A miniature house sits in a quiet corner of the Hintonburg Community Centre.
Made of recycled wood, glass and shingles, the Community Muse stands at roughly three feet tall. It’s perfect for children to see, but forces adults to bend down for a peek inside.
Siblings Ana and Anton Fox did that on purpose.
Ana studies fine arts, while Anton studies international development — both at the University of Ottawa. Combining their skillset, they created the Community Muse to show off youth art and bring local art to children.
The pair curates the Community Muse’s weekly rotating display. The display changes weekly, previously featuring a winter-esque scene with a figure skater, pond hockey and snow. A Valentine’s Day themed look included tiny, hand-crafted red, white and pink envelopes flowing out of the mail boxes of a card shop.
The Community Muse is also equipped with a salvaged and modified iPad showcasing art submitted to the Muse through envelopes in front of the installation.
“Children are not just future artists — they are also current thinkers, observers and curators,” Ana said. “I wanted to build a space where children feel like their imagination matters.”
Ana and Anton work at the community centre with children as after-school coordinators, watching the installation include and affect children as a part of the creation process.They receive up to 20 submissions per month from kids looking to have their art displayed, Anton said.
The submissions often include themed toys or stickers, as well as a step-by-step to draw a specific subject. Ana and Anton chose the 2026 Olympic Games as one of their subjects. That week’s envelope featured 3D-printed Olympic rings, as well as a guide to drawing the Olympic mascot skiing.
Previous examples of drawing guides found in the envelopes included guides to drawing a hockey player, a duck as a chef and a polar bear.
“It’s a good opportunity to get people connected to either sharing their passion with arts or getting kids or adults to experience the art world,” said Jennifer Ladouceur, program coordinator at the Hintonburg Community Centre.
The Muse has created a buzz around art within the centre, Ladouceur said.
“It’s nice to see the kids get excited when there’s a new display happening inside,” Labouceur added. “It’s just kind of fun to have people share their artwork and connect that way.”
Ana hopes to see versions of the Community Muse outside of the Hintonburg Community Centre — she already made one for the Ottawa Art Gallery downtown and hopes to find space for another in Lansdowne.
Ana said she would have appreciated having a creative and communal space like the Community Muse as a kid.
“It would have given me more opportunities,” she said, “or maybe even given me confidence.”
Featured image by Nathan Cox/the Charlatan
This article, and all of the Charlatan’s work, is brought to you by an independent student newspaper dedicated to informing, uplifting and entertaining the Carleton University community. We are a levy-funded organization which plays a role in the broader, vibrant student culture on campus. By reading this article, you are supporting our efforts.
