Submitted by Sumitra Robertson
At the end of June Peter Geller was looking for a more social team meeting for the 11 members of the Vice Provost Office.
Rebekah Brackett, the Indigenous Academic Success Cohort Program Coordinator, invited colleagues to an artist skill share she was leading for the Abbotsford Arts Council in early June. Deb Greenfield then suggested she do one for the social.
Sumitra Robertson suggested the office share a pandemic story and maybe try a craft everyone could participate in. She floated a theme and the idea that the office collate their creations to form something together. Rebekah was delighted to prepare something and the team of three went to work organizing the social team meeting.
Once the art form and theme was set, the office, now scattered from Powell River to Chilliwack, was asked to scour their closets for art supplies. As paintbrushes were not found, it became clear that there was going to be some work putting packages of art supplies together. How to proceed? With a sketch of a plan, some scrunched grocery bags, masks, and a few empty toilet paper rolls, Rebekah and Sumitra ventured out of their home offices to meet at Abbotsford’s family-run HOFA Art Supplies & Framing. It was the first non-grocery store either of them had been to since remote work had started. HOFA was only too delighted to assist with the purchase, even providing a discount. They then drove to Abbotsford campus to put packages together for most of the team members. Gina and Abdula of Security were very helpful unlocking doors, and gently reminding them to stay socially distanced as they counted pens, printed photos, and looped painters tape round toilet paper rolls. Abdula assisted opening different offices so they could safely deliver supply packages for the watercolour skill share that was to come.
On June 23 the Vice Provost’s BlueJeans meeting started with some entertaining stories of drive-by birthdays and free groceries in this new nothing-like-normal. Rebekah began by teaching the group how to use and blend their two watercolour pencils on a piece of watercolour paper. Everyone received one green and one red watercolour pencil. Watercolour paper is slightly textured so she had to carefully describe how to properly tape down the bits of paper. There were only two provided!
Then came the hard part…copying one of three hummingbird photos (chosen, as reflected in UFV’s Coat of Arms, as a sign of joy and resilience) onto the paper and using the watercolour pencils to fill it in and paint it. In 45 minutes Rebekah led the team through this with aplomb. She felt the biggest challenge was only being able to monitor the work by watching the tops of people’s heads on her screen. For the rest of the group, it was all consuming. The time flew by.
“It was a lot of fun and so relaxing…especially since I was right in the middle of my finals that week for school,” Casandra Hincks said.
Peter Geller appreciated the skill share.
“I really enjoyed the chance to focus on a creative project,” he noted.
This remote team exercise brought the office together in a new way. The team is now looking forward to doing something else creative in tandem this autumn.