Rising, artwork at West Richmond Community Centre.

When visitors look into the artwork that adorns the entrance stairwell of the West Richmond Community Centre, they might just see a little bit of themselves in it. Rising is the result of a community art project led by Vancouver-born artist Jeanette G. Lee which encouraged community members of all ages to contribute ideas and designs, and even features silhouettes of community centre users.

 Lee involved community members from a broad range of ages and backgrounds at each stage of the art project, from generating ideas to creating the physical work itself.

“The helpers were all different. There were seniors from the centre, school kids from grades 4–7, two preschool classes and teenagers from the youth group,” says Lee.

Preparations for the artwork began in the summer of 2013 and have involved multiple hands-on workshops to generate ideas and build the artwork.

“I was picked for the project at the start of the summer,” says Lee. “We met to discuss plans at the start of the fall, then in October and November, we did workshops with the kids at their school, and I asked them for ideas.”

There was a more concrete concept in November, and work to put it together began in February. The kids had put their ideas down in an earlier workshop, and then were given the cut steel to paint their ideas on.

The resulting work, which features steel silhouettes, paintings and words from community centre users, may now be seen at the entrance to the centre.

Public ideas shape community gardens

School children putting personal stamp on Lee’s Work.

This is not the first time that Lee has drawn inspiration and ideas from the community. She was given the task of redesigning part of East Richmond’s Nature Park in 2011 and decided to involve the community, holding sessions with elementary school students and incorporating ideas from their drawings into her sculptures.

“I asked if I could use the community for ideas and help, and they said yes,” Lee says. “There was positive support, but there was a little nervousness, as no one knew how exactly it would turn out. We were using kids, but they didn’t want it to look like a kid’s work.”

The end product turned out to be Green Symphony, seven sculptures located around the park, representing life in the area.

“The best part was working with everyone,” says Lee. “We must have gone through a thousand emails. We want people to take ownership. It’s their park, so we let them use their ideas to help decorate it.”

Representing the whole community

For the Green Symphony project, Lee picked the community to help her; this time, for the West Richmond Community Centre artwork, the community picked her.

“A jury was selected with a representative from each section of materials needed for the project – someone with steel, someone with wood and so on,” she says.

Artists applied for the job of leading the project, and Lee was the one selected.

For Lee, the project was like putting together a piece of music, creating harmony from the multiple ideas brought to the project by her community partners.

“We tried to include everyone’s ideas. It’s like music, when everything comes together it is perfect and beautiful, but each note is different, each idea is different, and together the ideas formed this beautiful piece,” says Lee.