The Comox Valley Art Gallery, in conjunction with Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, has developed an arts-based community-action research project in response to the overdose crisis that has blindsided governments and communities across Canada.
The project is called, Walk With Me: Traversing the human dimensions of the overdose crisis – seeking knowledge, justice, respect and unity. It runs from Sept. 30-Nov. 21, Wednesdays and Saturdays, at CVAG, located at 580 Duncan Ave. in downtown Courtenay. It brings together diverse stakeholders in the Comox Valley and Kamloops to re-frame the crisis, and to imagine, through honoring lived experience of those most impacted, new ways forward.
Visitors will be invited to walk through audio and visual stories created by people at the heart of the crisis, starting at the gallery and proceeding to parks and neighbourhoods.
A series of outdoor community events will be hosted as part of the work, involving circles rooted in community healing, arts-based imagining, stigma reduction and policy/social change.
The project is part of a larger research initiative dubbed, Cultural Mapping the Opioid Crisis in Comox Valley and Kamloops, B.C. It’s been developed in collaboration with an advisory team of organizations and people with lived experience.
For more information, visit www.culturalmapping.ca, or call project co-ordinator Sharon Karsten at (250) 650-3794.