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Castlegar joins the colouring craze

The Castlegar and District Public Library started a colouring club this month.
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Sunshine Latimer (left) and Linda Areshenkoff (right) at the Castlegar and District Library colouring club on Monday night.

Castlegar officially joined in on the adult colouring craze when the Castlegar and District Public Library started a colouring club this month.

Local librarian Laura Zaytsoff organizes the club.

“We noticed that there was a really big emerging trend of colouring clubs around the province and the country and we wanted to provide a space for people to come and meet new people,” she said.

The colouring club meets every second Monday and will meet next on Monday, Feb. 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. Participants are invited to bring their own books and supplies, but the library also has colouring sheets, markers and crayons they can use.

Adult colouring books feature more intricate designs than a typical child’s colouring book, and often include elaborate doodles, mandalas and zentangles.

One big reason they’ve taken off is because of their therapeutic benefits. A number of studies have found that art therapy can be beneficial. One study done in 2005 specifically found that colouring mandalas successfully decreased anxiety and depression among patients at an inpatient psychiatric facility.

Another study done the same year found that colouring mandalas in particular (as opposed to a plaid pattern or blank piece of paper) reduced anxiety. Those conducting the study concluded “that structured coloring of a reasonably complex geometric pattern may induce a meditative state that benefits individuals suffering from anxiety.”

Zaytsoff says that while the colouring club now only meets once every two weeks, hopefully it will eventually take off on its own, and members can arrange meetings between themselves.

“It’s a nice, safe, inclusive, very comfortable environment, where if you want to talk you can and if you want to colour and don’t talk that’s fine,” said Zaytsoff.