Turning Our Beloved Dyment Hall into Community Coloring Templates
Our community is just buzzing with creative energy, and we’ve been getting some lovely requests lately for even more coloring pages! Since the Dyment Recreation Hall and Complex in Melgund Township, Northwestern Ontario is such a central hub for us, we thought, “Why not celebrate it?” For one of our recent summer program activities, we focused on learning how to transform photographs of our beloved hall and its surroundings into simple, ready-to-color templates. It’s been a really fun and hands-on way to use digital tools to convert our summer photos into something beautiful and useful for everyone.
The process of taking a vibrant photograph and stripping it down to its essential lines has been fascinating. It’s not just about hitting a button; it’s about understanding composition and how light and shadow define a space. This project allows us to engage with our local landmarks in a new way, from the architectural details of the hall to the familiar landscape around it. We’ve even had local artists express interest in using some of our summer photos as painting inspiration, so creating these easy-to-use templates feels like a natural extension of our visual arts efforts. We genuinely hope everyone enjoys bringing their own flair to these familiar scenes.
Coloring and painting are such wonderful, accessible forms of expression. They’re fantastic for unwinding, exploring creativity, and connecting with a familiar image on a deeper level. And for our kids and grandkids, this project is a brilliant way to encourage digital literacy – turning them into creators rather than just consumers. It’s all part of our 2025 summer arts internship and mentorship program, a unique blend of land-based experiences, oral history, and practical digital skills.
The possibilities for these transformed images go far beyond just coloring. We’ve been brainstorming all sorts of ways to use them to celebrate our community! Imagine our beautiful Dyment Hall adorning personalized Christmas cards, featuring on placemats for our next community potluck, or even becoming custom art prints. We’re learning that with a little digital know-how, the photos we take can become so much more than just a file on a hard drive—they can be the start of tangible, creative projects that everyone can enjoy and share.
Colouring Pages
Below are some of the images we thought people would enjoy colouring or painting. And always remember, we’d love to see what people create, so feel free to Contact Us and share your results!
Thank you!
We’re so incredibly grateful for the support that makes all this possible. A huge thank you goes out to the Ontario Arts Council for their funding through the Inter and Multi-Arts Projects program. And we’re deeply appreciative of Jamie Bell, Eva Suluk, and Tony Eetak, Maurice Betournay, Tanya McArthur and Terri Bell from Art Borups Corners, The Arts Incubator Winnipeg Hub; Dr. Olaf Kuhlke and Krish Agrawal from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design Creative Entrepreneurship Program; Global Dignity Canada, and the Local Services Board of Melgund. Their belief in our program lights up our small community. Stay tuned for more details about our Fall and Winter program, where we’ll continue to explore storytelling, digital arts, and publishing!
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