TORONTO — The Mosaic Menorah is now on exhibit at Baycrest as part of a permanent art installation there.

This intergenerational art project took two years to complete. Many of the people who call Baycrest home helped to create it, along with volunteers and staff,. 

The colourful menorah, designed by Brenda Gasner Lass, started out as a six-foot-high wood structure. Each tile was hand-fashioned from clay, and painted and glazed by Baycrest residents.

The technique used to make the menorah’s tiles is the same one that’s used to produce bowls, trays, vases and other pottery produced in the Apotex Creative Arts Studio, Gasner Lass said. “It’s a technique that utilizes a series of steps that are easy for our residents to employ, even with a multitude of varying abilities.

“The menorah is meant to look alive, and full of vibrant colours. Just like the people who call Baycrest their home. It is like the tree of life, sitting in a giant flower pot, made to invoke the look of the therapeutic work done in the Apotex Creative Arts Studio.”

Gasner Lass said that Baycrest was to use the Mosaic Menorah for the first time on the first night of Chanukah, Dec. 8, when Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue was to make a musical Chanukah Havdalah for Baycrest residents and their families.