N.B. non-profit highlights talent of artists with intellectual disabilities

Creative Connections cultivates art and friendships for adults with intellectual disabilities.

It was nearly a decade ago when L’Arche Saint John, a non-profit organization who aims to share the gifts and talents of adults with intellectual disabilities, was looking for ways to welcome people while also building skills and friendships.

Gray Gillies Mott and her team realized that when themselves and those with intellectual disabilities worked on art projects everyone could be involved and enjoy art the way they see it.

Nine years later Creative Connections boasts 16 talented artists who from Monday to Friday come together at their uptown studio on Prince William Street to create masterpieces with one another.

“I feel so lucky to be spending my days here at Creative Connections,” says Gillies Mott. “It has the vibes of when you’re together with your cousins or friends you’ve known your whole lives. You’re teasing each other and you’re just supporting each other through good and bad.”

Not only is creative connections a studio, but also an art gallery with various works plastered across the walls of the uptown space.

Artists get the chance to work on their own creations, and also have opportunities to learn from professionals to enhance their artistic journeys.

Patrick McGrath has been an artist in the program since day one, which he jokes basically makes him one of the founding members.

He says his favorite part about the program is making new friends, each of whom he says has a unique personality.

“I like painting and I like draw doodling and sometimes I like to write certain things, like news reports about an upcoming trip or an upcoming big purchase I’m about to make,” he says when asked what he enjoys creating most.

“I have lots of new friends from here,” says artist Krista Simmons. “I love to come here.”

Adrian Morgan is also a long-time member of Creative Connections. He enjoys getting to colour and work on his different drawings.

“I love doing art because it makes me happy,” smiles Morgan. “Creative Connections is a really good place, and it makes me inspired by doing some artwork.”

Gillies Mott says it’s the artists and relationships with one another that have made the studio such a success. She says the relationships help adults with disabilities feel a sense of belonging and that they can be comfortable with being themselves.

She says the world can sometimes be very isolating, especially for those with any sort of a difference.

“Having Creative Connections means that the people who come here get to build real, meaningful friendships, across differences,” Gillies Mott says. “It also means that their families are seeing them in a different light, and the city is seeing them in a different light.”

“For the artists who attend Creative Connections, for lots of them it’s the only place that they go independently to be with friends. We believe in mutually transforming relationships where people come together and change each other’s lives.”

Each year, Creative Connections hosts an art show at the Saint John Arts Centre that features a wide range of work done by the artists. For those interested in picking up a piece themselves, they can do so at anytime by browsing the online gallery or popping into the uptown location.

“We’re always overwhelmed by people who say I had no idea that this talent was in our community,” Gillies Mott beams. “And I feel very proud to be a part of it.”

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