Elsewhere Studios and the North Fork Valley Creative Coalition hosted the first ‘Village Building Convergence’ (VBC) in Paonia June, July, and August of 2013. The goal of VBC is to bring neighbors together to meet and get to know each other, and to plan and work together to carry out projects to improve, beautify, and make more user-friendly the places they live - to transform spaces into places, places which create a sense of communal stewardship and lived connection. For this project, the community came out to help build a wall and paint a mural in the alley-way next to Elsewhere Studios.
VBC began in Portland OR 13 years ago, where the community cooperative engagement has resulted in such things as community gardens, alternative structures like benches and kiosks, and painted intersections and murals. These are physical artifacts that encourage us to gather afterward so the stories broaden, deepen, and inspire.
Check out this awesome article about our Art Wall.
The Wall holds a story...
Buddha represents the stillness inside each of us,
providing a gateway into Elsewhere;
a creative space within ourselves.
When the hands of the community come together
we can create anything.
We can birth our dreams into reality.
The large hand is the community’s hands
united with a shared vision.
The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis,
from the dream,
and its flight path is around the sun!
Past the tree is our physical world,
our beautiful Lamborn Mountain
and North Fork Valley,
then altar boxes to leave gifts and prayers
for our loved ones who have left this physical plane,
and a bench to contemplate it all!