Coming soon

CreativeMornings Ottawa, June 2020: Insecurity with Lindsay Taub

The creative life is a fearless one. Self-doubt, trepidation and insecurity are the enemies of creativity.

That’s what we’re told – at least when it comes to the advice from most creatives.

On June 26 CreativeMornings Ottawa will welcome Lindsay Taub, an entrepreneur, foodie, wife and mom of two, who will offer a different take.

Lindsay will deliver a talk called “Insecurity breeds creativity”. She will use her own experiences to show everyone that the insecurity that many face with starting something new – whether it be starting a business or writing a novel – can help fuel us to achieve our creative goals.

Lindsay is the owner of Sundae School, Ottawa’s coolest spot for creamy treats. She used to be a psychotherapist, but now she chooses to help people with something even more therapeutic than therapy: ice cream. She believes in the healing power of sweet dairy (and non dairy) treats and loves being a delicious part of her community.

The June 26 talk – again held virtually as CreativeMornings respects physical distancing measures to combat COVID-19 – will feature all the hallmarks of CreativeMornings Ottawa events: Coffee, friendship and laughter.

Lindsay is also an active member of her community and supports various organizations such as The Ottawa Hospital Foundation and the Sandy Hill synagogue and community centre. It’s all part of a community-minded philosophy that she and her husband have formulated: They’ve resolved that they have a responsibility to make Ottawa a better place.

What if everyone in Ottawa, everyone who cares about making Ottawa better, felt a responsibility to improve the city and were able to overcome their own insecurities. What would that look like?

As this month’s theme note from CreativeMornings global notes:

“Ignite a small dose of your courage and fiercely protect its flame. Commit to breaking one limiting belief at a time. With good work and focus, you’ll soon be able to spread your wings and fly higher.”

Tickets for the Ottawa event can be found here.

CreativeMornings Ottawa May 2020: Nature, with Jay Sinha

Maintaining our creativity takes work. We need to develop and foster it if we want it to stay strong and lively.

The same is true of nature: It has the power to feed and rejuvenate us in ways we may have never imagined. But we also need to ensure we protect it and keep it vibrant.

This month’s CreativeMornings Ottawa speaker knows the importance of strengthening the role nature plays in our lives. Jay Sinha is a scientist, lawyer, ecopreneur and tree hugger.

Jay has always been captivated by nature, and his environmental protection instincts really took hold when doing a grade six project on acid rain. Now he sees chilling parallels between yesterday’s acid rain and today’s borderless toxic microplastics.

Like with all recent CreativeMornings talks, May’s event will be hosted virtually. We are also celebrating our EIGHTH year this month and have some special activities lined up:

• The Peace Room is hosting a short meditation session
• Juno award winner KellyLee Evans is performing a song
• We’re hosting a giveaway for books and other goodies from Jay’s company, Life Without Plastic
• We’ll have the usual assortment of familiar faces, smiles, and fun ways for you to help us celebrate CreativeMornings Ottawa’s birthday!

About Jay Sinha’s talk

In his CreativeMornings talk, Jay will speak about the sacred powers of nature and how to access them in our lives.

Jay hails proudly from the sunny, windy prairies of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is the co-founder and co-owner (with business partner Chantal Plamondon) of Life Without Plastic, a globally established online shop and information resource for safe, high quality, ethically-sourced, Earth-friendly alternatives to plastic products for everyday life, including zero waste essentials.

An honours degree in biochemistry from Western University taught him about the microscopic world. He completed civil and common law degrees at McGill University, followed by a dip back into science with a graduate diploma in ecotoxicology from Concordia University—all the better to understand the toxic effects of plastics. He has held various positions in the public, private and civil society sectors.

Jay is a co-author (with Chantal) of the timely bestselling book, LIFE WITHOUT PLASTIC: The Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Avoiding Plastic to Keep Your Family and the Planet Healthy, which distils their years of experience seeking out plastic alternatives into an easily understandable deep dive into the plastic pollution issue and practical how-to guide for living with less plastic. So far, the book has been translated into Italian, Japanese, Czech, Slovak, and an updated French version. Korean and Mandarin are on the way.

Jay now resides in Wakefield, Quebec, Canada.

Get your tickets!

Free tickets for the event will be available at 11 a.m EST on May 22 right here.

In May 2020, CreativeMornings Ottawa is celebrating its eighth year! Stay tuned for some special virtual birthday activities both at our May event and on our social channels.

CreativeMornings Ottawa April 2020: Purpose, with Jace Meyer 

What’s your purpose?

Purpose doesn’t need to be a grand vision – according to this month’s theme note from CreativeMornings “it can exist in all sizes and dimensions, separately, or even all at once.”

This month’s CreativeMornings Ottawa speaker has brought purpose to matters big and small throughout her career.

Jace Meyer is a Mètis mother, teacher, artist, entrepreneur, and intrapreneur currently living, working, and playing on unceded Algonquin territory.

She’s cultivated an expertise in the co-creation of culturally relevant, place-based STEM and adult education. Her teaching has reached 1.25 million Canadian youth from coast to coast to coast.

After designing and developing Shopify’s Research and Development onboarding program, RnD Camp, Jace inspired Shopify to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action #92 and is now the Lead for Indigenous entrepreneurs globally.

As a side-hustle, Jace consults with youth-serving organizations and is a BMW World Responsible Leader.

Jace will be speaking on the purpose she brings to her work and impart some wisdom about how participants can bring purpose to their work and home lives.

The event, which will take place virtually to help stop the spread of COVID-19, starts at 8:30 a.m. on April 24, 2020. All are welcome to attend!

To learn more about Jace, visit her website.

You can also learn more about this month’s global CreativeMornings theme here.

For more information on how you can participate, check out the event page.

[CANCELLED] CreativeMornings Ottawa March 2020: Identity, with Nick Lacelle of Dan Rascal

If you had to describe your identity – the qualities, characteristics and attributes that make you, you – what would you say?

Some might describe their core values: Honesty. Integrity. Fun.

Others might focus on their physical appearance. After all, there’s nothing more unique to each of us than our faces and bodies.

In other cases, identity is wrapped up in activity – closely tying it to the jobs, family time and leisure activities that dominate our days.

This notion of identity will be the core focus on Friday, March 20, when CreativeMornings Ottawa will host filmmaker and entrepreneur Nick Lacelle for a talk on this month’s theme of identity.

Nick’s public-facing identity is closely tied with the notion of creativity, thanks to 20 years of industry experience in film and television. From working as a director and cinematographer on feature films, including projects for Netflix and HBO Canada, to working in television for MTV and Comedy Network, to name a few, Nick has dedicated himself to pushing cinematic boundaries, obsessed with achieving the most out of every production.

In his talk, Nick will discuss the importance of knowing your brand’s character and identity while exploring the notion of “personified branding.”

He’ll also examine how he helps translate brands into characters in his work as partner and Creative Director with Dan Rascal, a video production company specializing in high-end video and video content strategies for brands and other agencies.

Nick will also discuss the role of identity has played in his career and how it impacts the creative process, creative pitfalls and the “get out of jail free” card that is “doing what you love”.

“Your identity is made up of multitudes — the stories you carry, the music you love, the challenges you overcome, the books you read, the communities you’re a part of, and more,” reads this month’s theme announcement from CreativeMornings HQ.

“But your identity is a colorful blend of not only what you consume or create, but also the questions you ask and what you’re willing to learn.”

How will your notion of identity affect your creative process?

CreativeMornings Ottawa is delighted to invite you to hear from Nick and gather with other local creatives on March 20.

Free tickets will become available on March 13 here.

And please follow along with us using the hashtags #CMidentity and #CMOttawa.

See you there!

CreativeMornings Ottawa February 2020: Invest, with Josh McJannett of Dominion City Brewing Co.

When most people think of investment, they think of finances: Investing in the stock market or buying into a mutual fund or purchasing a Canada Savings Bond. Whatever the means, though, the goal is always the same – to create a better future for ourselves.

What we don’t think about as much is investment in our creativity. The means might be different – think of trading in a stock for choosing to read a book or attend an event – but the idea is similar: By investing our time and energy in the right activities, we can become more creative.

On February 28, 2020 CreativeMornings Ottawa will host local entrepreneur Josh McJannett, the co-founder of Dominion City Brewing Co. at the Ottawa Art Gallery for a talk on the theme of invest.

Dominion City has, over the last five years, built a reputation for investing – both in brewing quality beer and investing in its community.

In 2018, for example, Dominion City introduced “Buck-A-Beer (For refugees in Ottawa)”. The program turned a government incentive to brew beer that only cost consumers a dollar into a fundraiser for refugees in Ottawa.

Dominion City has shown that investing in your community can produce big results. But so too does investing in our creativity.

Every decision we make – every day – is an investment for or against our creativity. Choosing to spend our time picking up a new hobby or joining a certain community can pay big dividends for our creative efforts.

“Wise investing requires patience and awareness,” says this month’s note from CreativeMornings global.

“It’s an art that combines our knowledge from past experiences with future aspirations to inform where we’ll put our energy and our heart. To live a sustainable creative life requires us to say ‘yes’ to the choices that bring richness into our lives, even when it seems risky.”

How will your investment in yourself build a better creative future for creativity?

CreativeMornings Ottawa is thrilled to welcome you to hear more from Josh’s journey of investment with Dominion City. We hope you’ll join us!

Free tickets will go live on February 21 here.

And, of course, you can follow along with this month’s theme using February’s hashtags: #CMInvest and #CMottawa

Welcome to a new decade of CreativeMornings Ottawa!

We ended 2019 on a super high note thanks to our incredible community, and we are continuing the trend into 2020. We hope you’ll join us!

We’re starting off the year with a well-known community member, activist, DJ and artist to speak on this month’s global theme—Roots.

Ian Campeau, also known as DJ NDN and Migizi Bebaayaad, is the co-founder and former member of the music group A Tribe Called Red (ATCR). Through a powerful combination of art and activism, he uses his notoriety to draw attention to issues of racism, gender-based violence, stigmas of mental health, and other forms of oppression.

In this talk, Ian will teach us the importance of reconnecting with our roots and how the reclamation of traditional language is essential to understanding Indigenous culture.

Anishinaabe from the Nipissing First Nation, he is a charismatic, impassioned speaker, who promotes discussion and sharing of knowledge to help bring about change.

We cannot wait to hear his talk!

Free tickets will go live on January 23 here: https://creativemornings.com/talks/ian-campeau/

See you on January 31 at the Ottawa Art Gallery!

It’s the last CreativeMornings Ottawa of the decade and we want to make it extra special for you! That’s why this month, we have two engaging speakers from BEING Studio, a not-for-profit art space in the Bronson Centre that supports a community of artists with developmental disabilities, to speak on the theme of Silence.

What happens when you promote inclusive, unfiltered creative expression and nurture new ideas?

That’s exactly what BEING Studio is promoting and what we will explore in this month’s talk.

Speaking on the theme is Stephanie Nadeau, the Executive Director of BEING Studio and Debbie Ratcliffe, an artist at BEING.

We can’t wait to see you all on December 20 at the Ottawa Art Gallery!

Tickets will go live here on Friday, December 13 at 11:00 AM. 

This month we’re welcoming Lisa J. Weiss to the CreativeMornings Ottawa stage to speak to the November global theme Lost, as an invitation, and gateway, to creativity.

Lost is one of those words which elicits a body response. We’ve all had the experience of being lost, whether physically or emotionally. Imagine if, instead of bracing against it, we could tap into the genius of the experience and transform it into one of innovation that jump starts our ability to be creative in how we shape our world. 

Join us on November 29 at the Ottawa Art Gallery! Tickets go live Friday, November 22 at 11 a.m. - don’t snooze!

Happy October, Ottawa!

We’re jumping into the new season with a fun new theme and a fantastic speaker who we cannot wait to have on the CreativeMornings Ottawa stage.

Our speaker is psychologist and expert on creativity and imagination, Eve-Marie Blouin. Eve-Marie came to us with a beautiful pitch on how she can teach and inspire our audience to get into a state of flow, and let’s just say we were sold.

So what is flow?

Flow is a state where time stops existing and the ‘sense of self’ disappears. We have all experienced this at one point in our lives, oftentimes by accident. For some of us, flow came while skiing down a difficult hill, and for others, while painting a lavish landscape or performing in a play.

Whatever the activity, flow is likely to come when the challenges of the situation match a person’s skills, when the goal of the activity is clear, and when people value the activity.

Since getting into a state of flow can help people grow their skill set and access a deeper mode of thinking (all of which are beneficial for creativity), Eve will introduce you to the concept of flow, we will reflect on our own experiences, and practice “hacking” into this state through a play-based activity.

Sounds cool, doesn’t it?

Tickets for #CMflow on Friday, October 18 will go live on October 11 right here.

Pictured: Eve’s previous flow and play workshop at the NAC.

Whether you’re a mathematician tinkering with complex equations or a musician pairing discordant notes together, searching for inspiration can often send you in circles. The longer you sit and wait for an epiphany to strike, the harder it gets to make progress.

What if you could get unstuck by turning to your muse?

This month, Ottawa-based visual artist Marisa Gallemit will share her musings on the unwieldy process of finding expansive mentors, foraging the imagination and trusting in the potency of our own innate ingenuity.

Marisa believes that old things tell stories and is motivated by the concept that every object carries its own history and energy.

Marisa manipulates, deconstructs and distorts objects into sculptural compositions which mimic the corporal and the natural, exploring the odyssey of human emotion, identity and heritage.

Her three-dimensional works use repurposed materials, rhythmic forms and organic textures, acting as tactile monuments to our collective and subtle human experiences.

You can check out more of her incredible work here: http://marisagallemit.com/

#CMmuse is on September 27. Free tickets will be released on September 20 at 11 am here: https://creativemornings.com/talks/marisa-gallemit 

We want to know, what do you do to draw out your muse for creative inspiration, guiding you to new ideas? Tweet us. #CMmuse