A community is a mosaic: every piece its own, every piece belonging.
On June 16, 2026, Innovation Works celebrated ten years with a community event “ From Seed to Shared Future”. While the festivities filled the building, a room inside hummed with a quieter kind of celebration. Paintbrushes moved. Stories spilled out. And circle by circle, a mosaic grew.
The installation, completed that day by the hands of the community itself, is the work of Her Life, Her Art, a collective of local women artists spanning 12 cultural backgrounds and 14 languages. At its centre winds a painted form that refuses to be just one thing, what Amsa Yaro describes as "a life source, a shared connectivity that even in our individualized worlds, we are still connected."
A Collective That Made Its Own Door
Her Life, Her Art began the way so many good things do: with women deciding to stop waiting.
Amsa Yaro, Hailey Tallman, and Adora Vali the three founders of the Her Life, Her Art collective, three artists who built their practices the slow way, one brushstroke of persistence at a time. "It all started with a conversation of us looking for opportunities but realizing that we have to make those opportunities ourselves," says Amsa, a self-taught mixed media artist who came to London from Nigeria, The three of them reached out together to talented local artists whose art was a priority in their lives but who were rarely showing their work. Innovation Works offered its walls for their first exhibition on International Women's Day. Art sold. Friendships took root. A collective was born..
The artists carry journeys as varied as their brushstrokes. Ani Sarian, an Armenian artist from Syria and Lebanon, came to Canada with her family after living through war. She first walked into Innovation Works in 2018, simply because she was passing by and wondered if there might be a place for her art. There was. Olena Troichenko arrived from Odessa, Ukraine, and found in the collective "a real sense of belonging and support." These are not just biographies. They are the raw material of the artwork itself.
The Dark Parts, and the Light
There is a line Amsa shared with the group that became something like the installation's quiet philosophy: "Our journey needs the dark parts for the light to stand out."
The artists each hold it differently. For painter Corrine Garlick, it is the truth of her craft: "As a painter, contrast is essential. The light only has an impact because of the dark beside it. Life is much the same." Sylvia Casbourn hears in it the old Italian term chiaroscuro, the dance of light and shadow that pulls a viewer in. For Kim Totten, "it's the cracks that let the light shine through."For Pauline Hare, the group itself became the light: "Meeting this group of talented women felt like a little bit of light that encourages me to keep creating and growing my practice." And Ani, who knows darkness more literally than most, says simply: "When I go through a difficult time, my artwork can express those emotions. I always try to focus on the light in creation."
Even the project itself began in shadow, the anxious kind. "This was literally our first time creating something together," Amsa remembers. "All the 'what ifs' one can think of came. But just like staring at a blank canvas, you splash some paint over it and then realize that it always works out once you let go."
Painted at Kitchen Tables, Gathered Under One Roof
From May to June, the artists met every Wednesday evening at Innovation Works, which opened its space to the collective each week, painting circles at home and bringing them together like offerings to a shared table. "The space provided at Innovation Works in the evenings was essential in facilitating this project," says artist Sylvia Pozeg. The palette came from the Innovation Works and Pillar brand colours, a thread of cohesion running beneath twelve distinct artistic voices.
The sessions took on a life of their own. A sewing machine appeared exactly when one was needed. Hailey's chocolate stash kept spirits up while Amsa's playlist kept brushes moving. The lightweight wooden beam nicknamed "Gandalf's staff" made its way through downtown London to each session, carried by Sylvia Casbourn. A few sessions later, Adora Vali brought a banner piece into the fold, painstakingly adding narrative pyrography and tending to it exclusively right up until June 16th. One evening, Olena Troichenko climbed onto the canvas-covered tables and laid out the sweeping tree design while the others steadied the tables beneath her, laughing.
"We had everyone we needed for this project," Amsa recalls. "The suggestions poured out and movement was flowing. I am blessed to have worked with this caliber of brilliant women."
Then the Community Picked Up the Brush
At the anniversary celebration, the room where the installation was taking shape became the warmest corner of the party. Guests were handed circles of their own and invited to add themselves to the story. Some painted with quick, confident strokes. Some needed gentle reassurance that there was no wrong way in. There were introductions and hugs, reflections and shared food, and slowly the mosaic filled with new voices.
"At first, I was fearful that not many would want to participate," Amsa admits. "But as the room kept being filled with the guests making their circles, it was the perfect conclusion to this piece. With their addition, the artwork is truly complete."
"People didn't just look at the artwork; they became part of it," Corrine says. "Just as they are part of the Innovation Works community."
What the Finished Piece Holds
Ask the artists what the mosaic says about Innovation Works, and their answers circle the same quiet truth: this is what belonging looks like.
Every circle is different. Every circle is connected. The tree holds them all, the bright pieces and the shadowed ones alike. Look once and it is a tree, rooted and reaching. Look again and it is a river, or a pathway. Hidden among the branches are words in many languages, painted there by the artists as quiet gifts. "Our little easter eggs for all who see the installation," Amsa says.
"This group wouldn't be here if not for Innovation Works giving us her walls for our very first exhibition," Amsa reflects. "If I have such a story about IW, imagine the thousands of people that come in through her doors and what this space has given them. They are part of the connected flow and it will only spread out and grow."
Ten years of stories live in this building. Now some of them live in paint.
The installation is now on display at Innovation Works, 201 King St.
This community art installation is sponsored by Lerners.