It began as a simple idea in 2021, to bring creative connection to seniors in the Adult Day Program in the Herb Bassett Home and Pineview Terrace and on Sunday, residents celebrated its success.
“The Quilt: Threads That Connect Us” celebrated how the program has grown to include poetry, songs and naturally a quilt.
For the past few years, the residents have been working with local poet Beth Gobeil and musician Donny Parenteau to create collaborative poems, stories, and songs.
This year they also partnered with the Mann Art Gallery to create quilt squares as a metaphor for how their individual backgrounds and life stories come together to form a community within the homes.
This idea stems from the City of Prince Albert’s “Artists in Communities” program coordinated by Jesse Campbell, as part of the Municipal Cultural Action Plan. A partnership with Common Weal Community Arts helped them access significant funding from the New Horizons for Seniors Federal Grant to support the program and this event.
Campbell said that as project coordinator, she had two big takeaways.
“One is that to make art happen, there are many people and organizations that contribute,” Campbell said. “There’s, of course, the artists, there are program participants, there’s clients in an organization, there’s organizational staff, there’s funders, there’s a huge constellation of support, and that’s what our sector needs to exist and to thrive.”
Shirley Ursu, a recreation coordinator at the Adult Day Program at the Herb Basset Home, said she learned that everyone has a contribution to make to the community.
“Over the years, everybody adds a little piece with their jobs that they do, with the families they’ve raised, with the events they’ve taken part in,” Ursu said.
The goal of the program was not just activity but relationships through conversation. Ursu said it shows everyone has something to share.
“And as we age, sometimes we feel like we’re not maybe as vibrant in our community any longer. This opportunity gets individuals back out in the community, reconnecting with those community connections. It made them feel like they belong and are a very vital part of our community.”
Lana Wilson of the Mann Art Gallery furthered the connection with the idea to create the quilt squares.
As the quilt squares were made, Gobeil wrote a poem to go along with each and that became a chapbook which is also called ‘The Quilt.’
Gobeil told the story of the project from her perspective before a poetry reading from the book. Ursu and Gobeil both read poems while framed versions of each square were distributed to residents in attendance.
Donny Parenteau performs “This is Us’ a song written in collaboration with residents during “The Quilt” on Sunday at Pineview Terrace.
Resident Ron Kristian holds up his quilt square as Shirley Ursu reads his poem during “The Quilt” on Sunday at Pineview Terrace
Gobeil said that writing the poems was about telling everyone’s story.
“What I learned from my involvement in this project is that everyone has a story and that story is so important to them,” she explained. “That story deserves to be told because everyone matters regardless of age, regardless of ability, circumstance, everyone matters in this community.
“When we take the time to honour people, that is time well spent, and that is meaningful to them, and they shine. People shine when they’re honoured.”
Gobeil said it was a privilege to connect with people on a deep level over the last few years and just listen to their hearts and the details of their lives.
“I think today, when I saw the expressions on family members’ faces and on clients’ faces, it just made me feel gratitude for being able to be a part of this,” Gobeil said.
During the reading of the poems people in attendance were visibly emotional.
“It reached my heart for sure,” Ursu said.
Parenteau came aboard and connected the poems and the quilt through song.
Parenteau performed the two songs written by residents and clients ‘The Quilt’ and ‘This is Us’ along with “Deep in the Heart of Saskatchewan. Parenteau, like Gobeil, learned about the stories of the residents and their hardships.
“Back in the day, a lot of them would be on farms, and the neighbours, that neighbourly aspect was always there where they helped each other. I think it was a different world,” Parenteau said.
“When they brought that to my attention, it had to be put into the song … and that’s where the quilt idea come from.”
The songs were written over two different sessions with the most recent one being for ‘The Quilt’ and the prior one being for ‘This is Us’.
“Basically, that all came just from sitting and talking to them after six months and hearing stories,” Parenteau explained. “As I’d hear stories, I’d jot down ideas. I always had those ideas in my head and I’d just bring that back home and create the song and just tell the story.
“(It’s) kind of speaking for all of them. right, in a song.”
Parenteau said he learned so much from residents.
“There’s one line in the song ‘This Is Us’ where it talks about sometimes Santa Claus wouldn’t come for me because there was one gentleman who actually said that,” Parenteau said. “There was times he said we didn’t have any presents under the tree at all. He said Santa Claus never came and I thought that was a line that stuck in my head.”
He said listening to those people and hearing their stories helped with the creative process.
“It’s all there in front of you,” he said. “You just got to look … and listen, open up your senses, and just focus on what they’re doing. That’s what it’s about. I mean, I’m only the vessel to write the song, they’re the ones that write it.
“It’s their words. It’s their stories, their ideas. I’m just piecing it together,” he added.
Campbell said that personally she took away that history shows how art is vital and always present.
“Regardless of what’s going on in our tumultuous world, art is always there because as humans, we have a need to show complexities of life, hardships of life, healing of life, the plainness of life, and poetry of life. That is also what connects us and makes our community strong,” Campbell said.
She explained that making art requires vulnerability and sharing personal experiences.
“To be vulnerable when making art—especially when you’re making it in a collaborative way—that needs to be underpinned by a strong and trusting relationship, and it takes time to build that strong and trusting relationship,” Campbell said.
Ursu was honoured to be a part of the entire project.
“It allowed us to get an insight into the lives of the seniors that we work with and the opportunity for them to share their life’s experiences with us (so) we could capture that and pull it together with the theme of quilt squares coming together through threads of the Adult Day Program, through Pineview Terrace Lodge, and working together to make something beautiful, something comfy and warm like a quilt.”
Campbell took away lessons about art and trust from the project.
“What I’ve learned in summary is that art is absolutely essential to humanity, to connecting us socially, and that it requires and it builds trust. I think that’s my big takeaway and that art happens anywhere and everywhere,” she said.
Gobeil said that she was grateful to all of the families for letting her be a part of the project.
“It’s just wonderful to be part of celebrating people. I’m honoured to be part of that. I’m so grateful for our funders, for Sask Lotteries, for the New Horizons for Seniors grant, for Common Weal and for Jesse Campbell, who support me in such big ways. I couldn’t do this without them. And also, Shirley Ursu, who works at the program, is a remarkable person and great to work with and I hope we can continue.”
Parenteau would gladly be invited back to collaborate again.
“I had a wonderful time doing this and I’m so proud to be a part of it and I hope this continues as much as they need me,” Parenteau said.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
