- Nourish Champions
Nova Scotia youth transform the Grow Eat Learn Trailer with public art
This past August, Nourish brought together four youth artists from around the province to paint the Grow Eat Learn mural. After collecting ideas from youth all summer, staff and artists Prince Churchill and Bria Chiome-Miller created a trailer design pulling elements especially from the submissions of the four artists who were selected to travel to Common Roots Urban Farm in Halifax, receive mural-painting training, and bring the design to life. It was an amazing opportunity to connect with youth from different communities. Over the course of the two-day mural painting, we pulled each artist aside to learn more about their interests in food, community, and climate action. To learn more, check out our new YouTube video or read excerpts from the interviews below.
Artist #1: Elora
What inspired you to make your design for the mural?
My design was inspired by community gardens, like the Common Roots Farm.
For my design, I drew a bunch of different plants and vegetables growing in the garden and then different pollinators, like bees, going and pollinating the different plants.
So I thought that that helped to kind of illustrate how lots of different elements go together towards making food, and I thought that that was fitting for the garden.
What is your favourite new thing that you learned?
I really liked learning how to use spray paint. I’ve never used spray paint really before, especially not in a mural way.
So learning how to use the different cans and use the paper as blockers and shields, that was really new to me. Also, creating stencils for the different smaller elements on the mural, like the carrots, was really cool too.
What is a food that you like to share with friends and family?
My family’s always been really big on sharing foods. Around the holidays we always have a big group supper together for all the different holidays, for Easter and Christmas and all things like that.
And at those we always have a bunch of different foods. One of my favorites to make with my family is to make roti. My family is Trinidadian and Guyanese, so we make a lot of roti and curry goat and different stuff like that that we’ll make together.
And it’s really special to watch my grandpa’s recipes and how he makes it, and then be able to pass that on.
Artist #2: ASPD
What surprised you about painting a mural?
I did not perceive how quickly we would go. The amount of progress that we made, especially the first day, really surprised me.
I guess I just wasn’t as optimistic as I should have been about how it was going to turn out. So, next time I do a big project like this, I think I should go in a little more expecting it to work out, and then I can enjoy it the whole way through.
What is your hope or dream for your community?
That’s a tough one.
I wish that there were more open spaces, especially places to work with your hands. I wish that people were more involved with production processes or making things themselves—like clothing and food, harvesting your own food, and also making your own cloth.
Just things that can make you appreciate your own skills, for one, and also what we can do when we all work together.
There’s no need for sweatshops, really. There’s enough people on Earth—we can do it.
I guess that’s my dream.
Artist #3: Isaac
What has been the biggest learning curve so far for you in this project?
The biggest learning curve has been I am very messy. I always knew I was messy, and that’s not new, but compared to the other artists, I have paint all over me and paint everywhere. My apron here, it’s just like another second canvas. And although that’s a good thing, I definitely had some spillage.
So that was a learning curve, as well as just the medium of spray paint. It is a very not forgiving medium. It requires patience, pressure, and slowing down.
And I think that’s an interesting lesson to learn with art, too, is to take your time, to breathe.
It was hot out, so there’s definitely times where I noticed I was getting tired, and I just had to be like, “Okay, take a five-minute break.”
And it was awesome because there were great people to talk with too, so it was kind of great to take a break because you got to learn about different artists and their skills, as well as the two amazing artists who were leading this.
What is your hope or dream for your community?
So my hope and dream for my community—I come from Cape Breton—and my hope is that as a province, we can all become more connected. If you’re from the Valley, from the edge of Nova Scotia by the mainland, that we all start really connecting in our environment and protecting what matters.
Because from coast to coast, from each side of this province and around the world, we have a very beautiful land here and very beautiful people, creatures, ecosystems, plants, the ocean—all these things that we need to prioritize in preserving. Especially when we have different big people coming in wanting to buy off land or not see the value in these things, especially with recent changes.
Art has been something that has also been dismissed. For us to really put forward the environment and showcasing it, that it is something worthy of our community to celebrate in, is to also value voices and the art, the beauty, the natural beauty that just comes from the land, and preserving and protecting that.
I hope for my community to take what I learned here today and bring it back home and do something similar, and to keep this going, because honestly, it’s important. If you come in with the right mindset, or at least the willing and curiosity to learn, you will connect. And I feel like that’s the mindset, as a province and as the world, we need to adapt to more.
Is that we just need to be curious about each other and know that we all want the same thing. We want to be happy, have hope, and go outside on a nice sunny day and there’d be beautiful trees and plants and birds singing. And that’s what brings us to feeling connected and feeling welcomed. We all have this shared thing.
Artist #4: Audrey
What is a food that you love to share or eat to celebrate?
I love me a good baby carrot. I feel like those are very fun to have on, like, a snack plate. I also really like cucumbers. Cucumbers are very yummy.
What is your hope or dream for your community?
I hope that more people become invested in climate action, but also in a community garden or an outdoor community space where people can gather.
Cause I feel like, especially as teens and young adults, we’re so used to having places where it’s either you’re at home or you need to spend money to be there.
But spaces like we’re in now, outdoors, they’re so important for teens and communities in general, and we definitely need more of them.
Do you have any messages for other youth?
Get invested in climate action. You may not think your voice has an impact, but if we get enough of us together, we have such a big impact.
