Hey, check out our GoFundMe campaign for MECA!
MECA
Meegan Everyday Creativity Arts
Helping creatives like Al, a poet and artist, sheltering in tents in Meegan aka Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, B.C.
There are some brilliantly creative minds among the unhoused in Canada.
MECA helps with supplies and community support for their creative activities.
We’re hoping that when private landlords see how creative and productive these individuals are, they will be more willing to show them rentals, and make a rental agreement with them.
Activities may include any artistic discipline or creative skill any participant may choose to share.
Music
Theatre
Visual Art
and
Creativity Inherent in Survival Skills.
Check out this video where Al shows us some of his paintings, and talks about how he makes artist’s canvas from mushroom skins!
Al’s mushroom skin canvases and paintings are just one example of how these unhoused individuals use their artistry and creativity.
Not only does it help them survive the harsh elements of living outdoors, but it also gives them greater life-purpose, and supports their mental health.
I’ve spent many hours with the people residing in the park. I sat with them to write the first draft of this project and have returned many times to collaborate with others who have added to it. I’ve conversed with about half the current park population, and there’s a lot of enthusiasm for it.
It’s essentially a creative skill-sharing project.
It provides shelter (2 X 8×10 pop-up canopy tents)
and supplies
and a regular daily activity (4 days a week)
with a couple of volunteer skill-sharing facilitators!
Creative skills they’ve offered to share include:
Art-Making (beading, textile arts, painting, drawing, carving, sculpting)
Creative Writing (journaling/spoken word)
Music (playing instruments, Songwriting, jamming, performance)
Podcast (storyboarding, recording, live)
Theatre (plot and character development, role play, story development, improv, movement)
Survival Skills (mending, food prep, mask-making)
Participants may include, tho are not limited to the approximate 80+ individuals currently sheltering in Beacon Hill Park, and their housed allies.
The money raised will go towards buying equipment and supplies, and any left-over will go towards stipends and/or housing for the participants.
Equipment and supplies we are seeking to acquire:
+ Two sturdy pop-up canopy tents, that will withstand west coast wind and rain and keep people dry, and maybe even warm, while they create within their own community bubbles, respecting COVID precautions.
+ Art supplies: paint and canvases, brushes, sketch books and paper, art pencils, pens, chalk etc., textile art supplies etc
+ A couple large beverage thermos to keep hot beverages
+ Hot beverages and snacks
+ Folding plastic chairs
…and many things not yet thought of!
These people need somewhere to be artistic, creative beings.
MECA wants to help with that.
Can you, will you, please help us?
MECA is a NOH : AHS project
Alison Boston is the founding president of NOH : AHS
NOH : AHS is a registered not-for-profit in British Columbia, Canada.
NOH : AHS 