AHA! has had a variety of projects working with youth, seniors, people with dementia, community members of all ages.
Please click through on the project title to see details
Arts Health Antigonish (AHA!) presents New in Town…a Comedy Cabaret, written and created by Laura Teasdale, Justin Gregg and eleven new Antigonishers! Together they explore the comedic quirks of coming to a new country and navigating the culture, food, language, rules and customs.
The team is strongly supported by a whole slew of local community institutions, like ACALA, CJFX (who will air the radio version of the show), Antigonish Performing Arts Series, the Sisters of St. Martha, Mulgrave Road Theatre, Antigonish Heritage Museum and Antigonish Community Transit.
Dance fosters socialization & well-being while improving gait, mobility, and balance. If you live with movement challenges, this class is for YOU!
Art Larks! offers online arts programming to anyone over 55 years. If you enjoy a little fun and friendship while singing, dancing and creating, then Art Larks! is for you! Led by artists from across NS (and beyond, with NS connections), Art Larks! seeks to bring people together for music, visual arts, poetry, dance, story and laughter. If you'd love to join but are facing barriers to doing so, please contact us. Stay tuned.... Art Larks! Encore coming in 2022!
Since October of 2016, Arts Canopy has been providing arts based programming in music, visual arts, dance/movement, and poetry for people with dementia. It addresses the mental wellbeing of this growing population by providing meaningful ways for them to remain active, to retain their dignity, to encourage social engagement, to discover other ways of remembering, along with offering opportunities for creative expression. A team of professional artists and therapeutic artists from the local area facilitate Arts Canopy programming and offer creative spaces to enjoy the moment with others. Programs run once a week for ten weeks.
This project involved eight local immigrant women in a ten-week writing workshop, followed by five weeks of rehearsals, culminating in a show on Feb. 8th and 9th 2019, at the Bauer Theatre, part of the 2018-19 Theatre Antigonish season.The Shoe Project Antigonish goals were to empower a culturally diverse group of immigrant women; to collaborate on a communal project to enhance women’s inclusion and social participation; and to value stories of difference within a small town in rural Nova Scotia.
AHA! provided a visual artist in residence at St. Marth’s Regional Hospital to work directly with patients and their families in making, viewing and reflecting on art in both one-to-one and small group settings. Art activities for both individual patients and small groups exploring countless ways in which visual arts and storytelling can enhance our health – of the body, mind and spirit. The art in healthcare experience has a positive impact on patients by aiding in their physical, mental, and emotional recovery, including relieving anxiety and decreasing the perception of pain. Art can serve as healing tool, reducing stress and loneliness and providing opportunities for self-expression.
The goal of Musical Pathways was to ascertain whether extra, out of school, music programming could assist with learning outcomes in youth. AHA! was hoping to show that extra music could reduce youth anxiety, help with the development of healthy coping strategies, improve self esteem and self expression, build leadership skills, support social-emotional learning and healthy socialization, and support knowledge retention and application.
View AHA! Projects since 2013