Organized by Art Not Shame and Guelph Museums, Art as We Are: Creative Community Care spotlights three projects centred in collective community-making through art and involving about 200 local creators: Art in Hard Times (2020), Art in a Just Recovery (2023), and Community Fabric (2024). The exhibition also shares the origin story of Art Not Shame, a community-engaged, multidisciplinary arts organization serving youth and adults in Guelph and across Ontario since 2017.

In 2020, artist Melanie Schambach led a team of artists and social support workers in the creation of The Mural Project: Art in Hard Times. Collectively, they aimed to amplify the voices of those who identified as: newcomers, LGBTQ21+, Black, Indigenous, people of colour, street engaged, adults with developmental exceptionalities, and youth struggling with mental health and addictions.

In 2023, Art Not Shame, Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition, and artist Melanie Schambach collaborated on Art in a Just Recovery: Reconnecting to Us, a project that explored community care in pandemic recovery. Through a series of in-person and online art-making workshops, participants were partnered with Art Buddies in creating artworks that came together in a large-scale mural.

In 2024, Art Not Shame, Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition, and Guelph Museums collaborated on the Community Fabric project 一 a ten-week community-arts series in which participants worked together to create a community quilt, build social connections, and develop skills to support their mental health and wellbeing. The completed quilt will be unveiled in the exhibition Art as We Are: Creative Community Care, which opens for public viewing on Saturday, August 24.