August the 3rd was the last day of Build Your Bridge, Expressing Identity Through Art, an exhibition at City Hall in St. John’s showing six months of work by newcomer women who picked up a camera, a paintbrush, clay or a needle for the first time. The program is run by the Community Centre Alliance, with participants from four community centres in St. John’s, Buckmasters Circle, Rabbittown, Froude Avenue and Virginia Park. Aisha Elgayar, Settlement Integration Coordinator at the Community Centre Alliance, designed the program. “You can’t make balance in a new land without a strong connection with your roots,” she said. “You need this bridge to make that connection. Every woman brings her culture and settles here in St. John’s, and builds her life here, through this bridge.”
Fataneh Rahghi, who taught the pottery and painting sessions, says she focused less on technique and more on giving the women freedom. “I could feel how they had fears, how they didn’t have opportunities before, and I was just there to open a door,” she said. Fatima Alasbahi, who joined as a translator before becoming a participant herself, remembers a field trip to Quidi Vidi Lake during a snowstorm for the photography course. “We saw the seal for the first time,” she said. “We were almost freezing, but we were super excited how the pictures came out.” This is the not the first version of the exhibition and Elgayar says the response has convinced organizers to run the program again.
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