Changemaker Card Deck

Artists

The deck includes a range of arts for social change projects. In an extremely diverse field of practice, these are just a taste of what this work can look like. For each card, there are links to learn more about the artists and projects.  


The links on this site can help you learn more about where these ideas come from. To see the full text on the back of each Artist card, download a copy of the deck.

Sacred Teachings: Aisinaipi

  • USAY has created some truly ground-breaking VR games to showcase positive, vibrant and diverse Indigenous culture. VR technology is designed to help raise engagement, increase knowledge retention and community engagement. To make their VR accessible USAY has them built for the Oculus Store and ready for free download. Community groups, schools or others can also request demonstrations by emailing operationsdirector@usay.ca.

    Writing on Stone Provincial Park is a recently named UNESCO World Heritage site. Not only does it have one of the largest collections of rock art in North America but there is a tangible sensation in visiting the sacred location. Indigenous people have travelled to Writing on Stone for thousands of years, interpreting and adding to the petroglyphs and pictographs on the sandstone hoodoos. Now, Blackfoot Elder Saakokoto Randy Bottle joins Blackfoot actor Eugene Brave Rock to bring audiences inside a once in a lifetime experience – an Elder guided journey through Writing on Stone in Virtual Reality.

    See the VR trailer and learn more about USAY’s work at https://usay.ca/virtual-reality/

Quirk-e

  • The Queer Imaging and Riting Collective for Elders (Quirk-e) is a LGBTQAI2S+ group of women and men over 55 years of age.

    Quirk-e works to change the world with its stories, while providing a safe place to nurture a vibrant, entertaining voice for the LGBTQA2S+ senior citizens of Vancouver. The group originated as one of the founding projects in Vancouver’s Arts & Health Project, and we still have a strong focus on wellbeing of all kinds – physical, mental, emotional and cognitive.

    Quirk-e has produced a number of books and zines. Learn more about this vibrant collective at https://quirk-e.ca/

Energy Matters

  • Artist Shumaila Hermani and Alberta Ecotrust collaborated on the Energy Matters project.

    “Through deep listening activities that involved listening meditations inspired by the works of Pauline Oliveros and Heloise Gold, we engaged in a dialogue about energy affordability in ways that arts would facilitate more openness, vulnerability, and engagement at the public policy level to make energy accessible in various underemployed and low-income contexts across families of newcomers, people with disabilities, and seniors.”

    Artist Shumaila Hemani, Ph.D. in Music and M.A. in Ethnomusicology, has taught courses on world music and soundscapes at the University of Alberta’s Music Department, and Colorado State University. She is currently serving as an Artist in Residence at Mount Royal University and partnering with Alberta Ecotrust to work on research-creation and community-engaged arts related to energy poverty alleviation in Alberta.

    To learn more about the process and workshops, see FUTURES/forward Mentorships: Featuring Shumaila Hemani and Canadian New Music Network.

Never in the Room

  • Mixed Company Theatre produces innovative, socially relevant drama as a tool for positive change. Founded as an artist-run collective in 1983, this nationally recognized not-for-profit today uses Forum Theatre and interactive arts to Educate, Engage and Empower audiences in schools, communities and workplaces.

    As the needs of marginalized communities across Canada shift, Mixed Company would like to give people the opportunity to engage in creative, and critical dialogue about how to effect tangible changes in the face of systemic injustices. Working in educational, workplace, and community settings, Mixed Company Theatre helps people rehearse for real-life situations of oppression, thereby empowering communities to address these issues and make strides towards a better world for everyone.

    Never in the Room was produced by Mixed Company Theatre and the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses.

Tar Sands Songbook

  • Tanya Kalmanovitch is a Canadian violist, ethnomusicologist, and author known for her breadth of inquiry and restless sense of adventure. Her uncommonly diverse interests converge in the fields of improvisation, social entrepreneurship, and social action with projects that explore the provocative cultural geography of locations around the world.

    Tar Sands Songbook is an 80-minute solo performance that combines field recordings, storytelling, personal history, and live violin and fiddle music to investigate our unseen relationships to oil. Tanya Kalmanovitch knows these relationships all too well. Born in Fort McMurray, Canada, near the site of the Athabasca Oil Sands, the world’s largest bitumen reservoir, she made her decision to become a musician as a teenager because “it had nothing to do with oil.” But when Fort McMurray shot to international attention as the flashpoint of clashes over energy, the environment, and the economy—“ground zero for climate change”—Kalmanovitch was called to go home.

    Tanya’s polyphonic piece weaves together storytelling, original research, field recordings, photography, and a live, improvised musical score. Tar Sands Songbook is touring to communities along the pipeline, truck and rail route that carry Alberta crude into global markets.

Art City

  • Art City provides high-quality art workshops for all ages and abilities, free of charge. Art City's work is rooted in the belief that art has the power to build community, transform individuals, and improve quality of life.

    With a drop-in and process-based format, Art City makes programs as accessible as possible while maintaining a focus on contemporary and cultural practices. Through rigorous community consultation, programs address the unique needs of participants on a continual basis. Art City is equally in service of artists, providing meaningful employment as well as opportunities to engage with community.

we have done enough, 2020

  • Anique Jordan is an artist, writer and curator who looks to answer the question of possibility in everything she creates. As an artist, Anique works in photography, sculpture and performance often employing the theory of hauntology to challenge historical or dominant narratives and creating, what she calls, impossible images. Recently, she has been thinking about time, the surreal, and the rejection of the singular and linear ways of thinking or being in the world. Anique has lectured on her artistic and community engaged curatorial practice as a 2017 Canada Seminar speaker at Harvard University and in numerous institutions across the Americas.

    To learn more about the 2020 installation, see this writeup from Nia Centre for the Arts: ‘We Have Done Enough’ is a recognition of the unrecognized work by the Black community to fight for liberation.

    https://www.instagram.com/aniquejordan/

Cirkaskina

  • Cirque Hors Piste is an organization dedicated to social circus. They provide an inclusive and creative space to young people with marginalized life experiences. Social circus is part of the global movement of arts for social change. Its impact on individuals is undeniable and contributes to the overall well-being of the community.

    Cirque Hors Piste continues to make efforts to strengthen the Canadian social circus network by bringing together different communities from coast to coast to coast. To date, hundreds of young people have been able to establish meaningful connections and share their lived experiences through Cirkaskina.

    Learn more about Cirkaskina and watch the mini documentary at https://cirquehorspiste.com/en/cirkaskina/movement/

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS

These cards grew out of the Artist As Changemaker program, supported by the Trico Changemakers Studio in partnership with Calgary Arts Development. Thank you to each of the artists and changemakers whose work made this possible. 

Featured Artists & Changemakers: Art City, Americans for the Arts, Anique Jordan, Cirque Hors Piste, Gladys Rowe, Mixed Company Theatre & OAITH, Nicole Wolf (card illustrations), Quirk-e, Shumaila Hemani & Alberta Ecotrust, Tanya Kalmanovitch, and Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth.

Project Supporters: Sally Njoroge, Patti Pon, Helen Moore-Parkhouse, Lena Soots, Jordan Baylon, Jill Andres, Maya Pajevic, Robin Sokoloski, Pam Korza, and Barbara Shaffer Bacon.

This deck was illustrated by Nicole Wolf, designed by Amanda Chan and curated by Skye Louis with project support from Katie Pearce.