Some 25 peo­ple had their lives trans­formed by an art and well­ness work­shop ti­tled, “From Bro­ken to Beau­ti­ful II”, which was held at the pic­turesque Waves Restau­rant and Bar in Black Rock, To­ba­go, on Sat­ur­day 21 May 2022. 

The event was the re­sult of Cho­sen Hands Art and Well­ness NGO team­ing up with Women of Sub­stance and Trinit­i­ca In­ter­na­tion­al, to bring its heal­ing through art pro­gramme to To­ba­go.

The work­shop host­ed sur­vivors of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, health care pro­fes­sion­als, so­cial work­ers, of­fi­cials from youth and women groups and mi­grants from the Latin Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty based in To­ba­go.  

A re­lease from Cho­sen Hands ex­plains this re­cent ini­tia­tive—the brain­child of Ani­ka Plow­den-Corentin, the NGO’s cre­ative di­rec­tor—marks the third in­stal­ment in the se­ries of gen­der pos­i­tive ini­tia­tives by Cho­sen Hands to sup­port, em­pow­er and in­spire vul­ner­a­ble groups. 

Anika Plowden Corentin, Chosen Hands creative director, holds one of the butterfly paintings created during the art and wellness workshop, “From Broken to Beautiful II”, held on Saturday 21 May 2022. (Image courtesy Chosen Hands Art and Wellness NGO)

“The Waves Restau­rant and Bar lo­cat­ed at Black Rock, To­ba­go, pro­vid­ed the per­fect scenic back­drop for par­tic­i­pants to re­ceive the top­ics of the work­shop.  The sooth­ing sounds of the waves pro­vid­ed for restora­tion and re­ju­ve­na­tion of the mind, body and soul,” stat­ed the Cho­sen Hands re­lease.

Gold spon­sors of the event were COLFIRE, Waves Bar and Restau­rant, and Le Grand Courlan Spa Re­sort.

Op­er­a­tions Man­ag­er of the Waves Restau­rant and Bar, Le Grand Courlan Spa Re­sort, and Grafton Beach Re­sort, Ja­son Hadley, in­di­cat­ed:

“The ho­tel chain was pleased to sup­port such a time­ly and note-wor­thy cause to as­sist vul­ner­a­ble groups in the com­mu­ni­ty.”

A painting of a butterfly alighting on zinnia, created by one of the participants in the art and wellness workshop, “From Broken to Beautiful II”, held on Saturday 21 May 2022. (Image courtesy Chosen Hands Art and Wellness NGO)

The heal­ing ses­sion was guid­ed by Cho­sen Hands Di­rec­tor, Arveon Prout.  It be­gan with Mind­ful Me­di­a­tion by Fi­bromyal­gia Ac­tivist and Artist, Ter­ri Os­borne.

Au­thor, De­sign­er and Na­ture En­thu­si­ast, Se­ri­na Hearn—who is a mem­ber of Friends of Botan­ic Gar­dens T&T, and cu­ra­tor of the But­ter­fly Gar­den—gave an in­spir­ing fea­ture ad­dress to those in at­ten­dance.  Hearn used the anal­o­gy of the but­ter­fly as a sym­bol of hope and the ac­tu­al­iza­tion of the hu­man po­ten­tial to trans­form, de­spite life’s chal­lenges. 

Serina Hearn, curator of the Butterfly Garden, is surrounded by several pieces of art created during the art and wellness workshop, “From Broken to Beautiful II”, held on Saturday 21 May 2022. (Image courtesy Chosen Hands Art and Wellness NGO)

Lat­er, a “Paint & In­spire” ses­sion was led by Ani­ka Plow­den-Corentin, cre­ative di­rec­tor of Cho­sen Hands, who en­cour­aged the ladies to tap in­to their in­ner-selves to un­lock their cre­ative ex­pres­sion.

“As chil­dren we use art and cre­ativ­i­ty to make sense of our world. Some­where along the road of life, we lose that con­nec­tion. These ses­sions al­low us to re­con­nect with our core, our au­then­tic selves,” Plow­den-Corentin re­flect­ed.

The work­shop closed with an ex­pres­sion of grat­i­tude from Oni­ka Mars, the founder of the Women of Sub­stance NGO.  She in­spired the par­tic­i­pants to open their minds to new ways of nav­i­gat­ing tur­bu­lent sea­sons in their lives.

“Over­all, the op­por­tu­ni­ty pro­vid­ed a safe space where the women in at­ten­dance cre­ative­ly ex­pressed their con­cerns on sen­si­tive top­ics, as well as re­laxed in the ther­a­peu­tic am­biance of the venue, while re­claim­ing pock­ets of peace and well-be­ing,” Cho­sen Hands said.

A participant readies her brush to continue her painting featuring a butterfly, during the art and wellness workshop, “From Broken to Beautiful II”, held on Saturday 21 May 2022. (Image courtesy Chosen Hands Art and Wellness NGO)

Aleah Gui­tan of Trinit­i­ca In­ter­na­tion­al was in­stru­men­tal in in­cor­po­rat­ing par­tic­i­pants from the Latin Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty in the work­shop. Trinit­i­ca In­ter­na­tion­al spe­cialis­es in Aca­d­e­m­ic and Cul­tur­al Im­mer­sion Pro­grams, and al­so fa­cil­i­tates the teach­ing of Span­ish and Eng­lish as a for­eign lan­guage.  Its pro­grams are cre­at­ed for chil­dren and adult pro­fes­sion­als.

Cho­sen Hands Art and Well­ness NGO promis­es to host more of the “Bro­ken to Beau­ti­ful II” Art and Well­ness work­shops dur­ing the course of this year.