Greater Sudbury bus shelters are about to become a lot more informative, with giant posters espousing the importance of Junction Creek slated for installation over the next few months.
The posters for the Tiny Traces Along Junction Creek public poster exhibition will feature art by children, families and community members and will feature drawings and watercolours accompanied by quotes from children about the creek.
In addition to the bus shelter posters, a series of small posters will be exhibited in store fronts.
The project is an effort of Early Childhood Creative Collaborations in partnership with the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee, which received funding from Health Communities Canada.
“This community engaged project was designed as a response to challenges of isolation, online learning and mental health stress brought on by COVID,” according to a media release issued by Junction Creek Stewardship Committee.
“The aim of the project was to animate the creek system with educational and creative encounters. Local ecologies offer rich, complex experiences that bring us closer to understanding the world we live in and the complexity of our interconnectedness.”
The project also included taking in Sophie Anne Edwards, the lead author of “The Art of Land-Based Early Learning” books as their artist in residence. She supported the project by creating ecologically responsive invitations that changed regularly to keep participants returning to, learning from and with the ecosystem of the creek and surrounding green spaces.
“This has been an opportunity for children and families to follow their curiosities about the creek ecosystem, to learn about and care for the creek and to engage with art materials to document what they are learning and thinking,” according to the media release.
Creativity Boxes filled with art materials, inquiry guides and other things were installed along the creek near participating child-care centres and schools in Roxborough Greenbelt, Twin Forks and Garson.
The public poster project is a culmination of these efforts and is being curated in collaboration with graphic designer Karli Laamanen to design the posters.
The community will be invited to see how many they can find and upload their questions, comments and artwork using the QR code featured on the posters.
For more information on this project, visit the Early Childhood Creative Collaborations website at eccco.ca, their Facebook Page by clicking here and their Instagram page by clicking here.
