On Friday, the CONNECTED BY WATER team (in partnership with the Comox Valley Art Gallery, the Lake Park Society, and the Cumberland Community Forest Society) will be offering a site specific workshop that considers our local freshwater sources and what impacts them.
Offsite Place Making Event – Led by Meaghan Cursons and Tina Willard-Stepan, this outdoor and on the water event will last about 2.5 hours.
Canoeing + Kayaking + Hiking + Cultural Teachings
Free Event / Space is limited.
ADVANCED REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED – email: gallery@comoxvalleyartgallery.com / include the session name + participant’s name.
Please provide your full name, phone number, e-mail address.
Bring your own canoe or kayak – you must be experienced enough to keep up with the pace of the Voyageur canoes.
Once your registration is accepted, you will be contacted with details regarding start time, location of launch, etc.
This place-making workshop responds to the question ‘how can we ensure a healthy climate-resilient watershed’ and is designed for artists, writers and educators with the goal of building a legacy of watershed protection and helping our community more deeply understand the history, science, and values that have informed the protection of lands in the watershed – including Coal Beach, Lower Perseverance, Cumberland Forest, BC Parks Ecological Reserve and Cumberland’s Lake Park.
Meaghan Cursons is a community animateur with big love for the Comox Valley. She has worked extensively in the local tourism, cultural and conservation sectors in community outreach and marketing. She currently manages the Cumberland Forest campaign to purchase threatened forest lands surrounding Cumberland. Meaghan is passionate about grassroots community economic development, sustainability, celebration and the network economy and dedicates herself to projects that support these values. She also works as a facilitator and strategic planning consultant for organizations across Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea.
Tina Willard-Stepan is an artist, facilitator, community developer, and environmental educator. She develops resources for use in schools and works as a community resource to educators. A Personal Coach and B.C. Certified Teacher, she has many years of experience in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. This makes her a person passionate about building community, as well as supporting other members of the human species in making connections—especially in relation to living more consciously on the planet.
This event is part of the RETURN TO WATER FESTIVAL – a series of arts-based events and presentations that bring the community together to explore issues related to perceptions of water, use of water, the human relationship to water, the climate’s effect on water, and the concept of water as a “living entity”. From May 12 – 14, 2022, daily events will instigate interdisciplinary and cross-cultural considerations of water and its significance through visual art, photography, video, sound, interactive media, texts, performance, music, dance, and song.
Image: courtesy Connected By Water