How happy were we to come present a workshop to engage the exhibition “Chrysalis and Butterfly” by the ultra-inspiring artist duo Leisure (Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley). The exhibition ran from April 12 – June 14, 2025 at Galerie Optica, and offered a generous material experience to gallery visitors, especially young ones, in which anxieties and separations were quelled by swirling hands through sand, mixing water potions in clay vessels, and constructing shelters with paper, cardboard and sticks. Andrea, having written and reflected on Leisure’s work and practice before, was invited to write their gallery text, which you may read here.
Our workshop with the grade 3-4 students took place in the nearby Champ des Possibles, a neighborhood project of commons-making, and wild meeting ground of great importance for Leisure as well as Spoonful. Provisioned with long grass, airdry clay, cotton pulp and twine, the students followed a short “wattle and daub” demonstration, and then fabricated habitat amendments for local species at risk, installing them in tree branches and furrows of the champ.
Each group was given a simple fact-sheet outlining the needs and behaviours of an at-risk species (turtles, butterflies, bumblebees, salamanders, snakes, wolves) and harnessed their empathy and creativity to build structures that might protect or help the animal live its life in the urban wilds. We had a wonderful time watching the students engage in this workshop and they had lots of fun problem-solving for inclusive futures! Thank you again Leisure, Optica, and École Primaire Arc-en-ciel !
Spoonful of Dirt 