Artists and creative minds across London, Ont., are set to gather at a workshop at Western University on Saturday, Nov. 18 to share ideas and strategies on how to uplift the performing arts industry in the city.
The workshop, Building a Creative Community, is part of Words Festival with a goal to inspire dialogue and look toward creating more collaborations between groups in the city and on campus.
“We’re coming out of COVID-19 and we’re looking around at our community partners and noticing that the performance community is going through some challenges and some pain points,” said workshop organizer Joshua D. Lambier, the director of public humanities at Western.
Lambier sees London as an artsy city with innovative ideas and visionary minds, but said the arts sector took a hit when the pandemic struck and creative spaces shut down for a time.
“We thought, OK, how does the campus help to put the arts and the performing arts back in recovery strategies?”
Lambier believes the workshop is the start of a journey to recover and appreciate the arts in London, and hopes it will spark conversation about the challenges artists are facing and what they need from Londoners and the arts community.
“We want to hear from everybody in our community who’s creative right now. What are some of the challenges? How has the pandemic impacted their performance? How can we get back?,” he said.
“What I hope will happen in ten years is there will be a joining of forces between some of the post-secondary institutions, the live arts, performing institutions…to see what could be possible in terms of putting London’s creativity on the map for Canada and beyond.”
Camille Intson, a multidisciplinary artist and PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Toronto, will be presenting at the workshop, delving into how to reconcile academics with art.
She said the workshop is unique because it encourages artistic academics and community artists to lean on each other for support.
“I have been a workshop facilitator for a number of years,” she said. “But I don’t think I’ve ever done an event that is so deliberately trying to get the university and the community, the public arts community to speak to each other.
“I think that’s a really important conversation to have.”
Building a Creative Community will run between 1 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. at Western University in the Weldon Library community room.