Measuring Impact

We may never know the impact that an exhibition has on a young person. In my years at the gallery, I only strive to ensure that everyone feels welcome there - all ages, all areas of interest, all economic abilities. One just hopes that the education and exposure provided to our visitors makes for a better community overall. I got a tiny bit of evidence of that last night. My daughter, who will be turning 11 later this month, was working with plasticene. She sculpted a crooked tree, and said "Look, I made a crooked tree like in the gallery." Wonderful, I replied. Then the explanation came. "It's a birch, you can tell by the white bark. These branches swoop down and will grow along the ground. All sorts of creatures can live here, because there are so many nooks and crannies." And then, she played. Just pure imaginative play for about an hour, sculpting blue and purple cats that climb trees and lounge on the branches with their plasticene tails hanging down. Of course I pride myself in raising two kids that can play imaginatively for hours on end, but knowing this scenario was rooted in the exhibition, I felt a certain sense of accomplishment, that I had impacted a young life with a spectacular colourful show about some crazy crooked trees in Saskatchewan.