Civic Imagination Lab

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Civic Imagination Lab

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Youth-powered imagination lab for community-led transformation, policy design, and systems change

09/27/2026

Still sitting with the energy from our gathering yesterday. 💛

What a beautiful afternoon of imagining, creating, and connecting around a simple but expansive question: What would Ottawa look like if it had the things we need to thrive?

We were especially grateful to have Jeff Leiper join us and engage in the conversation. Moments like these remind us how important it is to create spaces where young people can see themselves not just as participants in civic life, but as people who can shape the future of their city.

And this is only the beginning. 💌

We’re excited to be carrying this spirit of collective imagination into our upcoming programming. More to come on this so stay tuned! 👀

Thank you to everyone who brought their creativity, curiosity, generosity, and care into the room. 🍃

We’re very lucky to be dreaming alongside you. ✨

09/17/2026

Our 2025–2026 Annual Impact Report is here. ✨

This first chapter of Civic Imagination Lab reflects a year of creating spaces where youth could gather, imagine, question, play, and shape futures rooted in joy, care, belonging, and justice.

From creative studios and world-building workshops to park picnics and a global social innovation stage, this year reminded us that belonging is infrastructure — and that imagination becomes even more powerful when we share it with one another.

We’re deeply grateful to the artists, facilitators, partners, funders, and more than 200 community members who have shared their time, ideas, care, and imagination with us over the past year.

Nothing we create happens alone.

This report is a little snapshot of what we’ve been building together, where we’re headed next, and what we’re continuing to dream into — including our new Intergenerational Futures Initiative.

There is so much more to imagine, make, and build together. 💛

🔗 Read the full report at the link in our bio

Ottawa

09/09/2026

🌱 NEW Community Gathering: Building the Ottawa We Dream Of 🌱

After three creative picnics exploring play and storytelling, collective care, and civic possibility, we’re coming together to celebrate what we’ve made, imagined, and discovered along the way.

Join us for an afternoon of art, connection, joy, and civic imagination as we bring the series to a close and make space for the futures we want to see in our city. 💭✨

📅 September 26� 🕦 12-3 PM� 📍 Cre:8 at 300 Sparks Avenue� 🎟️ Registration link in bio

Come celebrate the friendships, stories, artworks, and visions that have emerged through the series — and imagine what’s possible when we dream together.
We’d love to imagine with you. 💛

08/20/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined our third Picnics for Living Futures workshop & to our wonderful facilitator, Rae Create Change Collective ! Together, we explored civic responsibility, belonging, housing, transit, nature, and the many ways we can imagine a more livable Ottawa 2050 through conversation, creativity, and play.

We were so inspired by your thoughtful and wonderfully varied creations, from collages and textured pieces to nature-woven embroidery and a bird’s nest. 💛

Save the date for our final gathering: Saturday, September 26. We can’t wait to share more soon!

Ottawa

08/14/2026

Last weekend, we gathered for our second Picnics for Living Futures: Imagining Ottawa 2050 workshop. 🌱

We spent the afternoon writing, imagining, listening, and getting to know one another—exploring what a future Ottawa could look and feel like if care was at the centre of how we build our city.

Together, we imagined webs of care that extend from our neighbours to the more-than-human world: food security, community gardens, good food, music and dancing, trees and nature, places to gather, and simply having the time and space to be together.

A huge thank you to everyone who brought their creativity, openness, vulnerability, and care to the circle—and to Fanta for guiding us through meditation and the Love Letters exercise. 💛

We’re leaving with new ideas, new connections, and perhaps a little more permission to dream. ✨

08/10/2026

What could our city become by 2050? 🌱

Join us for an evening of civic imagination, creative making, and collective visioning as we explore the city we want to build together.

In this free, arts-based workshop, youth ages 18-35 will be invited to learn about how our city works, reflect on what they value about Ottawa today, and imagine what they hope our communities could look like in the future.

Together, we’ll explore questions like:
- What makes a city feel like home?
- What do we love about Ottawa that we want to protect and nurture?
- What needs to change for everyone to thrive?

Through conversation, mapping activities, and collaborative art-making, we will create a shared vision of Ottawa 2050. 🎨 🖌️

We’ll experiment with multimedia collage using natural, recycled, and found materials, including creating textures, patterns, and unexpected artworks from everyday objects, to bring our collective hopes and ideas for the future city to life.

No previous art or making experience is needed, just curiosity and a willingness to imagine together.

🔗 Registration link in bio

See you there! 🌼

07/30/2026

What kind of Ottawa do you dream of?

Join us for an afternoon of reflection, storytelling, and creative expression as we imagine the city we hope to call home in 2050.

In this free, trauma and violence-informed workshop, youth ages 18-35 will be invited to slow down, dream boldly, and explore what it means to belong. Through guided reflection, letter writing, and mixed-media art, we’ll imagine an Ottawa where people feel safe, connected, joyful, and deeply cared for – not just by systems, but by one another.

Together, we’ll ask questions like:

- What does your life look like when you have everything you need to thrive, not just survive?
- What kind of neighbour do you hope to be?
* What kind of city do you hope we’ll build together?

We will write a Love Letter to Tomorrow, a letter to a neighbour, a future community member, or someone they may never meet, and transform their reflections into a creative collage or artwork representing their vision for Ottawa in 2050.

No previous art or making experience is needed, just curiosity and a willingness to imagine together.

🔗 Registration link in bio.

🌱 So excited to imagine & make in community next week Sunday!

07/17/2026

What stories might the city of Ottawa tell in 2050?

Join us for an evening of creative making, storytelling, and future imagining as we explore the possibilities of Ottawa’s future through the art of puppetry with Tia Wong! ✨🎭

In this free, hands-on workshop, youth ages 18-35 will learn about the rich histories of puppet theatre as a tool for storytelling, cultural expression, political education, and collective imagination - from Wayang traditions in ancient Indonesia, to street performances protesting the Vietnam War in 1960s USA, to the more recent popularization of stop motion animation as a form of Indigenous cultural revitalization in Canada.

Together, we’ll explore simplified techniques inspired by Chinese shadow puppetry and create our own puppets using accessible materials like parchment paper, packing tape, and wooden skewers. Participants will be invited to imagine: What stories, hopes, and dreams do we want our future city to hold?

No previous art or making experience is needed, just curiosity and a willingness to imagine together.

🔗 Registration link in bio!

🌱 So stoked to dream up future stories together!

06/25/2026

What kind of city do young people envision for 2050?

We’re inviting emerging facilitators to help create space for youth (18-35) to imagine, design, and play with possible futures through a series of outdoor civic arts picnics 🌿✨

This project is about collective dreaming, creative civic engagement, and building new ways of thinking about care, community, and belonging in the city we want to live in.

We’re seeking facilitators who are experienced in art-based, creative, and/or community-engaged facilitation (e.g., care mapping, postcards from 2050, future city-building, speculative design). You should also be skilled in connecting creative work to civic engagement, public space, or community-driven policy change, and grounded in care-centered, accessible, and anti-oppressive practice.

Facilitators will each lead one civic arts picnic, taking place on the following dates: July 23/24, August 8/9, or August 22/23.

We’d love to hear from you!

📅 Applications close July 9
🔗 Link in bio

03/15/2026

Thank you for joining us for our first-ever Community Conversation Café! Yesterday was everything we hoped it would be and more. ❄️☕️

The room was full of people reading zines, engaging with youth-created art, asking thoughtful questions, and sharing ideas about the futures we want to build together! 🚀

The Café marked the culmination of Imagining Otherwise, a youth-led participatory arts program exploring more caring, joyful, and sustainable futures. 🎨 Huge gratitude to our amazing youth cohort and facilitators!

Thank you as well to our partners who helped make this possible: , , and ! 💕

We wouldn’t be here without you all !!

Address

Ottawa, ON

Website

https://info2047785.wixsite.com/imagination-lab

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Humanics Institute
3468 Old Montreal Road (Cumberland)

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