This project is a partnership with the Lake of the Woods Arts Collective (LOWAC) and the Natural Resources Institute.
Finding Common Ground through Creativity explores the question “What does the land mean to you?” through focus groups and multimedia participatory art. This was a unique opportunity for practicing and amateur artists to come together, collaborate, and explore something of great community importance.
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This project is supported by the Common Ground Research Forum and the Community Arts & Heritage Education Project
Community memento video
The project objectives for Finding Common Ground through Creativity were met through the following project outcomes.
Objective 1: Participatory art as a means for creating a forum for cross-cultural collaboration engaging Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and encourages communication between these groups and individuals was achieved in this project through:
- engaging community members from the municipality of Kenora as well as local First Nations.
- the use of workshops, which intentionally sought to be inclusive of diverse perspectives and world views.
- enabling freedom of expression through the creative process.
Objective 2: Conversation about the values and meanings people hold in relation to the land/water and place that they share was created:
- during the production of artwork and the ensuing discussion in a facilitated workshop
- during Workshop 2 / the presentation of the works.
Other project outcomes:
- Increased awareness of the benefits of cross-cultural collaboration was achieved through the various collaborative workshops, including the facilitated discussions and creative process.
- Increased awareness of the Common Ground initiative for local and regional sustainability was accomplished through the opportunities for dissemination during the community workshops in which project partners from the CGRF were present.
- Long-term connections within the regional arts-community as well as the broader community with vested interests in the ‘Tunnel Island’ Common Ground were fostered through the personal connections that were established during workshops and field trips related to the project. LOWAC is also a resource for the facilitation of long-term connections between artists who choose to retain their membership following the completion of this project. The artistic works themselves are also important for the encouraging of long-term connections because they will continue to foster dialogue around the topic of common ground and what the land means.
- This project provides the potential for reflection on social learning within the context of the ‘Common Land, Common Ground’ initiative. Students working on this aspect of the initiative will have the opportunity to investigate the experiences of the community partners and participants and determine the scope of the learning outcomes.
- A set of “best-practices” for cross-cultural collaborations for regional development, enhancing the capacity for future collaborations, social learning and planning has been achieved through this project by documenting what worked and what was missing in the delivery and documentation of this project. This has been articulated here as the “outcomes” and “recommendations”, which are reflections from the project facilitator (Melanie Zurba).
- Community – university partnership was realized through the involvement of the project facilitator (Melanie Zurba) and other associates from the Natural Resources Institute (University of Manitoba) and the University of Winnipeg, including the project champion (Iain Davidson-Hunt).
- This project also worked towards the CGRF goal of producing of trained personal. Melanie Zurba (NRI student) has enhancing her professional development as a community project facilitator and has developed upon the participatory art methodology used during her Masters thesis research. She will be beginning her PhD under the CGRF in September, 2010.
