conscient podcast

e191 luc lalande - community arts during times of crisis

Episode Notes

• We have folks who would never define themselves as artists, but are nonetheless creative and have ideas and are imaginative. How can we get them to feel that they can do arts and express their creativity? With community engaged arts anyone can participate or contribute in any way. I think that strength and social bond makes the community strong and also it helps during times of crises that you know that there's a community there with you.

Luc Lalande is an educator, mentor, innovation practitioner and civic entrepreneur with extensive experience in academic-industry-government sectors. He specializes in the design of programs that build innovation capacity for communities in both rural and urban regions.

He has served as a volunteer and advisor on numerous not-for-profit boards engaged in fields as diverse as addiction recovery for youth, regional economic development, women empowerment, arts /culture and education. He is also an active advocate for the growth of the maker movement, makerspaces and maker education locally and globally.

Luc Lalande is currently Innovator-in-Residence at the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre and the Carlington Community Health Centre in Ottawa. 

I first met Luc Lalande at an ‘Ideas, Welcome’ session about social infrastructure and third places at the Rideau Community Hub, in Ottawa, a 1950’s era high school that has been converted into an extremely diverse and dynamic community hub.

I was impressed by Luc’s spirit and his  savoir-faire. With my doomist hat on, I wanted to talk to him about how the Rideau Community Hub came about and how it might be a useful model for people to coexist and cooperate as the climate crisis worsens. 

But I also wanted to talk about community-engaged arts and his vision of the role of the arts.. In our french language conversation, balado conscient é162 luc lalande - curiosité, créativité et imagination, Luc noted that:

• Innovation and art have an interesting relationship. What comes before innovation and before ideas is curiosity, creativity and imagination. This is where I see the importance of art: inspiration for ideas.

Luc’s passion and vision for this kind of third space is palpable, for example: 

• A space like this can happen anywhere. Any community can look at their assets, whether it's a decommissioned school or a decommissioned church and through imagination, adaptation and reuse, rather than build something new that uses up a lot of material and energy. Many of these assets can be reimagined and repurposed for civic purposes which any community can do. 

And he thinks the arts (especially community-engaged arts) should play a central role in these spaces. Luc and I began our conversation in the massive auditorium at the Rideau Hub after which we then went for a bilingual soundwalk into the facility to listen to the space and hear its stories.

And one of these stories involves a surprise appearance by Shirley Whitford, one of the participants in a play conceptualized and scripted by local seniors. The play entitled ‘A Circle of Care’ was performed in the school’s former drama room. You never know who you’ll meet in the hallways of a community hub. 

Episode Transcription

Excerpts from this episode: 

• We have folks who would never define themselves as artists, but are nonetheless creative and have ideas and are imaginative. How can we get them to feel that they can do arts and express their creativity? With community engaged arts anyone can participate or contribute in any way. I think that strength and social bond makes the community strong and also it helps during times of crises that you know that there's a community there with you.
• Innovation and art have an interesting relationship. What comes before innovation and before ideas is curiosity, creativity and imagination. This is where I see the importance of art: inspiration for ideas.
• A space like this can happen anywhere. Any community can look at their assets, whether it's a decommissioned school or a decommissioned church and through imagination, adaptation and reuse, rather than build something new that uses up a lot of material and energy. Many of these assets can be reimagined and repurposed for civic purposes which any community can do.