The Cocoon, Wood County’s only comprehensive domestic and sexual violence agency, has partnered with Hysteria Company to bring interactive art into their shelter space.
“I remember working on these ideas for a few months with The Cocoon team; starting last year and bridging over to 2024. My thoughts on how a community of social workers and healers can bring their work for a community to nurture each individual back into themselves for confidence, security, healing, and growth is the most powerful form of what we can do for on another,” said Ambz, artist and creator of Hysteria Company.
One of the murals allows for survivors and their children to create and display their own artwork in pre-placed frames on a large wall near the community living room. Other pieces throughout the shelter include a large moth and a reminder that there is hope as stated in one framed piece.
Ambz added, “The team at The Cocoon came up with the vision and focused on the need for folks not only working in the space, but also the environment for folks who are temporarily housed in the shelter for healing and transition. As a graphic designer/artist and muralist, my job is to transmute the ideas, mission, passion, and then execute in creating through art and design. I am honored to work for and with organizations who make this world a better place. All while supporting areas of their mission through the arts. Each piece was custom designed, illustrated, and built by hand – by a woman.”
This is one of many projects launched in the past three years that Cocoon staff hopes will make a survivor’s stay in shelter a little more comfortable. Other projects have included the installation of an outdoor playground and basketball court, an on-going landscaping project that will transform the agency’s secured green space and coming soon an outdoor dog run.
For more information about The Cocoon, visit thecocoon.org or call 419-373-1730.
