A COLLABORATIVE project involving businesses is reaping benefits for the participants of a local occupational therapy art group.

Six Gawler businesses have agreed to display the artwork or products produced by an activity group run by private practice Collaborative Occupational Therapy.

The works range from wall art display pieces to jewellery, cheese boards, coasters and small creations available for sale.

Collaborative Occupational Therapy owner Joanne Robertson said the Getting Creative activity group was aimed at increasing social and community participation, and skill building for participants.

“In the past, participants within the creative groups have restored furniture, made jewellery and produced unique art pieces,” she said.

“Unfortunately, there was no avenue for sales of the items made in these groups, which meant the creative pieces were going into an off-site storage shed.

“As this shed approached its physical capacity, the participants became limited to making smaller creative pieces and were engaging less in larger creative projects such as furniture restoration.”

Joanne was able to enrol the help of two university occupational therapy students in Colin Pugh and Jessie Capurso, who have spent the past several weeks finding space to display the pieces within existing businesses.

“I think the participants were seeing their things going into
storage and it was affecting motivation,” Colin said.

“So our project slotted in there and was to find a process for the things to go out on display and hopefully for sale throughout the community in Gawler.

“There’s some really really beautiful artwork, some of it paintings, some furniture pieces that were salvaged and restored.”

Colin said the participants had been involved in decision making.

“Ensuring they have this power throughout the process both ensures we are developing something the community really needs, and keeps them invested
so that the project will live on long after our placement is finished,” he said.

Jesse said the group had been overwhelmed with Gawler’s strong community support, with the first of the pieces out on display at Poetic Justice Cafe, from late last month.

“We’ve already made a couple of sales, and (the participants) were super excited to be able to see that something they had done had been appreciated by someone else – to the point they wanted to spend money on it.”

Other businesses featuring the unique art pieces on a rotation are SpellBound Magical Gifts, Bizzee Bean Cafe, Jewellery Journey, and Hudsons Coffee, as well as the office of Tony Piccolo.