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.