KB 2026 Update

Art That Heals: Restorative Work Through the Arts

By Jess Sanchez

As Renaissance was beginning to take shape as a ministry, I knew there was a justice-oriented, restorative aspect of my missional work that I wanted to pursue, but wasn’t exactly sure what that would look like. Isaiah 61 had long been a formational, founding scripture for birthing Renaissance, but sometimes things just sound nice and pretty without realizing its impact until you see it in action.

In April of 2025, I had the opportunity to travel to the Northwest Territories with the PAOC ABNWT district to get a sense of what what was happening in the North. Long story short, my heart was deeply moved, deeply grieved, and deeply passionate about what God was wanting to do and how God was wanting to restore the North, it’s people, and its land.

My faith stirred. I heard stories of hardships, trials, suffering, abandonment, rejection, hope, and waiting. And as I was driving through the tundra, looking at the devastation of forest fires, floods, natural disasters, and communities that are still standing, the scriptures came to life to me…

Isaiah 61:4.

“They will renew the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

I’d always been interested in the intersection between creativity and trauma and what could be done around creativity and healing. In the North, creativity was borne out of necessity. It was an essential for people’s survival. There was a spirit of creativity that was just waiting to be released, but needed the right soil, the right seeds, and the right garden keepers for it to grow.

The more I began to pray about the North, the more it felt right to pursue a project involving art, faith, and healing. I began dreaming about creating spaces for art and beauty to come forth, about accessibility, low-barrier programming, and eventually, landed on this idea of a pilot project called Art That Heals.

The concept is very simple: to engage artists who have felt overlooked, passed over, and forgotten, to be on mission to teach art to those who are either unable to afford creative programming or equipment, those who are in recovery, those who are unhoused—those who are in need of a restoration of their dignity and humanity, and do it in a way that brings forth beauty from a place of brokenness.

This is what it’s all about. It became a beautifully two-fold win: engaging and discipling artists who have been pushed to the outskirts of society, and reaching those grappling with brokenness and offering the truth of the Gospel, doing rehabilitative, restorative work through art.

We’ve officially partnered with the Calgary Dream Centre, and our arts programming is now a mandatory part of a client’s recovery program. This means that art is being used to redeem and restore not only dignity, but has become an alternative way to express emotion, grief, anger, that leads to the hope of who Jesus is and how He works in our lives, and holding Him to who he says who he is.

We’ve partnered with the Derick’s Youth Centre, offering creative workshops for students to participate in that not only offers real world skills being taught and shared, but creating a healthy, collaborative space for students to engage in creative activity and spark an interest in a career that might not typically be encouraged or advertised in high school (e.g. Filmmaking, Content Creation, Dance, etc.). We are also currently in conversation with Youth Rise in Edmonton, AB about launching the same program.

We’re still working on establishing a pilot program for the Northwest Territories. We miraculously have people willing to partner with us in teaching and running programming, but we are in need of a space to do it. Right now we are believing for a building that will be able to facilitate creative programming, but will also serve as a missions hub for us to begin rolling out short-term missions for artists in the NWT. This is more of an undertaking and will need significant resource, support, and prayer to see this dream and vision come to life, but I have a deep conviction that God’s hand is on this project and that He will be faithful to see it through.

There is a better story to be written. We get to be a part of that. And I’m excited for what the future holds.