada released data taken during the COVID-19 pandemic that found only “40% of Canadian youth aged 15-24 reported having excellent or very good mental health” in 2020. Compared to 62% of Canadian youth reporting having good mental health in 2018, this was “the largest drop of any age group” as a result of the pandemic.
Unfortunately, even as communities return to “normal”, youth mental health isn’t following the same trend. An article from The New York Times published last year mentions that youth social anxiety and withdrawal have dramatically intensified, and a survey from Canada’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found “significant psychological impacts of social distancing and quarantine measures on young people causing stress, anxiety and loneliness.” Therefore, in addition to the added burden of rising expenditures and pressing issues like housing and access to education, youth are in need of a safe space where they can express themselves and get support from their community without further limitations. The Creator Space at the KAG is a program that checks a lot of these boxes for local youth, and as explained on the KAG website, “each month [the program] will have a featured medium or theme explored through artist-led instruction and guided workshops” and the program’s goal is to “encourage experimentation.” In an interview with Kristen Gardner, the School Programs Coordinator at KAG, Gardner outlines how the program is focusing on connection, mentioning that “post-pandemic – it feels important to create a physical space for people to get together since that was such a lacking thing for such a long time.” Gardner also stressed that this year’s program aim is to offer a safe space.
“We try to make it inviting even if maybe art isn’t your interest. It can also be a space for people to come and talk, meet new friends, and do their homework if they want. Just creating a room [that] they feel comfortable in.”
KAG Art Instructor, Nate Doucet, also reflected on the importance of this kind of connection, adding that “a sense of community is hugely important to [The Creator Space]. You get a group of like-minded people, but also [this program] connects you to a much larger community outside of that which helps people feel connected and important.”
The importance of offering a safe space for youth in the community and combining it with artistic creation is something Gardner touched on when asked about the importance of youth art programs. She mentioned how art can allow people to be more open, relaxed, and vulnerable with each other, and this concept of art providing these kinds of qualities is backed by research. A study in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association from 2016 found that after participants had engaged in an art-making session, their cortisol (stress hormone) levels had lowered significantly. In addition, according to Verywell mind, an award-winning mental health resource site, “the creation or appreciation of art is used to help people explore emotions, develop self-awareness, cope with stress, boost self-esteem, and work on social skills.” Gardner emphasizes that the program aims to work on these important skills in a fun and safe space for youth in Kamloops.
“What I notice most in the youth age group is that there’s a level of insecurity that creeps in during adolescence. I notice it in the willingness for [youth] to talk to me in the gallery space…I notice with the youth there’s this fear of doing or saying the wrong thing. There’s this hyper-self-awareness…I think it’s important to access them when they’re at that age and break through some of those barriers. I think the youth programming provides a space within the art community that doesn’t feel so intimidating to do [so].”
In addition to offering these qualities in a time of need for so many youths around the city, the KAG has also made the program free and provides all materials, removing barriers of cost for participants. When asked about the importance of removing these barriers, Chris Bose, the Youth Programs Coordinator at KAG, reflected on his personal experience as a young artist in Kamloops.
“We didn’t have stuff like this when I was a kid…I had no supplies, no access to materials, no access to mentors or anything cool…[Now] we have MacBooks, iPads, filmmaking stuff… I really hope [local youth] just take advantage of it and come here. Because it’s free!”
According to Bose, this program was started approximately 10 years ago at the KAG and was implemented to “give youth opportunities they wouldn’t ordinarily have. New mediums, new styles, some fundamentals, and foundations.” The program is implemented by the youth interns at the KAG every summer and is one of the major projects they work on each year, alongside an exhibition at the end of their internship. Gardner, the facilitator for the youth internship program this summer, added that each year the program gets a different name. Last year it was named “The Lab Rats”, and this year the name was decided in alignment with the overall purpose of fostering a space for youth dealing with the after-effects of the pandemic. “Naming the program is part of the development” Gardner mentioned, “[the youth interns] talked a lot about wanting to create a space for youth…the name came out of that process.”
When asked about the impact this program has had on youth in Kamloops in the past, Bose went on to mention how the program also goes beyond just a safe space for youth to connect and make art.
“It started a lot of budding art careers. It inspired a lot of kids who wanted to go into education, a lot of kids who wanted to go to art school. I get a lot of kids to help me do the workshops. There’s a lack of mentorship with kids. There’s a lack of opportunity to learn how to facilitate a workshop, or organize one, or create a program, or do an exhibition.”
Despite the incredible opportunity, the KAG is offering to youth in Kamloops during this time, there are still barriers and challenges they face in getting engagement and encouraging more people to join.
“Connecting with youth is still the barrier,” Gardner reveals. “[It’s] such an amazing opportunity and yet the room is never full. The whole idea of youth programming created by youth is, as adults, realizing that maybe we aren’t the best people to make something that’s inviting to this age group…that’s maybe a little difficult to connect with. The youth [internship] program also does all the marketing [for The Creator Space]. We’ve tried all these things…I don’t know what the answer is.”
Although facing challenges of youth engagement, The Creator Space is still a positive and significant step towards supporting local youth this year as we emerge into a post-pandemic world. People in their teens and early twenties are currently facing so many barriers, and The Creator Space is a place this age group can explore without barriers and experiment with their artistic talent to cope and connect within the community. Both Bose and Gardner concluded that their hope for the program this year is to see it grow and utilized to its full potential.
Local youth ages 14-21 can get involved with the program by dropping in at the KAG Studios on Wednesday’s from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. and are welcome to participate in as many or as little sessions as they please. The Creator Space can also be found on Instagram, providing timely updates about the program.
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