EDMONTON -- The Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts has come up with a creative way to keep their artists in practice and in touch.

The centre is a place where people with developmental disabilities show off their talents through various creative outlets.

“I like it because it's geared just towards art and you can explore many different forms of art,” said Holly Sabourin.

An award-winning artist and Nina centre regular, Sabourin used to visit the centre several times a week to work on her art.

“For a lot of them routine is a big part of their lives so coming to the Nina, some of them have been coming for over 15 years,” said Janice Easton the Director of Communications and Artistic Outreach at the centre.

The centre allows visitors to grow and develop not only their talents, but identities according to Easton.

“When they introduce themselves they go from ‘I’m a person, this is my disability’… and then after a certain amount of time they introduce themselves as ‘I’m an artist, I work primarily in sculpture’.”

When the pandemic forced the centre to close in March staff came up with the Nina Art Challenge.

“It's basically just a prompt for an art project that you can try at home. Sometimes it's a theme or a subject matter, sometimes it's different materials that you can use.”

The challenge is open to anyone wishing to participate, not just Nina Centre regulars.

“We realized it wasn’t just our artists who were probably going through a difficult time when everything started to shut down and all of the emotional side-effects that came with that,” said Easton.

“So we decided to just open it up to everyone, to try and be creative at home whether you identify as an artist or not.”

Many who used to visit the centre have gotten involved in the challenge and so have people from around the world according to Easton.

“It’s kind of cool to have complete strangers sending us pictures of their projects.”

Before the pandemic struck the centre would see around 50 artists on a daily basis, since reopening they’ve had to limit the number to less than 10 daily.

The challenge is a way to remind Nina Haggerty entre regulars that even without the studio, they are still artists.

“It's not coming to the Nina that makes you an artist. You are an artist wherever you are,” said Easton.

Some of the works made for the challenge have found a place in the centre, people can see them in the studio on a virtual tour.

The centre has also been hosting weekly Zoom chats where the artists can chat and show off their work.

“To have some connections to something familiar to distract them for a while, I think and I hope it really helps,” said Easton.

There have been 22 challenges so far, people can participate by signing up on the Nina Haggerty Centre website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Darcy Seaton