Our Speaker, Wendy Lees
Our Speaker, Wendy Lees
By Barb Burggraf
Ron Esch introduced a very special speaker—Wendy Lees who leads an engaging program for seniors in the East Village. Wendy developed “Create” in 2013 which is a free drop in art program for low income seniors. Wendy noted that 11,000 new affluent residents are moving into the East Village over the next few years. Wendy was concerned about the lack of services for low income seniors especially when the Golden Age Club closed its door in 2014 and is in receivership. Wendy offers creative art programs three days a week in the East Village for 125 seniors many of whom have no prior exposure to fine arts such as painting. Her aim is to improve lives through creative expression and community building in the East Village. There is always coffee and donated baking from cafes in East Village during each art session.
Wendy has a background in social work, group facilitation and is an artist too. She started her program on a shoe string and it has been very successful to date. The seniors in her program create art for sale. They keep the proceeds from their sales and feel pride in their accomplishments. Wendy arranges outings to art galleries and she has found venue partners such as Calgary Public Library where seniors have exhibited their art works. She gave a big thanks to Catherine Brownlee for putting her name forward to speak to Rotary and she acknowledged the Esker Foundation and their contemporary art gallery in Inglewood for their support. Wendy explained that creating art helps to create a sense of well-being in the seniors who participate. She is currently looking for a new location to deliver her program and she has come to the conclusion that the future sustainability of her program lies with social enterprise. She is working with the Centre for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University to find a solution to funding challenges she is facing. Listening to the amazing stories of seniors who have engaged with “Create” makes me hope that Wendy can relocate in the East Village and continue serving seniors and engaging them in creating art. Bob Pearson thanked Wendy for her inspiring talk and noted donation to CAWST has been made in her name.
Bob Pearson thanks our speaker, Wendy Lees