Parks are places where we can feel like we all belong! We love outdoor summer concerts, the markets, the nearby beaches, and just the warmth and friendliness of the people in our communities.
Stories and places in our communities provide numerous opportunities for creative, arts based learning and recreation! These locations are a joyful part of how we have been able to design and deliver Socially Integrated Creative Arts Programs for over two decades. In the photo below, we witness the celebration of a week-long story called the The Enchanted Kingdom. In the story the delight of nature is returned to the desert kingdom when the young princess asks the artist to paint birds on the castle wall. This starts a chain of natural elements returning to the kingdom – clouds, rain, flowers! “Nature through the eyes of a child is a magical thing!” says the artist. What better place than this park in the midst of Wolfville to celebrate magic!
The Alexander Society takes the opportunity whenever possible to bring the stories outside and into our lived environment. In 2004 we joined the excitement around the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Acadians to these shores. Inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline”, we used the Deportation of the Acadians as the theme of a week-long summer Creative Arts Program for teens with intellectual and physical challenges. On the last day of the program we went to the Grande Pre National Historic Park where we visited the replica of the Church. Examining the paintings inside the church brought home to many of the participants the depth & meaning of the story. The day was capped off with a picnic under the amazing willow tree that was purportedly planted by the Acadians!
