Design Unveiled!! Sherbourne Health Centre Community Engaged Mosaic

Welcome to our gallery of images from the Sherbourne Health Centre Mosaic Project.

Over the past two months, we've met with more than 100 clients, program participants, staff, and board members of the Sherbourne Health Centre. Together, we've brainstormed, told stories, and made art with a range of materials including oil pastel, mixed media, and foam plate printing on fabric and vellum. Through this arts-based participatory research, themes and visual motif emerged.

As lead artist and designer on the project, I took away these notes, images, and the spirit of community members who were clear about their desire to reflect themselves and the centre and its programs, along with the hope that the artwork would welcome people to the centre. After much reflection, midnight snacking, and more research, I began sketching.

Last night we presented the design to a group of 20. Tristan gave an overview of our approach, process, and our findings at 11 arts-based community consultations, and I presented a slide show featuring a selection of visual work produced by participants. Then we revealed the design! I'm delighted and relieved that folks loved it. Designing in a community engaged context is a big responsibility, and a tremendous honour.

As you scroll down the page, you'll find a series of design illustrations. The mosaic will be comprised of 7 separate (but thematically connected) panels that will be built in the Sherbourne Health Centre during the months of April, May, and June. Each of the panels will be 8 feet tall and 2 feet and 2 inches wide, separated by 1.5 inches each--integrating architectural elements into the design. Each of the panels may be viewed and interpreted independently, however they will create one large public artwork. The photos posted here are digitally compressed. The actual illustrations are 6.5 inches wide, and 24 inches tall. These dimensions are based upon a 1 to 4 ratio: each square inch of illustration is equivalent to four square inches of mosaic. The scaled design facilitates the transfer of the illustrations to cement boards, which we will build the mosaic on with anyone who would like to join us.

We hope to see you in the studio. Hours will be posted here shortly. Everyone is welcome!
Thanks for reading and viewing.

--Anna Camilleri

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Red Dress Productions artistic leadership team includes lead artists Anna Camilleri and Tristan R. Whiston, and apprentices Heidi Cho, Rafaela Vidinha Dominici, Daniel Jelani Ellis, and Jay Stewart.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Sherbourne Health Centre, the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Neighbourhood Arts Network. We'd also like to thank our Working Group Committee members who've contributed to and supported the project in many different vital ways. Special thanks to Clare Nobbs.

Sherbourne Health Centre is an urban primary health care centre serving the diverse communities of southeast Toronto since 2003. Sherbourne Health Centre seeks to reduce barriers to care by taking a comprehensive approach to primary health care. Services include health promotion, education, research, community development and outreach, and advocacy. Sherbourne Health Centre serves all of the diverse communities of southeast Toronto with a special emphasis on local residents of south-central Toronto, homeless and under-housed individuals, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community, and new Canadians. To find out more about Sherbourne Health Centre and its programs and services, please visit http://www.sherbourne.on.ca