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Art and Wellness Intertwine in New Community Center Exhibit
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Clockwise from Top Left: Busy Mom by William Hernandez Warm Retro by Valerie Sjodin Turner Creek Primping by Lieta Gratteri Peppery Plummy by Linda Jerome Akbar by Patricia Krishnamurthy Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeff Jurrens As Above So Below by Bruce Reed What can help us lower our anxiety and stress levels, boosts our thinking skills, and positively impact our health and well-being? Research has shown a trip to an art gallery can do all of these and more. Have you ever looked at a landscape painting and wondered about the place captured within the frame, or felt its familiarity as it connected to your memories? Has an artist’s depiction surprised you or invited you to see something in a new or different way? Have you moved a little more calmly or intentionally as your eye travelled from artwork to artwork along a gallery wall? Did you feel your breath slow and deepen as you relaxed in the arrangement of colors? Art impacts our health in positive ways. A new exhibit in a new setting offers this for the community, particularly one that brings together a broad range of artistic viewpoints and voices in one place. Opening to the public in early 2021 (or as soon as it is safe to do so), the Hidden Creek Community Center will feature a harmonious integration of fitness, wellness, and creativity throughout its beautiful new communal spaces. As an inaugural exhibit, Creative Terrain: A Celebratory Exhibition of Diverse, Regional, Artistic Voices brings together an array of over 40 artists working in a variety of two-dimensional media. From paintings to prints and illustrations to mixed-media collages, the exhibit adds color, vibrancy, and warmth to the heart of the new center. “Hidden Creek Community Center is a place where the community can gather, engage with each other in meaningful conversations, and exercise the mind, body, and spirit. This art exhibit represents a diversity of expressive creativity as seen from both established and newly emerging local artists,” notes Bill Rothchild, Hidden Creek’s new manager. Encounters with art also connect us to others and to ourselves. We learn more about both through the process. A center focused on community health and well-being is an ideal place for this exchange to occur. These connections began even before the exhibit opens, as the Hillsboro Parks & Recreation’s Cultural Arts division developed the exhibit. Local artists were invited to participate, and in turn encouraged to nominate another artist of their choosing. Gallery Specialist Karen De Benedetti remarks, “This was a wonderful way to get to know so many artists in the region, connecting
both with emerging artists and artists who have been working in our community for years. Though we have not met in person, it has been like sharing time with old friends, reconnecting about their art.” According to Cultural Arts Manager Michele McCall-Wallace, “By focusing on the connections between the artists in our community to develop the exhibit, this also offered an opportunity to feature more artistic voices and expand Hillsboro’s cultural and creative community connections.” From self-taught to professionally trained, the novice to the professional, Creative Terrain is rich in its diversity and spotlights each artist and their unique practices, perspectives, and creative contributions. The art in Creative Terrain ranges from cultural icons and abstract impressions to paintings of local flora and fauna, with the works depicting our natural beauty, celebrating cultural backgrounds, and exploring personal experiences, emotions, and feelings. Working from local and cultural geographies to terrains of personal memories, the featured artists share their passions and insights about the world around us, celebrating the importance of creativity as an inclusion of wellness. The exhibit is an opportunity for all of us to share in exploring different perspectives and serves as a platform for many engaging future conversations. The staff at Hidden Creek and in Cultural Arts look forward to sharing a community-focused inclusive experience with the community. When the doors at Hidden Creek open (hopefully soon), Creative Terrain will be there to greet visitors, providing a way for the community to experience, celebrate, and engage the diverse, regional, artistic voices in Creative Terrain, while experiencing the positive impacts that art can bring to their wellbeing. To learn more about the Hidden Creek Community Center, and when you might be able to visit, go to
Hillsboro-Oregon.gov/ParksRec.
