Seeing Beyond the Obvious |
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Artists as Changemakers On Wednesday, February 10th, from 11 am to noon PST, we will feature three incredibly talented and well-established visual artists: Roy Henry Vickers, Roberta Pyx Sutherland and David Ellingsen for an insightful look beyond the obvious, hosted by multi-media artist Frances Litman. Through their expressive talents, these artists have been shifting cultural narratives and inspiring new ways of seeing that are central, not peripheral, to social change. Learn more about the transformative power of art and the role artists play in creating solutions for a new world where life can be lived to its fullest and richest potential by seeing beyond the obvious. |
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Canadian First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers is internationally renowned for his distinctive style of paintings, sculpture and carvings and is a respected artistic advisor on projects that have included Expo 86 and the Vancouver International Airport. His Tofino, BC gallery is an experience and destination visited by many and he remains actively involved in numerous creative endeavours, including the illustration and publication of many books. Roy Henry Vickers is the recipient of both The Order of British Columbia and The Order of Canada. |
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Roberta Pyx Sutherland is a contemporary Canadian artist who works from Victoria and Hornby Island. From her first solo show at the Victoria Art Gallery in the 80’s her work has continued to focus on the environment and the interconnectivity of all life forms. Her work has been collected by the Canada Council for the Arts, Burnaby Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Toronto Public Library, University of British Columbia, Concordia University Library, and the Bibliothèque de Genève. Sutherland particularly enjoys creating site-specific installations. In 2012, she painted an Andy Warhol tribute for the Hornby Island Arts Council. Magazines and e-journals regularly include her images. After decades of practice Sutherland continues to be inspired by our connections to cosmic patterning and divine intelligence. |
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David Ellingsen is a Vancouver Island based photographer whose images speak to the relationship between humans and the natural world. David’s work is intensely focused on documenting the ways biodiversity loss and deforestation are affecting our environment. His photographs are exhibited internationally and are part of the permanent collections of the Chinese Museum of Photography, South Korea's Datz Museum of Art and Canada's Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Royal British Columbia Museum. They have been shortlisted for Photolucida's Critical Mass Book Award, appeared with National Geographic, and awarded First Place at the Prix de la Photographie Paris and the International Photography Awards.
As a freelance assignment photographer, Ellingsen worked with clients such as the New York Times Magazine, Business Development Bank of Canada, Canadian Medical Association, Oprah Winfrey Network, People magazine and CBC Radio Canada. |
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Re-Imagining Cities & Waste |
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Attaining carbon neutrality will have a profound impact on how we design communities and deal with waste. This webinar includes a number of pioneers who are creating innovative solutions to carbon neutrality and ways to change restrictive regulations. Featuring: Kim Fowler has 30 years experience working as a sustainability planner for local government. She specializes in innovative design projects such as Dockside Green located in Victoria’s Inner Harbour; a unique development application process in Port Coquitlam in the Greater Vancouver Area based on economic; environmental and social factors and implementing a Waterfront Plan for the Town of Ladysmith on Vancouver Island in collaboration with the Stz’uminus First Nation. |
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Larry Gardner is the Manager for Solid Waste Services for the Regional District of Nanaimo. The Regional District is one of the first jurisdictions in Canada to embrace zero waste with a formal goal of diverting 90% of waste from the landfill by 2027. Larry has over 30 years experience in the solid waste industry including working for the BC Ministry of Environment regulating landfills and industrial waste. He is pioneering an innovative financing model which encourages waste haulers to divert waste from the landfill replacing traditional tipping fees which can encourage waste dumping. |
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Hugh Stephens is a Distinguished Fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and an Executive Fellow School of Public Policy University of Calgary, plus the Director and Vice Chair of the Society for the Protection of the Mount Work Region, known as the Mount Work Coalition (MWC).
The primary goal of the Mount Work Coalition is to advocate for the reduction of the environmental footprint of the Hartland Landfill and to ensure that public enjoyment of the area is not disrupted by increased traffic, industrial activity or expansion of the Hartland facility.
Hugh has lived at Willis Point, not far from Mount Work Park, since 2012. He moved to Victoria in 2010 after an international government and business career. He actively supported the campaign of the Saanich Inlet Protection Society to oppose the building of a floating LNG plant at Bamberton and is a member of the Willis Point Community Association executive. |
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Gene Miller is a real estate development consultant who has devoted his professional career to innovative design to promote environmentally and socially advanced projects. He initiated Gaining Ground Urban Sustainability conferences in the 2000's and writes for various publications on urban sustainability. He is now a practitioner proposing a multi-unit housing development called Affordable Sustainable Homes as a new form of compact living with high energy efficiency; low transportation and waste generation at below market prices. |
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Arno and Linda Keinonen's Harmless Home, the first of its kind in the world, is a living example of a carbon neutral building where the carbon sequestration literally begins from the ground up. Host and Creatively United founder, Frances Litman, shares this home and exciting examples of what the future could hold. |
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Vancouver-based author and poet, Fiona Tinwei Lam shares her creative approach to educating the public about plastic waste and reduction. Her work appears in more than 35 anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English (both 2010 and 2020) and Forcefield: 77 Women Poets of BC. Her award-winning poetry videos have screened at festivals locally and internationally. She won The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Prize and was a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Lam teaches at Simon Fraser University’s Continuing Studies. |
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Help Decide the Fate of 73 Acres
and the Future of Landfills |
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The CRD has pledged to “ Rethink Waste” in its review of its Solid Waste Management Plan. But the CRD proposes to make only timid steps for rethinking waste and continues on a path that is not in alignment with the climate crisis or protecting the interests of future generations. The CRD needs to walk its talk and consider solutions that don't involve landfill expansion. The CRD needs to show leadership and make bold moves NOW that include the following progressive solutions we have provided here and invite you to cut and paste into this one-click, super simple CRD feedback form before the CRD's Feb. 15th deadline: https://surveys.crd.bc.ca/surveys/draft-solid-waste-management-plan-feedback In order to truly Rethink Waste, the CRD needs to: - Make waste socially unacceptable through education, with emphasis on the 6 R's (rethink, refuse, reduce, repair, reuse, recycle);
- Encourage a circular economy through repurpose and repair centers and repair cafes;
- Change the current business model so tipping fees encourage DIVERSION of waste FROM the landfill vs into the landfill;
- Use the Township of Esquimalt Waste to Energy proposal as a demonstration waste-to-energy project and make it a leading example of moving towards carbon neutrality;
- Adopt the City of Victoria's plan to reduce waste by 50% by 2040 and adopt this as a minimum target for diverting waste throughout the region by 2040, and accelerate this to 90% by 2050 at the latest;
- Recognize that carbon neutrality and zero waste are mandatory pre-requisites if we intend to be carbon neutral and address climate change, one of the greatest global threats to the survival of mankind;
- Enforce mandatory fully compostable packaging;
- Encourage the provincial government to legislate that manufacturers are responsible for the full life cycle of their products and enforce this so that products can not be shipped or sold unless manufacturers are certified to do so and are actively regulated, inspected and licensed with mandatory accountability and transparency. Fees collected would be used to support local zero waste initiatives;
- Create mandatory source separation for single and multi-family dwellings, as well as institutional, commercial and industrial (ICI) use;
- Delay requesting the expansion of the landfill under the Solid Waste Management Plan until the CRD can publicly demonstrate progress on the following 3 key initiatives:
A) achieving zero waste and a circular economy; B) operating a waste to energy project, like Esquimalt, to demonstrate its effectiveness in achieving zero waste and lowering carbon emissions; and C) developing a new business model based on maximizing diversion from the landfill as proposed by the Regional District of Nanaimo. This is possible. Real leadership can make this happen! Please take another moment and sign and share this local petition by the MountWorkCoalition.org that further explains what is at stake. |
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About Creatively United & Our Community Partners |
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The Creatively United for the Planet Society is a registered non-profit society. Since 2012, we have brought together more than 10,000 people from throughout the region who care about happy, healthy, and resilient communities. We have done so through eight zero-waste sustainability showcases, numerous community events and educational talks, collaborative partnerships, a video series, and the CreativelyUnited.org free community information network, resource and solutions sharing hub. The Gail O'Riordan Climate and the Arts Legacy Fund, supported by The Victoria Foundation, is dedicated to changing human consciousness towards global environmental change by combining science with the creativity of the performing arts. Creatively United and Climate and the Arts both appreciate the support of the Polis Foundation for its assistance in the production of these webinars. |
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