New Sandwich Town arts program aims to harness the power of drawing

Windsor Public Library John Muir Branch in Windsor, Ont. on Sept. 18, 2024. (Ricardo Veneza/CTV Windsor)

A new after-school program aims to put the power of drawing in the hands of kids in Windsor’s west-end.

On Tuesday, Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) announced the new Sandwich Visionaries drop-in arts program would run for 24 weeks, thanks to a $135,000 grant from the Community Benefits Plan, funded through the Gordie Howe International Bridge project.

“A program like this is super beneficial to a community,” said Marc Ngui, the program facilitator for the project, in an interview with CTV News. “It sort of helps people imagine their neighbourhood in different ways and the potential for what a neighbourhood can be.”

The free art classes are run out of the John Muir branch of the Windsor Public Library every Monday and Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Kids of all ages are welcome, as well as parents, to take part in the workshops covering basic drawing principles, techniques and exercises.

A mural mock-up created through the Sandwich Visionaries program at the John Muir library branch in Windsor, Ont. on Sept. 18, 2024. (Ricardo Veneza/CTV Windsor)

One of the exercises sees participants create mural mock-ups for buildings in the neighbourhood, meant to communicate pride and reflect their own ideas of improving the area in which they live.

Ngui described it as harnessing the power of drawing.

“It creates a sense of personal agency and capacity so that people can sort of deal with these problems when they come up,” said Ngui. “I think one of the great values that art brings to culture is problem solving.”

The program officially launched on Sept. 4.

It’s currently only funded through the program’s initial phase, but AWE hopes to see it continue beyond its inaugural run.

"We want to continue the program and hope we are able to secure other forms of community support for it," said Laura Service, the head of development and marketing at AWE, in an email to CTV News. "We are excited to show the impacts of the program to prospective public and private sector supporters."

Ngui hopes it can grow to other neighbourhoods across Windsor.

“Every neighbourhood could probably use community design projects where you get people thinking about how to better their neighbourhood,” said Ngui. “As a community, I think that’s a very powerful sort of way of going about things.”

“When you can get a group of people working together, that kind of amplifies the whole creative process and when you get a whole community working together, that actually changes the city,” said Ngui.

In a news release, AWE describes the program as an opportunity to build skills and promote curiosity.

“AWE is delighted to engage the youth of Sandwich West through this program and inspire these youth to grow through the power of art,” said Jennifer Matotek, the executive director of AWE.

The program is also billed as a chance to enhance abilities in digital literacy, fine motor skills, and research by exploring craft practices like drawing and even quilting.