Members of the former Arviat Film Society, Global Dignity Canada, and the Our People Our Climate project held a knowledge sharing session with the Minneapolis College of Art and Design at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Across many communities, especially in northern and rural areas, people are facing isolation, limited opportunities, and shrinking support systems. Designing with Dignity is a direct response to these realities — a program that uses the arts to build connection, support youth leadership, and strengthen community-based arts and recreation in practical, creative ways.
Rooted in creativity and care, it’s being co-developed to respond to these challenges — and it’s deeply connected to the goals in the Framework for Recreation in Canada 2024 Update. What sets Designing with Dignity apart is its bold belief that the arts aren’t just a nice-to-have — they’re essential to how we build dignity, inclusion, and resilience in our communities.
A Community of Care and Practice
At its heart, this initiative is about building a “Community of Care and Practice,” where creative expression is more than a form of entertainment — it’s a tool for healing, connection, and action. That means treating arts not as an add-on to recreation programs, but as a central method for reaching the deeper goals of well-being, belonging, and empowerment.
A major part of the program’s strategy is something called Arts-Based Youth Participatory Action Research, or YPAR. In short: young people become researchers and changemakers. They use creative tools like photovoice, community murals, digital storytelling, spoken word, music, theatre, and even coding to ask hard questions, share their lived experiences, and dream up solutions for real-world problems. These aren’t just workshops — they’re cycles of inquiry, action, and reflection, where youth shape both the process and the outcomes.
With partners like Global Dignity Canada the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, youth and artists get hands-on training in these artistic research methods, learning to express complex issues in ways that traditional data can’t. And when it’s time to share what they’ve learned, the results don’t sit on a shelf in a binder. They take the form of exhibitions, performances, podcasts, interactive exhibits, and storytelling — all designed to spark conversation, inspire change, and reflect the voices of those often left out.
Dignity and the Arts
Why use the arts? Because they connect us — across language, culture, and experience. They give people, especially youth, ways to process emotion, build self-esteem, and imagine something better. Artistic expression offers a safe and powerful outlet to explore frustration, celebrate culture, and speak to both pain and hope. We’ve seen this in many of our past projects, where expressive arts were used to help participants share what dignity means to them — sometimes through drawing, sometimes through spoken word, and often with powerful emotional impact.
Arts also have a special role to play in advancing reconciliation and inclusion. They offer Indigenous youth culturally grounded ways to share their stories, language, and traditions — not as symbolic gestures, but as central parts of the program’s design. That includes integrating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ), or traditional knowledge, into how projects are shaped and led. From sewing and carving to music and video, the arts are a bridge between generations and a way to revitalize culture through creation.
Another strength of this approach is placemaking and spatial justice — using art to shape public spaces and reflect a community’s character. Whether it’s painting a mural or creating a collaborative installation, youth can reshape their surroundings to reflect their identities and visions. These projects help build community pride, boost belonging, and give young people a say in how their neighbourhoods look and feel.
Through it all, participation in arts-based programs builds more than just skills — it builds confidence, leadership, and connection. Youth come away with new tools to advocate for themselves and their communities, while organizations develop stronger, more responsive ways of working.
This all ties back to the big picture: Designing with Dignity supports the Framework for Recreation in Canada by showing how arts can deliver on goals like Inclusion and Access, Active Living, and Recreation Capacity. The arts engage people who might not otherwise participate, offer dynamic alternatives to sedentary programs, and give community organizations powerful new ways to lead with empathy and creativity.
At the end of the day, Designing with Dignity reminds us that dignity isn’t something you teach in a lecture — it’s something you build through experience, expression, and connection. Weaving the arts into everything it does, this initiative shows how creativity guided by conscience can be a force for deep, lasting change. It helps create communities that are not just functional, but vibrant, welcoming, and full of possibility.
We’re excited to start this new program in June.
