Art project connects Mill Woods residents to their new healthcare facility

When Nicole Petryliak first heard about the mural mosaic project planned for the new Community Health Centre at Covenant Wellness Community — Lakewood in southeast Edmonton, she immediately thought of the young people she works with. The idea of their artwork becoming a permanent part of the Community Health Centre felt like something special. It was a chance for teens who often feel left out to take ownership of their community and feel truly part of it.

"Right away, I thought it would be a great way for our kids to get involved in the community and to feel more connected," says Nicole, community youth engagement manager at Youth Unlimited. “Having their art permanently displayed somewhere and being able to come and show their kids one day, I thought that would be really special.”

Nicole's excitement reflects a much larger community movement that brought together hundreds of Mill Woods residents to create a unique art piece for the new Community Health Centre — Lakewood. The mural mosaic project invited community groups, families, youth and individuals to paint individual tiles. These tiles would be put together to form one big artwork that shows the diversity and unity of the Mill Woods community.

The idea for the project came from Covenant Health's vision for the Community Health Centre as a place where care meets community, says Lisa Mazur, site lead for the Grey Nuns Community Hospital. After seeing the success of a similar project at the Grey Nuns hospital, the planning team wanted to get the broader Mill Woods community involved in creating something meaningful for the new healthcare facility.

"We thought it would be really neat to use a similar idea but more focused on community involvement. We wanted to have a little piece of community members painted and hanging in the building," says Lisa.

Information about participating in the project was sent to all 13 community leagues within the Mill Woods President's Council, along with schools, churches, the library and youth organizations. The response was better than expected, says Lisa.

“We had a lot of community interest. It was unfortunate, but because we only had a certain number of tiles that we could paint, we had more people wanting to help than we had tiles available.”

Artist Lewis Lavoie of Mural Mosaic Inc designed the project around themes of healing, inclusion and community working together. The final image features hands of different colours reaching around a lotus flower, the Covenant Wellness Community logo. It shows the diversity that makes Mill Woods unique.

"The hands are very symbolic of healing, and I have three hands that are very different colours, so they’re also symbolic of inclusion and diversity," says Lewis, who has spent years perfecting the complex process of turning hundreds of individual paintings into one art piece that works together.

Each person who participated got a tile package with a specific colour theme — blue, green, brown or gold — but they were free to paint whatever they wanted within that colour palette. The mystery of how their individual piece would fit into the larger picture was part of the magic.

"It's amazing to see how these small, individual tiles of artistic expression come together to form a larger image that the artists themselves may not have realized their tiny piece would help create," says Lisa.

For Lewis, who has helped with similar projects worldwide, the true value lies in the shared sense of accomplishment that comes when individual contributions become part of something larger.

"I don't want people to feel like they are part of something I am creating. I want them to feel like we are all creating this together," he says. “The more it can be shared, the more it feels satisfying.”

For Katherine Raible, a local artist who organized a painting session for the Woodvale Community League, the project offered something increasingly rare: a chance for neighbours to come together regardless of age, background or artistic ability.

"We were able to get 25 people, kids and adults with different experience levels with art and just have a fun night painting together," says Katherine. The evening brought together people who had never met before, creating new connections within their own neighbourhood.

"It was really nice to see people excited about doing something fun for the community," Katherine says.

The project especially connected with Youth Unlimited's participants, about 37 youth aged 14 to 18. When organizers ran short on tiles, some youth chose to work together, creating collaborative art pieces.

"Some kids actually worked together on a single tile, which I thought was really cool," Nicole says. “They were still getting to have that experience, but they were also working together on a project and mixing their creations into one piece of art.”

The project fits perfectly with the Community Health Centre — Lakewood's mission to serve the diverse Mill Woods community, where residents represent many different cultural backgrounds and experiences. The combined total of 576 painted tiles is a permanent reminder of what's possible when a community comes together.

"I think when the community sees the final image that's created, it will really capture the diversity of the population this centre is built to serve, and that's beautiful," says Lisa.

For the Mill Woods community, this project is so much more than a piece of art. It's a symbol of belonging and community connection that will welcome patients and families for years to come.

"When we invest in our community and create these opportunities for people to work together and be part of something bigger than themselves, it creates a truly special connection," says Nicole. "It's all-around awesome."