Craftivism was a free workshop series in winter 2024, with facilitator fees funded by County Arts.
Taking place at The Department of Illumination Studio, we created a series of large fabric banners with activist themes. Workshops were co-hosted by lead artist Nell Casson and supported by Bill Stearman, longtime activist and award-winning quilter. Each banner highlights causes chosen by the participants. The banners were created using a variety of media and techniques.
In August 2022, The Department of Illumination presented ALVAR, a festival celebrating this unique and precious ecosystem of the Great Lakes region. We held sunrise dance parties, created eco-inspired art and activities, presented live music & finished up with some secret popsicles.
Artists: Nella Casson, Krista Dalby, Andrea Piller, Chrissy Poitras, Victoria Taylor | VTLA Studio, Kyle Topping, Bay Woodyard. Music: Teilhard Frost and Roper & Roper. Dance: Arwyn Carpenter Hands-on nature exploration: Cheryl Chapman of NatureHood-PEPtBO. Bead talk: Moira Gaddes
Funded by the Government of Canada
Venue Sponsor
Hands-on Nature Exploration courtesy of
In 2022 we partnered with South Shore Joint Initiative to bring together the arts and sciences to create a delightful celebration of the natural world around us. We ran a series of school workshops where children learned about local species and created artistic interpretations; we hosted The Society of Stitchers, an embroidery club that collaboratively created a quilt of at-risk local species, and then we had a public celebration in Picton’s Benson Park with live music from KASHKA and That’s What She Said, crafts, the unveiling of our biodiversity quilt and a community procession.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
The Department of Illumination teamed up with Kick Start Arts to create Circles of Joy: a festival of stories brought to life at Macaulay Heritage Park, May 14, 2022.
Throughout the pandemic it was so easy to feel disconnected, and moments of joy felt fleeting. That’s why in the winter of 2021-22 we hosted a series of free online storytelling workshops to capture stories of joy from the community. It was a beautiful and uplifting process!
We audio recorded these stories, and they are housed in an online Archive of Joy! Brew yourself a cup of tea and settle in for a seriously feel-good listening experience.
We then invited 18 artists from various disciplines to choose a story from the archive and create an artistic response to it. All was revealed at the May festival, making for a beautiful and certainly joyous afternoon.
In September 2021 we hosted two events called Join our HERD! that took place in Picton and Consecon.
We invited the community to transform their bodies and bicycles into a joyful herd of beasts. We set off in a parade along the Millennium Trail, encountering a few surprises along the way, and culminating in a HERD celebration with live music, food and drink.
Presented by ====\\DeRAIL, Join our HERD! provided a much-needed expression of joy and playfulness, while raising awareness of the County’s histories, ecologies and the varied landscapes adjacent to the Millennium Trail. Where time is something to be considered rather than counted, the public was invited to add their own layer of meaning to this heritage landscape beyond its functional use as a recreation corridor. This initiative explored the untapped potential of the trail as a venue for artistic expression.
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS + SUPPORTERS
The County of Prince Edward, Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, The County Foundation, Briarwood Development Group, Sarah Crawford + David Kirkwood, PEC Trails Committee, Ontario Provincial Police – Prince Edward County, Consecon Honey House Café, Parsons Brewing Company, Elizabeth Crombie, Noble Beast Farms, Prince Edward County Arts Council, Ameliasburgh Councillor Bill McMahon, Hillier Councillor Ernest Margetson, Picton Farm Supply, The Wellington Times, Picton Gazette, Watershed Magazine and Life Au Lait.
The Department of Illumination was commissioned by Kingston’s Calliope Collective to create a float for HYDRA, a pilot project that took place in June 2021 in the waters adjacent Douglas Fluhrer Park. Designed as a ‘water parade,’ the overall theme of the event was water, and The DOI was asked to address the topic of plastic pollution. We wanted to create something beautiful while at the same time addressing the pervasiveness of plastic pollution in our waterways. The resulting work is a 13-foot rather menacing fish with gnashing jaws entitled Plastic Bites Back.
For six months we solicited our community to bring us their plastic recycling, and we collected more than 200 laundry detergent and water jugs which were painstakingly cut into fish scales. Lead artists Krista Dalby and Nella Casson constructed a lightweight frame out of cane, bamboo and wood, and then covered it in the plastic scales.
In June 2023 we participated in the next evolution of HYDRA: The Spirit of Water. More than 30 artists came together to contribute a dozen art pieces/performances which collectively told a story on water at Kingston Mill Locks.
The original Safety Dance took place in September 2020 as a joyful antidote to Covid times.
The original Safety Dance took place in September 2020 as a joyful antidote to Covid times, with spaces carefully measured to keep participants physically distanced while getting their groove on. It was led by dancer and choreographer Arwyn Carpenter. The event was made possible thanks to a partnership with Macaulay Heritage Park. In September 2021 we brought the event to Toronto’s East Lynn Park thanks to East End Arts. Want to bring Safety Dance to your community? Get in touch!
It was April 2020, and Prince Edward County was in its first Covid-19 lockdown. Many of our artist friends told us that despite having plenty of time on their hands, they were having trouble finding the motivation to make art. Thus was born the Art in Isolation project: an invitation to our arts community to share their isolation experiences through creating and showing each other their art, documenting their unique points of view during a month-long challenge.
When the month came to an end, we selected 90 works by 67 artists that tell the story of this month of our lives, from April 22 to May 22, 2020. As a collection, these works are a record of this remarkable period in the history of our community and a testament to our enduring creativity. We held an outdoor exhibition of these works in Picton’s Armoury Square from February 20 to March 31, 2021, as well as publishing a catalogue, which you can purchase in our shop.
- Mehdi Agahi & Krista Dalby, Curators of Art in Isolation
Papercut Self-Portrait in a Pandemic, by Krista Dalby