The Doors of Hope installation will be located on the University of St. Michael鱿鱼视频app College campus and will contain 140 doors produced by Catholic students from the Greater Toronto Area.
First held in Paris in 2002, Nuit Blanche, or Sleepless Night, is a dusk till dawn outdoor urban art exhibit which brings contemporary art into public spaces. The Toronto event, which is free to attend, will begin in the evening on Oct. 5 and continue until the sun rises on Oct. 6 across the city鱿鱼视频app downtown core.
鈥淚f you look at it there are kids from kindergarten to Grade 12 that are going to be represented,鈥� said Maria Tavares, a consultant with the Toronto Catholic District School Board who led the project with teacher John Notting from Mary Ward High School. 鈥淚t is all about exposure to them and it will be something that they are never ever ever going to forget. The most amazing aspect about it is that they won鈥檛 realize how big this event is until that very night when they experience it for the first time; it has the potential to change their lives in so many ways.鈥�
Nuit Blanche will be the second major event for the Doors of Hope. The first, the Catholic Charities 100th Anniversary Dinner, was held in May and served as the catalyst which gave birth to the project.
Last October Tavares was approached by Mary Pen, a consultant hired by Catholic Charities, to help celebrate its 100 years of service.
鈥淪he wanted youth to get involved in something that would be creative,鈥� said Tavares. 鈥淢y first thoughts about this project was about who I would share this project with. In speaking with Mary she let me know that Catholic Charities doesn鈥檛 only service people in Toronto but people in the Greater Toronto Area like Durham Region, York Region and Dufferin-Peel.
鈥�(John and I) thought, 鈥極h my God those are our Catholic boards, they are part of our family, let鱿鱼视频app get them involved.鈥� 鈥�
During these early conversations which saw the number of participants grow, the scope of the target audience also expanded as the words nuit blanche began to be a regular phrase in their discussions.
While the project鱿鱼视频app physical presence rapidly evolved, the message that art serves the community by providing hope remained constant.
鈥淭he whole message behind the Doors of Hope is hope,鈥� said Tavares. 鈥淭here is always a hope that (students) can do something great in their community ... (and) for students to learn that artistic expression is something that is necessary to our well being as a society is highly important.鈥�
Denzelle Berroa, a Grade 9 student at St. Joseph鱿鱼视频app College School, worked on two doors last year while attending St. Mary鱿鱼视频app Elementary School. As a life-long hobby artist, Berroa knows the power of art when it comes to instilling and protecting hope. 鈥淚t is therapeutic because a lot of the times with certain feelings that I have I鈥檒l go and paint or draw something,鈥� she said.
鈥淔or students they can think of things that bring them down in their life and then with this they can put in their own ideas to give them hope.鈥�
And it wasn鈥檛 just students who were empowered with hope through the Doors of Hope project.
鈥淭his whole project started in October (2012) and it was a time when my dad was facing his passing,鈥� said Tavares, who worked on three doors with students at St. Josaphat Catholic School. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know if I was going to be able to carry this through but because of how involved I was with the people from Catholic Charities and the belief that I had in this project, it gave me hope to move forward. Being involved with students gave me hope that healing is possible if you do it together.鈥�
Those who visit the installation during Nuit Blanche will be encouraged to scribble their own message of hope onto the backs of the doors. Those messages of hope will make their way to the Where Faith Meets Pedagogy conference to be held Oct. 24 to 26.