Former residents of Victoria Park Place showcase their talent in an art studio tour

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Carlo Cresta came through a rough patch in his life and it helped him to cope with the emotions he expressed through art.

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But, the 43-year-old Chatham man never dreamed he would have the opportunity to display his art in public.

Cresta is one of the former residents of the council-run Victoria Park Place (VPP) homeless shelter who were given the opportunity to showcase their art during a weekend Art Studio Tour, presented by the Arts & Culture Network CK.

When presented with this offer, Cresta said “I’ve been drawing my whole life . . . their drawings just for me.

“I didn’t think much of them,” he said.

Home Grown Talent is the name of the art exhibition that Cresta is part of, which is on display in Studio One at the Chatham Cultural Centre. The free event, featuring 28 artists and five galleries, continues from noon to 4 pm on Sunday. Details can be found at www.ckartstudiotour.com.

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The Home Grown Talent portion of the tour was the result of municipal staff from both the Chatham-Kent housing department and the employment and social services department volunteering their time to make it happen.

Polly Smith, director of employment and social services, said staff have noticed since the VPP opened that “a lot of people like to make art and we have some really talented people staying there.

“We thought it might be interesting for those artists to have an opportunity to be part of a studio tour, but they don’t necessarily have a studio,” she said.

Smith said participating artists who have previously stayed at VPP came up with the name Home Grown Talent, “because they are local people from this community and they are local artists.”

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Organizers of the studio tour were spoken to by city staff who welcomed the artists to participate and also helped with the application process, she said.

The cultural center was approached to see if space was available and “everything came together really easily,” Smith added.

Since his divorce several years ago and a recent stay at the Victoria Park Place shelter, Cresta said, “I realized that I could almost use (art) as therapy.”

He also said that he was able to express his problems and issues through his art.

“You put all those emotions out there,” he said.

Cresta hopes that his art can help others and believes that many people have difficulty expressing themselves.

“I hope that maybe they see something (that I drew) and get a feeling out of it and know that maybe they’re not the only ones,” Cresta said.

Smith said the plan is to grow this initiative and involve more artists.

She added that the artists worked hard and produced works that are “very well priced and ready to sell”.

Cresta said he is definitely interested in participating in another art exhibition.

“If I can get someone to look at something and they feel something from it, that’s great,” he said.

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