Nova Art Hub

When the founder of Nova Art Hub, Lajah Warren, was a child, she would watch her father transform large blocks of cedar into beautiful carvings. Some of her most cherished memories are those of sitting beside him, painting stick figures while he meticulously worked on his creations. These moments are etched in her memory, not only for the skills he shared but for the joy of witnessing someone immersed in their passion.

Lajah credits these early memories with shaping her artistic journey. They revealed to her the power of collaboration and learning. Watching her father carve, she understood that art was far more than creating something beautiful. She learned that art is resistance, art is healing, and art is a gateway to deeper conversations about culture and community.

Cedar clippings from her father's carvings would stick to Lajah's socks, following her around the house. As a child, she would pick them off. Now, she knows they represent more than just cedar clippings; they are fragments of tradition, whispers of resilience, and echoes of a profound legacy.

While Lajah always dabbled in the arts throughout her life, it was when she discovered expressive art techniques that she truly saw art as her next journey. Embracing traditional Coast Salish art form-line and blending it with expressive art, she created a unique style that viewed the audience as active participants in the art and its healing process. Her education in Child and Youth Care led her into various community roles, such as Child and Youth Counseling with her Nation, Two-Spirit Health Outreach, and Land-Based/Food Sovereignty work.

In 2020, she participated in her first exhibition, which included diverse Indigenous artists and mentors who introduced her to the art world. This experience shifted her focus towards her professional art practice, leading to a resume filled with local and international exhibitions, public art displays, commissions, community-based art projects, and much more. Through this journey, she realized that her previous work in social services was not separate from her art practice. Instead, it allowed her to create a new approach to art that focuses on community development, collective knowledge, self-reflection, and activism.

While this approach is not uncommon for artists, understanding her personal motivations and goals through sharing her artwork transformed her perception of her life path. Art became not only her expression but a bridge to connect, heal, and inspire communities.

In 2022, Lajah was invited to travel to Jordan, Turkey, Tunisia, and France. During these travels, she quickly realized how much she had to learn from the communities she visited. Learning about the colonization of other lands and the people’s histories reminded her of how deeply our stories are all connected. It became her duty to become responsible for the stories she learned and the people she met.

With art as common ground and a starting point for many conversations, she knew that her current approach to art-making needed to expand. While still focusing on building her own local community, she wanted to weave in cross-cultural collaboration so that artists from marginalized communities could learn from one another, stand up for one another, and heal together.

Lajah stayed in the South of France for a month-long artist residency, where she explored cross-cultural resistance through her art. Shortly after, she spent a year living in the South of France, connecting with individuals from all parts of the world. After every conversation, she would leave thinking, "If only we had connected earlier... if only our communities could have learned from one another sooner..."

These experiences showed Lajah that our resistance is connected—not in a poetic sense, but quite literally. So, she decided to use her art practice as a tool to bring people together, to deepen our understandings of justice, community, and cross-cultural collaboration. Through her art, she aims to foster a global network of resilience, where shared stories and collective wisdom light the path forward.

And here we are today with the Nova Art Hub! All these experiences led to the creation of Nova Art Hub, and Lajah felt this opportunity could not have come at a better time. Over the past year, she would casually dream about an initiative she wanted to create, jotting down ideas, imagining a business plan, and pretending she had the funds to bring her visions to life. She slowly worked on documents outlining her dreams and goals, not with any confidence that they would come to fruition, but with hope.

After returning from her year in France, she was offered a studio and commercial space for her art at the Royal Oak Shopping Centre. She immediately felt the shock and excitement creeping in, knowing that she had already created all the plans for projects she wished to someday realize. Accepting the offer, she decided to use this space not just for her own art creation but to manifest the dream art hub she had been envisioning for years.

So, that brings us to today—Nova Art Hub—a space where art intersects with justice, culture, and community. Here, the dreams that once lived in Lajah’s heart now flourish, bringing together artists and community members to create, collaborate, and heal. This is where stories converge, where art becomes activism, and where a shared vision for a better world takes root.