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The mosaic in the mall that means so much

OutLoud collaborated with local mosaic artist Carol Donald to create the piece

It’s fun and easy to cultivate a caring community through the power of collaborative art, just ask one of St. Albert's non-profit organizations.

The OutLoud crowd is filled with believers, especially after their experiences of working on a new tile, stone and glass mosaic piece recently installed on a wall at the St. Albert Centre. It shows two wonderful trees featuring some of the most diverse and beautiful leaves you’ve ever seen.

Credit goes to local artist Carol Donald who proposed the project in the first place. When she called Terry Soetaert, executive director of the Outloud Foundation for LGBTQ Community Supports and Services, he didn’t take much convincing.

“She, of course, is a great artist and had this idea of a mosaic. I kind of knew what a mosaic was, but she was like, ‘yeah, we should do this mosaic thing’,” Soetaert began.

He pointed out the group’s members didn’t need much convincing either. They seemed to really appreciate the opportunity to work together, he said, even if they weren’t necessarily all together at the same time thanks to the pandemic.

“It was the involvement with the kids that I really liked, just being able to get them to do something. We hadn't done anything like this before, and being able to work with a real artist gets some of the kids excited," he said. "It helps the kids who are more artistic out a whole lot, and brings up their belief that yeah, art is something that they could do for an actual living. I like that part.”

He noted OutLoud’s meeting space already has several murals on its walls, created by the youths themselves.

It was high on Donald’s list to work with the youths under the OutLoud banner, and not even a pandemic could prevent that seed from sprouting.

“I'm really happy with how it turned out. Because of COVID, of course, our plans changed. We were going to have bigger groups get together and make it a team thing, but we had to just do a couple of participants at a time and space them out, and so it took longer than expected, but that's okay,” she said.

Donald thanked the management team at St. Albert Centre for allowing the new diptych work called Cultivate a Caring Community to hang on its walls. The shopping centre is no stranger to such community connections: a previous work by high school students was installed there several years ago. Now, the two works can be viewed by mall patrons near the Primary Care Network.

“2020 has reminded us of the importance of caring for each other. Regardless of how our paths have crossed, it is within everyone’s reach to cultivate a caring community,” reads the plaque installed with the beautiful, colourful and fun work of art.


Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

About the Author: Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ecology and Environment Reporter at the Fitzhugh Newspaper since July 2022 under Local Journalism Initiative funding provided by News Media Canada.
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