Community creators wanted for community art project to mark Oshawa centennial

Wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve is one thing but being one of many putting that love on a paper quilt to help celebrate Oshawa’s 100th birthday is what truly makes a community art project.

The How Many Hearts Mural Project, led by local artist Mary Krohnert and the LivingRoom Community Art Studio, welcomes the community to the Delpark Homes Centre Saturday, July 20 to participate in the creation of a mixed media felted paper quilt that will be exhibited at the north-end recreation centre.

No previous art experience is required and participation is open to all ages, abilities and is free for everyone, explained Krohnert. “This project is very much a community art piece,” she said, noting it is one of three centenary public art celebrations that will mark Oshawa’s 100-year anniversary as a ‘city.’

Other community art projects commissioned to mark the centennial celebration include a new permanent art work at Ed Broadbent Waterfront Park, with the City working with Indigenous artists and others in the local art community on the piece; and a planned public art piece coming to the city’s future Downtown Urban Square that is the City’s first independent sculpture commission, signifying a “significant step” in enhancing the creative fabric of downtown.

The City declared in a statement that all three centennial art projects support a vision where public art is “innovative, diverse and accessible to create vibrant public spaces and meaningful connections.”

The How Many Hearts quilt is the only one of the three art projects that requires direct community involvement, noted Krohnert.

“We want as many people as possible to participate – all ages, abilities, all walks of life,” she said, adding that she chose paper over fabric for the quilt so the artists could have the opportunity to personalize their quilt squares and take the time to “engage” with the process.

“It’s a wet felting process, so it’s something really hands-on and tactile as well,” she said. “Everyone can take part – even if you don’t think of yourself as an artist.”

Participants are welcome to bring along small personal items that can be integrated into their paper quilt piece, such as paper, fabric, keys, coins, etc.

Mary Krohnert

Krohnert is the founder of the LivingRoom Art Studio, a community-based art hive in Oshawa that provides people with opportunities to make and share art for free.

The LivingRoom started as a weekly pop-up in 2013 and moved into its own studio on Simcoe Street South a year later where people could “walk in, grab materials and tools off the shelf to make whatever they wanted or needed to make in a supportive environment,” she explained.

“At The LivingRoom we believe that everyone is an artist and that when we make art together we change our world for the better, one creation at a time.”

The studio welcomed some 15,000 people a year over the next five or six years but with the onset of the pandemic in 2020 the studio space became “no longer safe or suitable” and was closed. Now Krohnert and her team travel to events around the city and region in an instantly recognizable bus and bring the art to the people.

An Art Therapy major and classically trained actor, Krohnert discovered community engagement through art as her true passion and has been welcoming the community – especially among the vulnerable population downtown – since arriving in Oshawa.

That passion is also contagious and she hopes it spreads to the community participation for the How Many Hearts project. “All we’re asking for,” Krohnert said, “is for people to put their ‘hearts’ into it.”

Oshawa also commissioned a local artist to design an official enamel pin to commemorate the centennial. Send Flowers, from local artist Chrrie, celebrates Oshawa’s iconic peony on a pin as a keepsake for residents.

For more information about the art projects and other centennial initiatives, visit Oshawa.ca/100.