Open Heart

Last week was jammed packed with ideas and inspiration, so here are a few highlights from ICAF days 2 and 3:

We both spent mornings at Moments of Connection, facilitated by Masters students at the University of Victoria with joyful prompts to help us meet other ICAF participants in joyful and artful ways, as well as attending Voices of the Earth (.projects), a music-based workshop and community project by Maia Steinberg (), bringing our many voices together in low-stakes (but high-reward!) prompts.

Rose sat in on a workshop with the team behind OsoToriOso , a project that centres around a traditional wooden folk house in Suriname, allowing us to reflect on the importance of home and preserving our heritages.

And Kelly went to The Hardcore Club, a panel with leaders from Citizens Theatre Glasgow, Junction Arts, Wijktheatre, Stuttheatre, and Drama Box-all companies who have been doing community-based works for several decades. An encouragement of how meaningful the longevity of this work is.

And also saw Discovering the Echo From the Shadows () a projection-based project by people with and without resident status challenge the viewer to actively engage and disrupt- questioning the status quo.

The big event of the week was The Herds , with life-sized animals moving throughout the city of Rotterdam, mobilized by a chorus of community members who had been working all week to bring the animals to life. The piece shows animals displaced by climate change, and set in this super urban (and very busy) environment, it really hits home.

We took in a couple of beautiful performances, especially Love Me By The Hour by Speels Collectif , a mixed-abilities theatre company and a show that tells the personal stories of s*x workers and their clients. Movement, music, storytelling = theatrical perfection! And Kreig Ist Kein Spiel Für Frauen (War is Not A Game for women) by Maanheim National Theatre City Collective .mannheim.ntm with a large ensemble of women playing games to determine which personal stories of war to share.