Saturday morning at the gazebo, about fifteen neighbours, adults and kids, came out for Sustainable Art and Storytelling with the Art & Creative Skills Collective, organized by SHCA Social Director Aroop Rayu and hosted with support from Park People.

It was a small, unhurried morning. No stage, no schedule to race through. Just a circle of people under the gazebo, some paint, some seeds, and a couple of hours to slow down together.

Grounding first, then stretching

Iman started the group the way she starts every session: grounding, then a proper stretch. Everyone joined in, kids included, arms out across the brick circle while the morning sun came through the beams.

Neighbours of all ages standing in a circle under the gazebo, arms stretched across their chests during the warm-up

Then everyone talked about the planet

Once the group had settled onto the benches, the conversation started: what does it actually mean to look after the world we live in, and how does each of us already do it?

Every single person in the circle spoke. Not a lecture, not a Q and A, just a room full of neighbours taking a turn. Composting. Walking instead of driving. Reusing what would have gone in the bin. Growing something. The small habits people rarely say out loud turned out to be the whole point.

Iman standing in front of the group under the gazebo, leading the conversation while neighbours listen from the benches

Paint, pots, and a table full of colour

Then the table came out: acrylics, watercolours, brushes, potting mix, and a stack of plain terracotta pots waiting to be turned into something.

A young participant choosing colours at the supply table set up beside the gazebo

Kids and adults spread out along the benches and got to work. Some went straight for flowers and ladybugs, some went abstract, some just kept mixing colours to see what came out.

Adults and children painting terracotta pots together along the gazebo benches

And then the payoff: a whole row of finished pots lined up along the table, no two the same. Ladybugs and dragonflies, a field of white daisies, gold splatter, butterflies, painted hills.

A row of finished hand-painted terracotta pots lined up along the table, each one decorated differently

Wild seeds, planted to take home

Every pot got filled with soil and planted with wild seeds, then went home with the person who painted it. That was the idea behind the whole morning: the art does not stop when you leave the park. It sits on a windowsill or a back step, and in a few weeks it grows something.

Neighbours chatting under the gazebo at the end of the morning, snacks and painted pots in hand

Thank you

A morning like this only happens because someone organizes it. Thank you to Aroop Rayu, SHCA Social Director, who put this one together and brought it to the gazebo. Thank you to Iman and the Art & Creative Skills Collective for running it, to Park People for supporting it, and to everyone who came out and made the circle a real one. About fifteen people, adults and kids, and by the sound of it everybody enjoyed themselves.

If you missed this one, keep an eye on the events page. And if there is something you would like to see run at the gazebo, tell us: email [email protected]. If there is interest, we will find a way to make it happen.