Paws and paintbrushes: How two charities joined forces to make a big difference
Happy Paws Happy Hearts (HPHH) and Art from the Margins (AFTM) are both local charities working with socially isolated people. While their offerings are vastly different, they collide when it comes to their shared goal: to create a meaningful and rewarding experience where participants can connect over a mutual love of paws or paintbrushes.
Mixing animals and art to create the best of both worlds, AFTM collaborated with HPHH for four wonderful workshops. The first workshop saw HPHH bring some ‘furry’ special guests to AFTM – guinea pigs – which they brought to life on their canvases. In the remaining three sessions, AFTM transported their participants to HPHH to play with, observe and help socialise our rescue puppies and kittens – a rewarding experience for all.
AFTM is a not-for-profit creative initiative of Wesley Mission Queensland (WMQ). AFTM supports, exhibits and promotes artists with vast life experiences, circumstances and identities who want to connect with others and make art within an inclusive community. Similarly, HPHH runs group sessions catering to people of all abilities and goals. For participants who are interested in both paws and paintbrushes, these crossovers have been a treat.
Public Program Engagement Officer at AFTM, Soraya del Castillo, said the crossover came about from listening to their artist community and noticing that animals and eco-art played a significant role in their art making and storytelling.
“At AFTM, we look for opportunities to better understand our artists and the world they live in, so we reached out to HPHH to set up an initial meeting and, through that conversation, we knew that we aligned. HPHH and AFTM both work with people's intrinsic passions and focus on skill building across a range of capacities, all while having fun, meeting people and being part of something bigger than yourself,” Soraya said.
“Art is a great communicator; we can talk about hard and lovely subjects and working with animals is the same.”
Partnerships and Grants Manager at HPHH, Felicity Hibbins, said it has been wonderful working collaboratively with AFTM and providing creative opportunities for participants from both organisations.
“It has been a pleasure to watch participants develop new skills and have fun whilst drawing, screen printing or taking photos of rescue animals. I’m looking forward to future collaborations,” Felicity says.
Student Social Worker at AFTM, Megan Janse Van Vuuren, was onsite to assist the participants and help facilitate the workshops at HPHH. Reflecting on all the sessions, she was delighted when talking about all the happy faces she saw on the bus home from the events.
“I feel like it gives them a sense of empowerment to cross over the different worlds of art therapy and puppy therapy. It gives (the participants) the ability to have that intersectionality that other people have easy access to,” Megan said.
“We can go to a Paint and Sip for example, but a lot of this comes with mobility issues or other limitations. Having these kinds of events allows people who may be disadvantaged or limited in some capacity to explore more things and do more things.”
Talented artist and animal lover, Dot has been attending HPHH for a few months. He participated in an AFTM x HPHH workshop, helping the team create animal-decorated tablecloths that can be used at future HPHH events.
“It was really great. Even with lots of people around, it’s been really great to watch and learn from them,” Dot said.
“(I love art) because it’s fun to create something and feel inspired to do things. For me, a lot of the art I make is for other people. It’s fun to be able to do that for others. I put what they were thinking about into art and they’re able to connect through that.”
He loves dogs and has a puppy himself, whom he adores. One of his favourite things about HPHH is interacting with the animals, learning about their personalities and sharing this information with the other sessions.
“Being able to talk to the other groups about what the animals are like (is my favourite),” he says.
Inspired by the collaborations with HPHH, there is an upcoming exhibition – One of a Kind – with artwork inspired by the animals they worked with. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02FkifYBKEjXvSw9NDXtCJrsiSbNXFzvDd9sdyPfZxjGnWRv1aEXeSn9FtgTJCPQ6ml&id=100064911872994&mibextid=Nif5oz
To support AFTM, you can attend their events or exhibitions, buy some incredible art, or join one of their group programs. https://www.wmq.org.au/wesleyarts/visual-arts
To partner with HPHH or to enquire about partnership opportunities, please head to https://www.hphhfoundation.org/partner-with-us and fill in your information.