Where Art and Care Meet

A unique project in British Columbia is leveraging the power of creativity for better health.

When Chad Hershler was first called to a small community on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast 17 years ago, he couldn’t imagine that it would one day lead him to an exploration of how the arts can support a healthcare system in crisis.

But that’s exactly where he is these days with a unique project called Who Cares?

It all started when Chad and his wife, Sandy—co-founders of Deer Crossing the Art Farm, a unique arts organization that uses creativity to build connections with the local community—were inspired to collaborate with a local care home in the community of Gibsons.

“We noticed the positive impact that creative engagement had on people living with dementia, their care partners and healthcare workers,” Chad explains. “We wondered how that practice could be expanded, but we didn’t want to impose another program on an overburdened care system. We realized that others felt the same way, and so we turned our energy towards the community.”

With federal funding in hand from the College and Community Social Innovation Fund, Chad and his partners from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Douglas College and the Seniors Planning Table embarked on an innovative three-year community-based research project.

The goal? To use art and design to get a greater number of people in the community engaged in senior care, relieving the existing pressure points in traditional healthcare settings.

“Art making is a gateway to change,” says Chad.

“This project is not about intellectualizing a solution to a problem, it’s more visceral than that. Creativity allows connections to happen in communities and fosters relationships in powerful ways.”

While the notion of marrying the non-linear world of art with the more linear world of research may sound less than intuitive to some, it is an evolving practice taking shape in many other communities.

For example, take the Comox Valley in British Columbia, where a partnership between a local art gallery and a college has brought about new insights on the drug poisoning crisis. Or Quebec, where a partnership between science and circus arts is shedding new light on managing the St. Lawrence River ecosystem.

In fact, since the Canada Council for the Arts first became a partner in the College and Community Social Innovation Fund, 10 such arts-based research projects have been funded across the country.

“These projects are grounded in solving big, complex social problems,” explains Marilyn Desrosiers, Director of the Canada Council’s Supporting Artistic Practice program, who is in charge of the Strategic Innovation Fund. “It’s about sharing knowledge and ways of doing from the arts sector and leveraging the power of creativity to foster change in broader society.”

Back on the West Coast, Chad and his partners are still busy rolling out project activities in the local community and assessing completed ones.

“We’ve tried a few different creative activities to engage people and to encourage them to share their experiences around caregiving, including pop-up events and interactive installations at the food bank, the mall and local businesses,” says Chad.

While some delicate wording is sometimes needed to encourage people’s comfort in collaborating with a professional arts group, in the end, he feels the strong visual appeal and friendliness around creative activities is a big draw.

One recent installation to gather input from the community, called The Listening Tree (a strong visual installation and interactive experience that included quotes and questions on caregiving) really drew people in to fill in the empty spaces left on the tree leaves—security guards and Grade 8 students alike.

“We now have this research data from the community. It can be analyzed, but more importantly, we have storytelling from people’s lived experiences that can be gifted back to them and a new level of insight around the importance of relationship building and collaboration that’s being shared with policymakers.”

So, will all this make a change for the patients and caregivers Chad first saw back at the care home all those months ago?

“While the project isn’t done yet, we’re excited to be seeing some promising change,” explains Chad.

That includes a change in the way some of the organizations and policymakers involved in senior care are connecting, greater respect for the relationship building that’s been done with people in the community and some recognition that you just cannot solve old problems using the same old tools.

“We’re still building credibility around this kind of innovative problem-solving, but there’s a strong case to be made here for the arts in social change, and we could not be doing it without our partners and this funding support.”