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Succulent

Team

Host Organizations

The project is developed and delivered by Art Not Shame, with outreach and participation supported through partnerships with the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition and Guelph Community Health Centre.

A not-for-profit, community-engaged arts organization, Art Not Shame serves youth and adults ages 16 and up across Ontario. Founded in 2017, ANS generates opportunities for community connection through facilitated, multi-disciplinary, art-making workshops and co-learning opportunities. Speaking back to systemic forces that perpetuate cycles of shame and undermine self-worth, ANS aims to build supportive, inclusive, and transformative social spaces to facilitate community-building. Since its founding, ANS has engaged approximately 2,000 people in Ontario through its workshops and events.

“Witnessing our need to connect across distance in ways that do not exacerbate existing inequalities, we were looking for an innovative way to increase access to creative expression, and build understanding between individuals affected by this crisis in vastly different ways”
Michelle Peek,
Founder and Executive Director
of Art Not Shame.

Art Buddies

Contact
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Social Artist Lead

Melanie Schambach​

"Societies and the environment are facing extraordinary challenges while the speed of change is faster than ever. New methods of engaging people, radical collaborating, and courageous processes that uplift the spirit through self-discovery, are some of the ways to contribute to positive change. I aim to challenge and re-discover the narratives of who we are, how we belong in the earth, and what is our shared responsibility."

For more on Melanie's work, visit HERE. 

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Partner Organizations

  • Guelph Community Health Centre

  • Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition

  • Art Not Shame

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Outreach Support

  • ARCH

  • Art Not Shame

  • Community of Hearts

  • Family & Child Services

  • Guelph Black Heritage Society

  • Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition

  • Immigrant Services

  • Canadian Mental Health Association, Wellington Waterloo

  • Welcoming Streets Initiative

  • Guelph PRIDE, Guelph Arts Council 

  • Youth Engagement Working Group of the Integrated 

  • Youth Services Network initiative lead by the Rotary Club of Guelph

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Generously 

Supported By

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Art In Hard Times

Virtual Mural

We acknowledge the history of displacement, colonization, and extermination of Indigenous people, plants and living animals across Turtle Island while we stand and live in these lands. We acknowledge the 300 years of slavery and many other deliberate projects forgetting and erasure based on race, ability, mental illness, gender and sexuality, and class. We also need to bring to mind that the devices such as computers and phones required for this project, are created as a result of extraction of resources of metals and the exploitation of labour from places in Africa and South America. This is destroying the environment and leaving communities in poverty. We acknowledge that although the participants in the project speak a wide range of beautiful languages, we are limited to using the colonial language English. This excludes many new immigrants, and perpetuates the loss of many native languages. Furthermore, even though we believe internet should be a utility and not a luxury, we recognize this platform requires internet and this is also a big barrier for many friends who do not have access. We are confronting many difficulties to do our work in the most ethical way possible. We want to go beyond acknowledging these realities taking action, and we are far from where we would like to be. We are deeply grateful to the spiritual leaders, activists, elders, knowledge-holders, scientists, healers, and witches who have dedicated their lives lifting our spirit, raising awareness, educating, healing, and guiding. We are committed to learning and unlearning how to be in and build relationships with local communities, and honour local knowledge that is often misrepresented or misheard. We are here ready to fail, be with the discomfort, and continue listening, loving, and creating. We are trying our best to reinvent and regenerate our ways of being, sharing, and connecting with each other and with the earth. We invite you to be part of this co-creation, and we welcome your feedback. 

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