Arts as Tool is an opportunity for capacity building, expansion of arts across sectors, and to address local gaps facing numerous communities.
This project includes three parts: development and launch of the 'Nova's Art as Tool Fieldguide', a capacity building fellowship, and 3 gatherings to share about this work across different sectors and communities.
Project Overview
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Field-Guide Development
This field guide acts as an opportunity for Nova Arts Hub to:
a) better express the meaning and power of art as a tool,
b) to create replicable activities that can address local social issues while building local BIPOC artists’ capacity, and
c) to diversify financing structures for artists doing socially engaged work.
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Art as Tool Fellowship
The Art as a Tool Fellowship is a three month learning and practice opportunity for three BIPOC community members who are interested in exploring art as a tool for wellness, cross-cultural connection, and community empowerment. Cohort members will have peer mentorship in developing a program or workshop based on the “Nova’s Art as a Tool Fieldguide” (this guide has ready-to-go workshop plans and resources for facilitation). Members will select a workshop plan or program they see as beneficial for their community, experiment with facilitating (with peer mentorship leading up), and 3 gatherings as a cohort to reflect.
$500 participation fee provided, as well as material stipends!
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Community Events
The final phase includes transferring this learning into our general communities. Three events will be hosted that will focus on bringing artists, those in the social sectors, city staff, and art organizations together in order to further disperse this resource and demonstrate the many ways that art can be utilized within their contexts.
Applications Open- Art as Tool Fellowship!
Overview
Interested in building your capacity around community organizing, facilitation, or using creativity for community connection?
The Art as a Tool Fellowship is a three month learning and practice opportunity for three BIPOC community members who are interested in exploring art as a tool for wellness, cross-cultural connection, and community empowerment. Cohort members will have peer mentorship in developing a program or workshop based on the “Nova’s Art as a Tool Fieldguide” (this guide has ready-to-go workshop plans and resources for facilitation). Members will select a workshop plan or program they see as beneficial for their community, experiment with facilitating (with peer mentorship leading up), and 3 gatherings as a cohort to reflect.
$500 participation fee provided, as well as material stipends!
This program follows the following process:
- SELECTION: Three applicants will be selected for this first cohort
- CHOOSE YOUR ACTION: Get access to the Nova’s Art as Tool Field Guide for review. Select one activity from the Art as a Tool Field Guide to create in your community.
- PRE-WORK: Engage in pre-work, to prepare you as a facilitator and community organizer
- GATHERING #1: Engage in the first gathering with cohort members and Nova staff. The first gathering is based on building our own foundation for community work, that focuses on self-sustainability, building a sense of self, and bringing your own family values to your work.
- PREPARE YOUR ACTION WITH SUPPORT: Start preparing for your event/ program/ workshop. A dedicated Nova team member will be available to offer support wherever needed.
- GATHERING #2: Second Gathering: This gathering is dedicated to preparing and setting ourselves up for success with the workshop/event you are planning. It's a chance to share insights, ask questions, and figure out what may be needed.
- Do your action!
- GATHERING #3: Final Gathering: Come back together as a cohort to share about how it went, where things worked, what we would do differently, etc.
- RECIPROCITY: This cohort will support us in assuring the field guide is as helpful as it can be. We ask that all participants fill out a feedback form based on how the field guide helped you, or where it could improve.
Payment Schedule: $250 given after the second gathering, and the second half given after program completion.
Grounded in Indigenous approaches to relational accountability, ethical storywork, and community care, the fellowship supports artists in adapting and testing activities from Nova Arts Hub's Art as a Tool Field Guide within communities they are already connected to.
Participants are invited to explore the role of the artist as a Cultural First Responder: someone who witnesses the world around them and responds through creativity, relationship-building, facilitation, and social innovation.
Rather than focusing on artistic production, this fellowship focuses on process, experimentation, facilitation, reflection, and community impact.
Cohort Support Team
Fellowship Support: Kyra Royo Fay
Kyra will be the main support person for fellows in this program! She will be leading the gatherings, fellow support plans, and communications.
Kyra Royo Fay is a Filipina-American multi-undisciplinary artist, educator, and facilitator living on the unceded territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Nations. Born and raised in the archipelago of Indonesia, her work is shaped by the textures of diasporic identity, ecological kinship, and ancestral entanglement.
Kyra can be reached at kyra.novaartshub@gmail.com
Program Lead: Lajah Warren
Lajah Warren (Founder of Nova Arts Hub) is the lead in creating the fieldguide and will be supporting in the gatherings wherever possible.
Cohort Gatherings
Gathering One: Preparing Ourselves for the Work
Before facilitating with community, fellows will come together to explore:
- Art as a tool
- Cultural First Responders framework
- Relational accountability
- Bringing you, your family, and culture into your facilitation style
- Consent and co-creation practices
- Community readiness
This gathering focuses on preparing ourselves for the responsibilities that come with carrying stories, facilitating gatherings, and working alongside the community.
Gathering Two: Supporting One Another Through the Work
Midway through implementation, fellows will come together to share experiences, challenges, questions, and discoveries.
Together we will explore:
- Responding to unexpected situations
- Community care and facilitator wellness
- Adapting activities as needed
- Confidence building
- Peer mentorship and collective problem-solving
Gathering Three: Reflection, Integration, and Future Pathways
After implementation, fellows will gather to reflect on what was learned.
Together we will explore:
- What worked
- What changed
- What surprised us
- What responsibilities emerged
- How these tools might continue to evolve
The gathering will support fellows in integrating their experiences and identifying how they wish to carry this work forward.
Ideal Applicants
We welcome applications from:
- Indigenous peoples
- Racialized communities
- Newcomers
- Community facilitators
- Cultural workers
- Emerging changemakers
- Interdisciplinary artists
…Just to name a few!
Applicants do not need facilitation experience. Priority will be given to individuals who are already connected to a community, group, or network where they can meaningfully test an Art as a Tool activity. It does NOT matter if you have facilitated before. This is designed to build capacity for those who would like, not for those who already consider themselves as ‘experts’.
This Fellowship is for community members located on Vancouver Island, and is able to transport to Nova Arts Hub for the gatherings. This is also limited to anyone 18 years of age or older.
What Fellows Receive
- Honorarium
- Mentorship and support
- Access to the Art as a Tool Field Guide
- Peer learning opportunities
- Opportunities to contribute to an Indigenous-led community resource
- Connection to a growing network of artists using art as a tool for social change
Program Philosophy
We believe that art has always been more than an aesthetic practice. Art can be a tool for survival, relationship-building, cultural continuity, healing, innovation, education, advocacy, and belonging.
This fellowship invites artists to explore what becomes possible when we approach creativity not only as something we make, but as something we use to strengthen our communities. All of the values, practices, and approaches to Nova Arts Hub are built into the design of this program, and the learnings that fellows will receive.