Kris Krüg

Join us on December 2nd for Volunteers Take The Stage!

CMVan volunteers are a group of diverse, inspiring, creatives that work in silence behind the scenes to produce our gatherings every month. This month’s theme of ‘abundance’ brings their voice to the front of the room.Register

Dr. Kari Marken
A PhD and former high school drama teacher who now teaches creativity at the Sauder School of Business as well as running her own educational design consultancy.

Marga Lopez
A Mexican immigrant with extensive international experience as a communication designer who is now the national president of Design Professionals of Canada when she isn’t running her own design practice or teaches young designers at the Wilson School of Design at KPU.

Heidi Christine
Heidi is a rare born and raised Vancouverite and someone who not only has a strong creative and artistic side, but was a math and science nerd who studied electrical engineering! These days she is the Head of Community for an online gaming startup.

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Additional details

Virtual Attendance We will be limiting in-person attendees, so if you cannot attend in person, please click here to attend virtually via Zoom.

COVID-19 NOTICE CreativeMornings/Vancouver has taken necessary measures consistent with BC Health guidelines to mitigate the risk of exposure to COVID-19. Despite these measures, COVID-19 is highly contagious, and we cannot guarantee that you will not be exposed to COVID-19 at any CreativeMornings in-person event. By attending a CreativeMornings/Vancouver in-person event, you acknowledge and assume this risk and are encouraged to wear a mask when in close proximity to others.

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November’s global theme is ‘TRUTH’ and we are thrilled to showcase accomplished writer, creative director, 
public art enthusiast, designer, 
and amateur printer Leanne Prain who will share insights and perspectives and her personal story of creativity.

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By day Prain works as a creative director for a crown corporation, and at night she writes. She is the author of four books published by Arsenal Pulp Press: The Creative Instigator’s Handbook: A DIY Guide to Making Social Change Through Art (2022), Strange Material: Storytelling Through Textiles, Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti, co-authored with Mandy Moore; and Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery. She also writes for a variety of publications on craft and culture, such as Digits and Threads, Designer, Desktop, Works that Work, Applied Arts, and Seamwork. 



Leanne is a former president of the BC Chapter of the Society of Graphics Designers (now DesCan), and a Certified Design Professional. She is also an amateur printer – having recently acquired a tabletop letterpress and some 100 year old wood-type. Leanne has been called a Shameless Woman by Shameless magazine and a Lingo Maker of the Year by Mclean’s magazine. Her creative projects and books have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue Knitting, the BBC, the Guardian UK, CBC, and the Globe and Mail.

As usual, we asked Leanne a handful of probing questions to give us a deeper glimpse into her life and relationship with creativity:

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
I define creativity as problem-solving with a curious and open mind. For me, I often find that I’m most creative when I’m seeking an answer to a big question or I’m trying to fill a gap in my knowledge or experience. Creativity is not the answer for me – it is the process of trying to improve oneself and life by having a healthy appetite for new experiences, and the will to try and process what I’ve learned from these experiences through writing or making or gathering my community together.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
I get my best creative energy from new places and new people. I am definitely an information seeker – when I profile some one I want to know everything about them I possibly could know. People are endlessly fascinating to me. I also find human-made places a source of inspiration, whether that is a historic piece of architecture, an unusual small town museum, or a side-show attraction. I’m a collector of all sorts of things – from ephemera to vintage dishware to publishing antiquities. I get a lot of inspiration from learning about the past and thinking about how it applies to our collective future.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
Focus on what excites you. Even if your current interests seem tangential to your school projects or your ideal career path, you never know what strange connections will come out of pursuing what you love. Also, you have more support than you think you do. I’m constantly delighted by the acquaintances and strangers who have come out of the woodwork to support my projects.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Dead: Pamela Colman Smith, original illustrator of the Rider tarot deck
Living: Jackie Dives, Vancouver photographer of many things, including chronicling the Lytton Wildfire, Bountiful, the Overdoes Crisis…. I met her when she was just starting her career and I’m amazed at how quickly she has pushed her photo journalism.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
I sent an email to a stranger who I’d only met once, who I cyberstalked online, and asked them if they wanted to write a book about the yarn bombing movement with me. Luckily, they said yes – and we wrote a book that has been in print for over 12 years. Thanks Mandy!

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?
YouTube. I started watching people who stumble into abandon houses or dig up vintage bottles over the pandemic. I find watching other people treasure hunting very soothing.

What are you reading these days?
I am currently reading Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, which is a novel about a feral, artistic mother who takes on werewolf characteristics and Just My Type, a book about fonts by Simon Garfield. Next I really want to read How Not to Be Strange: The Curious History of the Island of Redonda by Michael Hingston. It is his personal account of a real island – Redonda – that a series of real authors have made each other king over generations. The book sounds bonkers and amazing.

How does your life and career compare to what you envisioned for your future when you were a sixth grader?
When I was in grade six, I wanted to be making crafts, be writing stories, to live in a city, and to own a cat. Checkmate.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
I rally people to do absurd, unusual, and fun projects together.

What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)?
I was recently at a store in Toronto called Curiosa. I learned the difference between a zoetrope and a praxinoscope, both which are vintage animation tools. Both use still images to produce an animation but only a zoetrope allows a group to see the full animation.

What keeps you awake at night?
The climate crisis. The decline of old growth trees. The housing crisis. The fentanyl crisis. Fish farms. Textile waste. People who ban books.

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?
Creativity is not a label that belongs to any one group of people, I believe that all people are inherently creative, we just show it in different ways. Creativity visits on some days, and does not on other days. It is best harnessed when we are in the act of doing things. I do not believe in waiting around to be creative or waiting for someone else to make you creative. Go read some stuff, make some stuff and experiment. Along the way, you’ll begin to feel creative.

What has been one of your biggest Ah-Ha! moments in life?
No one is going to show up and ask you to act on your dreams but if you can cultivate a vision for the thing that you want to bring into the world, or the goals that you want to achieve, you will find a surprising number of people to collaborate with and who will cheer you along as you go. I believe that if you create something that you need in the world, other people probably need it too.

What object would you put in a time capsule that best represents who you are today?
A 0.7 Sarasa black ballpoint pen. My primary tool for thinking, plotting, and strategizing.

What is the one movie or book every creative must see/read?
Love it or hate it, The Writer’s Way is a classic for a reason. It taught me more about showing up, angst, and creative relationship building than any other book. Gordon MacKenzie’s Orbiting The Giant Hairball is also a great book for those entering a corporate creative life.REGISTER

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For October’s gathering we will explore creativity through the thematic lens of ‘ETHOS’ and are excited to showcase Juno Award-nominated music producer, composer, sound designer, and DJ, Adham Shaikh, who will not only share his story, but he will be performing live for us!Register

Adham Shaikh is a Emmy and Juno Award-nominated music producer, composer, sound designer, and DJ who brings his uniquely powerful global sounds to the world stage and screen, not to mention many a crowded dance floor.Adham has scored original soundtracks for numerous film and television productions, including National Geographic (Emmy nomination), Sacred Planet (Disney Imax), Velcrow Ripper’s Fierce Light (National Film Board, Fierce Light Films), Rainbow Jaguars’ Earth Pilgrim, The Edge of the World: BC’s Early Years (Knowledge), and Secrets (CBC’s Passionate Eye, Make Believe Media), for which he received a Leo Award for Best Musical Score in a Documentary Program. His music has also been licensed to an extensive list of media productions, including BBC Orphan BlacK , Suzuki Speaks (Avanti Pictures). Look out for his latest original work on the upcoming program 940 Caledonia.Shaikh skillfully weaves organic and electronic sounds into global music tapestries that take listeners on sonic journeys transcending time and place. He has released 16 albums and many individual compositions, among them the 2004 release, Fusion, which was nominated for a Juno Award (Canadian Grammy) in the World Music category and Universal Frequencies (2010) which won best album ( BC Independent Music awards). Shaikh also co-produced and mixed the award-winning debut CD for global fusion group Delhi 2 Dublin, Produced the last two Buckman Coe albums and has finished re-mixing tracks for internationally renowned artists Nickodemus, Deya Dova, Kaya Project, Tripswitch and David Starfire, Delhi2Dublin, Desert Dwellers, Eccodeck, Issa Bagayogo, Ganga Giri, and the Footsteps in Africa Project (Turag remix).

As usual, we asked Adham some probing questions to augment his biography as a glimpse into his life and relationship with creativity:

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?

On some level I try not to define it but put myself in service of it. In the daily pursuit of the joy of making/creating things. The hunger to create new musical landscapes that no one has heard fuels a lot of my musical endeavours. In the daily dynamics of problem solving and working with what is available to get the results. I love experimenting and exploring. I enjoy looking for patterns in disparate musical things and seeing if they can be combined. Creating musical maps of inner worlds.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?

In my bathtub! And then In my studio. I have created a space that is cozy and quiet in the forest where I feel inspired and am able to work uninterrupted for long periods of time. Jumping in the river brings me inspiration and energy and I can channel that back in my studio.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

That it’s simply a matter of doing it. Start the journey. Sit down every day and make something. Whether it’s a sound or a beat or a riff or a whole song. It’s the act of sitting down and setting the intention to do something. It’s amazing what comes along when you are in the act/practice.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?

The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Or Rick and Morty creators Justin Roland and Dan harmon.

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?

Smoking pot.

What are you reading these days?

“In the Blink of An Eye” by Walter Murch.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?

I’m an interstellar traveller collecting sacred vibrations for the intergalactic jukebox at the centre of the universe.

Where was the last place you travelled?

Tar Desert in Rajasthan India.

What was the best advice you were ever given?

Don’t look back (creatively), just keep going forward it’s a journey, not a destination.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck?

I go jump in the river.

What are you proudest of in your life?

My children.Register

For September’s gathering we will explore creativity through the thematic lens of ‘DEPTH’ and are honoured to feature National Ballet of Canada principal dancer, published author, director, teacher, executive producer and entrepreneur, Chan Hon Goh.

Her accomplishments, with irrepressible devotion to the enhancement of the cultural life of Canada, have garnered several prestigious awards including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the YWCA Women of Distinction Award, the New Pioneers Arts Award and the Best Teacher Award at the World Ballet Competition. In 2019, Ms. Goh was appointed as a member to the Order of Canada for her excellence in ballet as a principal dancer, artistic director and cultural ambassador. Most recently, Ms. Goh was recognized as the recipient of an honorary degree from the University of British Columbia for her significant contributions to society.

As usual, we asked Chan some probing questions to augment her biography as a glimpse into her life and relationship with creativity:

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?

My life and career have always been intertwined and one feeds off another. Perhaps for me creativity is to be flexible & open with genuine intentions.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?

It comes to me at the oddest times, usually unexpected. Some may be fleeting but if it last, it’s usually the thing to do or to make happen. My environment whether real or imagined plays a part.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

Don’t force it. And this is different than perseverance which we all should have.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?

Walt Disney.

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?

To watch as many live performances as possible in New York or London in a row.

What are you reading these days?

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger

That’s a hard one.

What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)?

There is nothing that is definite.

If you could do anything now, what would you do?

Give myself time to figure it out.

Pennylane Shen, describes all of art history in less than 30 seconds.

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July’s global theme is ‘SPIRITUALITY’ and we are excited to showcase poet, people enthusiast, and public learner, Lance Odegard.

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Lance’s current work is with Unstucking, his coaching and facilitation practice centered on transformative conversation design. He is also the Director of Learning & Development at Versett (a design agency in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto) and continues to write poems after re-releasing his first collection in 2020 (At the Pool We’ve All Got Bodies).

People-centered work has been at the heart of his working life over the last twenty years, collaborating with people as an artist, college instructor, communications director, design facilitator and pastor. Throughout these multidisciplinary pursuits, Lance has held a singular focus on cultivating people potential. He loves to see people get unstuck, build their creative confidence, and take their next step. Lance lives in the Strathcona neighbourhood of Vancouver, BC.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?
Choosing curiosity over fear. That’s Elizabeth Gilbert’s line, but it’s my favourite definition. On the surface, my work has lots of creative components whether that’s in writing or in design education. But I think beneath that, much of my creativity is expressed through unlocking other people’s creativity. I think people are the most fascinating thing going. Which is why my favourite word is a made up one (unstucking). I love to create the conditions for people to be reunited with their creative confidence and to see them get unstuck and to fully unfurl their potential.

What does the theme mean to you through the lens of creativity?
I like Ron Rolheiser’s definition of spirituality, how it’s essentially what we do with our restlessness, our longings—both in the pain and the hope they bring us. I think spirituality is what we make of the human experience, which is ultimately a creative act.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?
The marginal moments of the day—a walk, a shower, a break, an in between space where the mind isn’t occupied.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
Begin before you’re ready. The conditions will always be unfavorable, less than ideal, maybe impossible—you might as well just get going now. Your fears are lying to you. Keep moving even when scared. The act of finding your starting line is your greatest challenge and greatest priority. The cost of preserving the status quo is never worth it. Then I’d quote Ijeoma Umebinyuo, “Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have. Just… start.”

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?
Lucille Clifton

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence?
Books. So many, but not too many, books.

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight?
That there are creative people and non-creative people. Creativity is a muscle. Some people use it and there are others who don’t. That’s the only difference. The more you use it, the more you have!

What are you reading these days?
Learn or Die by Edward D. Hess. Also Ada Limon’s new collection, The Hurting Kind

What are you proudest of in your life?
Who my kids are becoming.

Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you?
My Dad is one of my favourite conversation topics. He’s an ongoing marvel. He has always been fluid, flowing in and out of different jobs, at times: a horticulturalist, recreational therapist at the nursing home, a baker and caterer, a flower arranger, a restaurant owner. Also, he rides an endless wave of creative pursuits: canary raising, stocking Japanese Koi fish in the pond he made in the garden, grooming and showing Shetland Sheep Dogs, starting restaurants, water-colour painting, acting in community plays, while dabbling in set-design, choir directing, antique hunting, and most recently, bonsai collecting (he joined Twitter and at this point he has one tweet: “interest in bonsai continues”).

I could tell you one hundred stories about him. In each of them, the same themes:
+ So much permission to pursue interests and to make the pursuit visible.
+ So little questioning—is this allowed? what are my peers doing? am I good enough? is this weird?
+ So little fear. What mattered was making the stuff, not how he looked in the making or what people thought.

Where does this kind of creative confidence come from? I’m asking because I’ve shared a postal code and even a genetic code with this man, yet share so little of the courage. I can honestly say that self-doubt has been my achilles heel. I’ve known a bit of the creativity, but often without the accompanying confidence to truly bring it forward. I’m still learning creative confidence and seeing my Dad’s ongoing commitment to a creative life is still helping me.

We are thrilled to kick off this event with a live musical performance by classical guitar virtuoso Anna Pietrzak.

🎵Anna Pietrzak is a versatile guitarist, pedagogue, adjudicator and founder of the Vancouver Guitar Orchestra. A highly sought after recording artist, Pietrzak frequently performs as a soloist with orchestras and giving recitals in North America, Europe and throughout Asia.

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Join us for June’s global theme is ‘WILDERNESS’. We’re grateful to be able to feature artistic director, playwright, 
author, performer, and educator Marcus Youssef.

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You might know Youssef as a regular contributor of drama, commentary, and documentary to numerous programs on CBC. Or maybe for his many contributions to Vancouver Magazine, Georgia Straight, Rice Paper, or This Magazine. For many years, Youssef has also dedicated himself to numerous community-based advocacy programs that aim at using writing and/or theatre as a tool for procuring political and social change.

Youssef’s fifteen or so plays have been produced in a dozen languages in in twenty countries across North America, Europe and Asia, from Seattle to New York to Reykjavik, London, Venice, Hong Kong, Vienna, Athens, Frankfurt and Berlin. He is the recipient of Canada’s largest theatre award, the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, for his body of work as a playwright, as well as Berlin, Germany’s Ikarus Prize, the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, the Chalmers’ Canadian Play Award, the Seattle Times Footlight award, the Vancouver Critics’ Innovation award (three times) and the Canada Council Staunch-Lynton Award. Marcus co-founded the artist-run production hub Progress Lab 1422 and was the inaugural chair of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Advisory Committee. Marcus teaches regularly at the National Theatre School of Canada and Studio 58, implemented Canada’s first multi-institutional Bachelor of Performing Arts Degree, at Capilano University, and served as an Assistant Professor at Montreal’s Concordia University. He is currently International Artistic Associate at Farnham Maltings in the UK, Playwright in Residence at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, and Artistic Associate at Neworld Theatre in Vancouver, which he led from 2005-2019. Marcus has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and graduated from the National Theatre School about a million years ago.

We are excited to present a live performance by none other than singer-songwriter, keyboardist and tenor guitar player Veda Hille.

🎵Veda Hille is a Vancouver musician, composer, theatre maker, and performer. She writes songs, makes records, co-writes musicals, collaborates in devised theatre, and fulfills other interesting assignments as they arise. Veda performs in a wide of array of places, alone or with bands, ensembles, symphonies, and casts. Her career spans 30 years of working in Canada and abroad, and shows no sign of flagging.🎵

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