thinkshops for Communities

We're passionate about bringing creative thinking into our homes and communities! 
​Scroll down to get inspired by the Thinkshops below or let us design one for your community.

Culture Days
Giant Figura   |   City of Vaughan

To celebrate arts and culture, and get people thinking about how culture shapes our world, we created a life-size set of our popular Figura pieces and built a popup play park at Vaughan Mills Mall. People of all ages and backgrounds came together to create, build, collaborate, and challenge themselves – step ladders are the best! We have more community experiences planned in partnership with the City of Vaughan, so stay in the loop by bookmarking our Playbill page or signing up for our Newsflash below.  

As we move closer to launching our regular sized Figura, you can follow along on twitter and instagram or sign up for product updates and pre-orders at our Figura website. We'll be sharing details as they become available. So excited!

Toronto Maker Festival
Toronto Resource Library   |   Toronto

What role do you play in shaping our world? We brought The Manipulation Project to this year’s Toronto Maker Festival to explore the question of how we shape our world. Throughout the weekend, people of all ages stopped by to manipulate everyday materials in unexpected ways. They slowed down and put their heads together – testing theories, challenging their thinking, and bringing their ideas to life. And through it all, a powerful thought began to crystallize for us: The simpler the material, the more complex the thinking!

>> Want to see more? Scroll down for images from our previous Maker Fest experience, The Database Project

Party in the Park with Tom Thomson
City of Pickering   |   Claremont

We are grateful to the City of Pickering for inviting us to participate in this unique celebration of the life and art of Tom Thomson. Their willingness to embrace creativity made it possible for us to create a magical opportunity for the community to come together and be inspired by the colours of Tom Thomson’s paintings. We were all mesmerized by this evolving, illuminated sculpture of glass and light – and by Geoff Taylor, who sang and played the mandonlin for us, and shared intriguing passages from this book ”Tom Thomson's Last Bonfire”. The combination of light, story, music and mystery was a truly memorable experience.

Culture Days
Dream Weaver Project   |   City of Vaughan

This year for Culture Days, we brought the City of Vaughan's Dream Weaver Project to Vaughan Mills Mall where people shared with us their immigration stories, their hopes for healing, and their unique dreams for the future of art and culture in our community. What an honour to be on the receiving end of these diverse perspectives, and to know that with each thread added to another's story, the connections in this community grow stronger.

>>See images from additional Dream Weaver events, including festivals, concerts and library visits.

Honey Harvest Festival
Kortright Centre for Conservation   |   Woodbridge, Ontario

It's always a treat to pop up at Kortright's annual Honey Harvest Festival. We love to watch people engage with the materials we bring to explore the efficiency of the hexagon shape used in honeybee hives. Plus, who doesn't love rolling honeyballs with roving? ​

Toronto Maker Festival
Toronto Resource Library   |   Toronto

Every day we scan our environment, searching for patterns and relationships that will help us make sense of the world. It’s a complex, intuitive process of coding and decoding that often happens instantaneously, out of sight, beyond our own awareness. We brought The Data Base Project to the Toronto Maker Festival to deconstruct these skills with old-school materials that spark the inner designer, creator and innovator in all of us – so we can poke at the world, reframe our thinking, and propel our ideas forward.
​

Reflections of Canada
Innisfil Public Library   |   Lakeshore & Cookstown Branches  |  Elspeth Centre for Women

We brought this delightful program to two locations of the Innisfil Public Library and IdeaLAB, as well as the Peacock Youth Program at Elspeth Centre for Women  – to look closely at Canada through the lenses of nature, culture, and experience. People of all ages dropped by to reflect on Canada – using inspiration from library books and Group of Seven art; and sharing knowledge and personal memories of PEI, Nova Scotia, family cottages, camping, the beach and more. 

Elasti-city
Culture Days   |   City of Vaughan

We partnered with the City of Vaughan for Culture Days – a celebration of Arts & Culture – bringing along a fascinating collection of found materials and loose parts to inspire an exploration of the changes happening all around us in this great city. We discovered that children have a very different vantage point, spatially, from adults, which explains why many of them explored transportation in the form of wheels, subways and tunnels. Parents and children also worked together to create transient sculptures representing multiculturalism, history, and diversity. And we witnessed, once again, the beauty of trusting in the competency of children. Thank you, City of Vaughan, for this wonderful opportunity to pop up in the community and connect with families and children of all ages!

Learn more about VaughanEDC – Vaughan's Economic Development and Culture Services Department here: Facebook  Twitter  Instagram

The Living Library
The WOW! Initiative   |   Toronto

This was a dynamic evening of shared knowledge, celebrating the first graduates of UJA's WOW! funding initiative. We created a living library where each graduating organization was set up as an open book – available to answer questions, share stories, and make connections. Guests browsed the library materials and gathered objects that had been selected to represent the "wow-ness" of each organization, then placed the materials into their relevant spots in a community art installation. At the end of the night, we removed the wooden rings to reveal a collective community voice, working and growing together. Guests came away with a distinct and memorable experience of having visited a library that was alive with story and momentum.

SCDSB Maker Faire
Simcoe County District School Board   |   Angus, Ontario

Sure, the Maker Movement is all about tinkering and technology, but it’s also about creativity and innovation. That’s where we fit in. We love deconstructing Maker thinking by challenging people to think differently and consider the power and limitations of simple materials. So we brought string and rocks to Simcoe’s Maker Faire and then we stood back and watched the inspiration flow.

Building Friendship
PJ Plus   |   Toronto, Ontario

When we learned we’d be running a program alongside a Toopy and Binoo puppet show, we took the time to look closely and realized that these favourite TV characters represent the ultimate in friendship and loyalty. What better way to get people excited about the upcoming Walk for Israel? Anyone can tell you that the best part of participating in the annual Walk is the meeting up with old friends, the shared experience, and the memories. So we built a program that felt like a friendship journey – standing together, building memories, and growing ties – to the community, each other, and the land of Israel.

Four Winds Kite Festival
​Kortright Conservation Centre   |   Vaughan, Ontario

Glorious weather, great tunes, colour soaring through the sky  – Kortright's annual KiteFest is at the top of our list for a perfect way to spend a day with family and friends. This year we created a wonder table to explore the design-thinking behind kite-making. And we brought back our super popular Wind Runners – a simple, tactile experience that lets children practice tying knots and creating their own wind energy. It's always fascinating to watch their creations come to life and their thinking become more and more complex as they day progresses. And we build in a wonderful opportunity to practice release of ownership by asking the children to dismantle their creations when done – leaving the materials for someone else to enjoy.

​Power Play 
Garnet Williams Community Centre   |   Vaughan, Ontario

In this 6-part series, we invited parents and children to play, develop language, build, create, and explore together with open-ended materials. We gave the children time and space to stretch their thinking and develop theories about the world around them; while parents gained a deeper understanding of their child's capabilities – including independence, emotional well-being and innovative thinking. Each week we explored the power of opposites to encourage critical, creative, and inventive thinking – even in the youngest of children. 

Honeybee Festival
September 2015
​Kortright Conservation Centre   |   Vaughan, Ontario

Our goal at Kortright's Honeybee Festival was to get people thinkin' about hexagons. What we discovered while planning this fabulous experience is just how much we can learn about efficiency and mathematical thinking from the honeybee's hexagonal building strategy. Sure, we got rained out at the tail end of the festival, but that didn't stop everyone – toddlers and grandparents included – from building honeycombs, rolling honeyballs, and stringing up hexagons. We all came away from the festival feeling very inspired by these incredible, clever insects!

Finding Art in Nature
​Kortright Conservation Centre   |   Vaughan, Ontario

Finding Art in Nature was a series of learning opportunities designed to complement Kortright's homeschool program. During our visits, we looked closely at colour and texture in nature. Many of the images speak for themselves. Some standout learning moments include compositional research with triangles, creating with metaphor, and handling a variety of tools for testing and theory building. There is something truly wonderful about creating in an outdoor space where nature is actively conserved and protected. ​

Four Winds Kite Festival
​Kortright Conservation Centre   |   Vaughan, Ontario

This was our first Kortright festival. We had such an incredible time, we came back the next day for more! We set out mirrors and loose parts for children to create kites in the clouds reflected in the mirrors. Much to their delight the real kites were captured in the reflections as well, deepening the connection and creating a fully-engaging experience in the crisp fresh air. In our efforts to create wind on a not-so-windy day, we set out sticks and ribbons and invited children to create their own personal "wind runners" as well. A simple, yet powerful and joyful experience.

YH Family Celebration
Beth Sholom Synagogue   |   Toronto, Ontario

In the spirit of community building, we created this custom-designed event to link two communities that exist on two different sides of the world. Families came to build the land of Israel together in honour of Yom Ha'Atzmaut, and weave friendship circles to send to soldiers far away. The program was warmly received by parents and children, and a wall art installation was created with the remaining friendship circles as a reminder of this wonderful community experience.

Victory Thinkshop
​City Shul   |   Toronto, Ontario

When City Shul commissioned us to design an event for their annual Chanukah celebration, we planned a multi-dimensional Thinkshop that would ignite the imagination of their community. We had no idea it would become such a moving and memorable experience for us as well! 

The wonder began in the Victory Room where families considered the journey from courage to freedom and worked together to rebuild the temple. Although this holiday story emerges from destruction, families poured their energy into building representations of strength and harmony. In The Lounge, we enticed children and adults with Dreidels-on-Ice, a playful twist on a centuries-old game. The provocation was so intriguing, everyone was eager to test out their theories about which dreidel and state of melt was ideal for spinning. At the end of the evening, we gathered in the Miracle Room to capture the light of Chanukah – exploring colour and reflection in the dark, playing with warmth and light, and building a distinct sense of community with shared voices and familiar melodies. We feel very grateful to have witnessed this powerful moment of passion and connection.

Creative Thinkshops for Kids
​Various Community Centres   ​|   City of Vaughan, Ontario

These images are from a series of Thinkshops for kids we offered through the City of Vaughan's Recreation Guide. See also Power Play gallery above for a peek into our Parent + Tot program for ages 2-6.  Although we no longer offer these programs, keep an eye on our playbill page for family-friendly experiences popping up this summer in partnership with the City of Vaughan!

National Bible Contest 
​Annual Competition   |   Thornhill, Ontario

50+ grade 5/6 students gathered from across Canada to compete in this National Bible Contest. To offset the drive for personal knowledge and success that's built into the contest, we challenged students to explore the intersection between the individual and the community. Participants built new communities, and infused them with the light of collective knowledge and the colours of human nature. Read our blog post "Freeing Our Ideas and Our Minds" to learn more about the "Personality Sticks" they created and the incredible relationship and community-building that ensued. It was a magical experience for everyone involved.
>> visit another Thinkshop gallery