Christos Pantieras combined his background in art and education through the launch of the Welcome Back Project, an artistic display of doormats across Ottawa during October.
The two-part project responded to a Public ART Ottawa call for a temporary art exhibit to engage communities and amplify the work of local artists. Public ART Ottawa is a City of Ottawa program that aims to introduce art into public spaces around the city.
Pantieras said he wanted to welcome Ottawans back to their communities after they had experienced disruptions to their lives such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the “freedom convoy” occupation and LRT construction.
“I wanted to use the welcome mat as a symbol of welcoming people,” Pantieras said. “It’s about signifying a place, passing a threshold [and] showing someone that they’re welcome there.”
The first part of the project introduced pop-up exhibitions and doormat painting workshops in Ottawa public libraries and community centres in June. Elementary school students from across Ottawa also designed and created 90 doormats in their classes.
For the second half of the project, 21 small businesses across Ottawa displayed 21 artists’ doormats inside and outside their buildings from Oct. 15 to 30.
“The community aspect is putting [the doormats] in these public spaces so that when people come across it, they’ll stop and think,” Pantieras said. “I hope they just see the connection between making space for yourself and making space for others.”
Pansee Atta, an artist and Carleton PhD graduate, designed a doormat named “We Help Each Other Out” for Cedars & Co. Food Market on Bank Street. She said it was important for her to honour her Egyptian heritage through her art.
“In many traditions of the Muslim world, one of the topics that’s represented a lot is the idea of a paradise,” she said. “For me, one of the things about transforming both the artwork and the communities around us into that utopia is by making it more welcoming … a big part of that is about how we help one another.”
Her piece combined Plexiglas and paint on top of a regular doormat, depicting human-like figures helping each other climb through a window.
“The actual material of the welcome mat for me was a starting point because it’s so rough and scratchy,” Atta said. “I use that as a metaphor for an obstacle or the kinds of bad feelings that may need to be surmounted … the figures in the artwork are literally climbing up and over and through.”
Pantieras worked with Third Way Creative, a collaborative consulting studio based in Seattle, Wash., to bring the project to life. The organization’s co-founder, Elisheba Johnson, provided feedback to the artists and helped them manage their funding allocated by the City of Ottawa.
Johnson said she “became kind of teary-eyed and emotional” upon seeing the doormats installed.
“We’re in a really weird time to be human beings in the world … I really believe in artists as folks that can meet this moment and we saw that happen,” Third Way Creative co-founder Randy Engstrom added.
Pantieras presented the doormats made in the workshops on Oct. 30, the final day of the project, at Winston Square before returning them to participants.
Featured image by Daria Maystruk.
