Huron County Cultural Summit | Thursday, Nov. 13

Building Belonging Through Art, Culture & Heritage

Huron County’s Cultural Summit is an annual event that offers an opportunity to connect with fellow artists, creators, culture workers, and community organizers.  Participants will learn about best practices, participate in peer-to-peer discussions, and enjoy networking opportunities. This year’s event will focus on the theme of belonging and how art, culture and heritage are used as tools to build belonging within our communities. 

• Date: Thursday, Nov. 13, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Location: Blyth Memorial Hall, 431 Queen St., Blyth
• Admission: This year’s event is free or donate what you can to remove barriers for attendance

Schedule of Events

• 9:30 a.m.: Doors open
• 10-10:15 a.m.: Summit Welcome
• 10:15-11 a.m.: Opening Presentation with Malissa Bryan of Rainbow Diversity Institute
• 11-11:30 a.m.: Refreshments in lower hall
• 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.: Breakout sessions – Pick one of the two sessions:
• Elizabeth French-Gibson chairs: Huron Heritage Round Table – Quarterly meeting with organizational updates
• Terre Chartrand – Building an Indigenous Belonging Resource
• 1-2:20 p.m.: Lunch (see food & drink detail below)
• 2:20-3:30 p.m.: Panel Case Studies with Q&A:
• Rachael King: Volunteering & Belonging at Blyth Festival Theatre
• Lisa Hood: Youth Belonging through Theatre – Blyth Festival Young Company
• Alex Jebsen: Belonging through Education – Huron County Pride
• The Well Youth Hub & Huron County Library present: Building Belonging through Partnership Development
• Siwi Vodden: From Movement to Meaning: An Immigrant’s Journey of Belonging Through Art
• 3:20-3:30 p.m.: Performance by Blyth Festival Young Company
• 3:30-4:30 p.m.: Keynote Presentation: James Fowler & Pearl Van Geest – founding members of the Throbbing Rose Collective, Red Head Gallery and The Nipissing Region Curatorial Collective, share how collaborative art can nurture connection, reflection, and purpose.

Speakers

Opening Keynote Presentation

Belonging is the foundation of creative freedom and authentic expression. In this 40-minute keynote, Malissa Bryan draws on her work as an EDI specialist to explore how identity, power, and relationships shape our experiences in the arts. Through her Foundations of Belonging framework, which centres trust, care, accountability, and curiosity, Malissa offers a practical and reflective approach to creating spaces where artists and audiences feel seen, valued, and safe to create.

Through storytelling and lived examples, she invites participants to reimagine inclusion as a shared and relational practice. Attendees will leave with fresh insights and tangible tools to build equity and belonging in their creative communities.

About Malissa: She is an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion specialist and the Founder of the Rainbow Diversity Institute. Her work focuses on how identity, power, and relationships influence belonging across arts, health, and education. Known for her grounded and relational approach, Malissa blends storytelling and facilitation to help communities move from performative inclusion to genuine belonging rooted in care, trust, and accountability.

Closing Keynote Presentation

Artists James Fowler and Pearl Van Geest share how collaborative art can nurture connection, reflection, and purpose. Through projects such as Queer Up North, Wild Waysides, Natural Variations, the Eco Art Van, Terrain of Sensation, and the long-running Nuit Rose Festival of Queer Performance and Visual Art and the 10X10 Photography Project, they explore how creative practice can bridge people and place. As co-curators, their projects investigate queer ecology, environmental justice, community, and kinship. Together, they reflect on how mapping, mark-making, storytelling, and collaboration can foster belonging and meaning across diverse geographies. This presentation invites educators, artists, and culture makers alike to consider how art making can make people, places, and purpose truly matter.

Based in Toronto, James is known for his work bridging queer aesthetics, cartography, and craft. His paintings and textile-based sculptures explore how culture and place intersect, often using traditional craft techniques to challenge heteronormative expectations. Fowler has exhibited nationally and has taught at OCAD University.

Closing Keynote Presentation

Artists James Fowler and Pearl Van Geest share how collaborative art can nurture connection, reflection, and purpose. Through projects such as Queer Up North, Wild Waysides, Natural Variations, the Eco Art Van, Terrain of Sensation, and the long-running Nuit Rose Festival of Queer Performance and Visual Art and the 10X10 Photography Project, they explore how creative practice can bridge people and place. As co-curators, their projects investigate queer ecology, environmental justice, community, and kinship. Together, they reflect on how mapping, mark-making, storytelling, and collaboration can foster belonging and meaning across diverse geographies. This presentation invites educators, artists, and culture makers to consider how art making can make people, places, and purpose truly matter.

Based in Guelph, Pearl is a queer artist, writer, curator, and educator whose work explores queer ecologies and the connections between the body and the natural world. Her practice engages painting, writing, and community-based projects that blur boundaries between human and environment. Van Geest teaches in the Visual Arts Department at Brock University and has exhibited widely across Canada.

Terre brings a diverse background in literature, theatre, visual arts, photography, technology, and science. As the founder and artistic director of various collectives and projects, Terre is the founder of Red Osier Guild – a guild for land based learning, cultural resurgence, and survival, she initiated Pins and Needles Fabric Company, an inter-arts collective, founded the urban Indigenous youth arts collective Endaayaang – Our Home, and was the architect of O:se Kenhionhata:tie #LandBackCamp, a culture and Land Back camp for Two-Spirit youth. Current projects highlight principled engagement in identity and Indigeneity, encompassing Indigenous advising to QUN (Queer Up North), curating Emerging from the Broken Forest for Indigenous artists, and producing ongoing collaborative projects highlighting traditional craft and Indigenous connection to the land, and Indigenous cultural resurgence.

Join Huron Heritage Round Table for their quarterly meeting which will be open to the public for the Huron Cultural Summit. This meeting will be chaired by Elizabeth French-Gibson, Senior Curator of Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol.

The Heritage Round Table meets to discuss ideas, opportunities, and challenges facing the Huron County heritage community. Participants from this group will share updates, resources and potential collaborations that may exist in Huron County.

Rachael will present a case study presentation on volunteerism and Belonging in relation to the work at Blyth Festival Theatre.

A native of Fordwich, the seed of a professional theatre career was planted in Rachael at the age of 13, on a school field trip to the Blyth Festival. Since that time, Rachael has worked across North America and Australia as a stage, production and tour manager with companies such as the Blyth and Shaw Festivals, Green Thumb Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Erth Visual and Physical and Theatre Passe Muraille.

Rachael taught stage management at Douglas College and was part of the Event Services team for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. She comes to Blyth directly from Exhibition Place where she has been with the Production Services team, delivering such events as the 2016 Grey Cup & Centennial Classic, the 2015 PanAm Games, as well as the annual CNE and Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

Rachael holds a Bachelor of Arts, Drama in Education from the University of Windsor as well as a Master of Fine Arts, Stage Management from the University of Iowa.

Born, raised and now living in Goderich, Lisa is overwhelmed with gratitude to be returning home to the Blyth Festival. About 24 years ago, Lisa was first welcomed into the Blyth family as a member of the Young Company, performing Funny Faced Ogre. She is now able to return the gift, welcoming the next generation of theatre geniuses to this amazing theatre family as the Director of Youth Engagement.

The return trip to Blyth enjoyed some informative stops along the way, including nine years as a highschool Drama and English teacher for the Avon Maitland District School Board, General Manager of the Livery Theatre, and Tourism Events & Marketing Coordinator for the Town of Goderich. Lisa continues to be a very active member of the Livery Theatre and is one of the founding members of the First Time For Everything Theatre Festival.

Lisa graduated from the Performance Program at Sheridan College in 2009 and holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto Mississauga, a Bachelor of Education from Western University, as well as a Master of Arts from the University of Guelph. She is certified with the Ontario College of Teachers and has been a member in good standing since 2016.

Throughout the summit, the Blyth Festival Young Company will be working away to create a special performance for attendees which will be presented a the end of the summit for all to enjoy!

More about the Workshop: Creating theatre in a rural community is a lifeline for young folks living in the area. It can be difficult for young creative teens to see themselves reflected in the popular activities widely available in rural spaces. Theatre, visual art, music, dance, craft, writing, all become blazing life preservers in a sea of teenage uncertainty.

Today’s presentation will introduce you to some of these amazingly talented folks and allow them to tell you, “Why Theatre?” Then, they will show you just what we mean. We will head to the Philips Studio Theatre where we will engage in a devising workshop surrounding the theme of the summit; Belonging. At the end of the day, we will showcase what is possible in just a few hours and welcome you into the world of collective creation.

Join the workshop: If you are a youth interested in registering for this workshop please register online.

Alex, Chair of Huron County Pride, will discuss updates from the organization and work to build belonging through Education & Training.

Huron County Pride’s mission is to promote programs, services, opportunities, and activities that cultivate a positive community; educate on, and advocate for gender and sexually diverse individuals; and promote inclusion. Their vision is for Huron County to be a place where regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity, everyone will be safe, equal, and a valued part of the community.

As Founder and Executive Director of The Well Community Collective, Shannon led the creation of The Well Youth Hubs across Huron, Perth, Grey, and Bruce Counties. Rooted in a belief that youth are not just participants but partners in change, she has championed co-design, youth leadership, and shared decision-making as central to transforming rural mental health systems. Through her leadership, The Well has become a model of collaboration, bringing together youth, families, and multi-sector partners to create welcoming, accessible spaces that reflect the voices and needs of young people. Guided by empathy, innovation, and evidence, Shannon is helping to redefine what it means for rural communities to support youth wellness together.

Shannon will join the Huron County Library’s Tanis VanderMolen to present a case study on – “Creating Belonging through Partnerships” that shares how The Well Community Collective and the Huron County Library are co-designing inclusive, youth-driven spaces that bridge art, culture, and community, highlighting the process, successes, and lessons learned in building belonging across rural communities. 

Tanis works for the Huron County Library and is committed to creating welcoming and inclusive spaces where residents feel inspired, connected, and heard. They work collaboratively with local partners to support programs and services that reflect the diverse needs and interests of Huron County residents. With a focus on youth engagement and community connection, Tanis helps make the library a place where everyone can feel they belong. The library branches they manage are in Exeter, Hensall, and Kirkton.

Siwi immigrated to Canada from Indonesia in June 2012, where she embraced a new chapter by pursuing a career change. Siwi returned to school and earned a Honours Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), and she now works for the Federal Government of Canada.

Alongside her professional career, Siwi has been an active member of the Goderich Little Theatre for the past three years, performing in productions such as Ruby of Elsinore, Elizabeth Rex, and Lend Me a Tenor. A traditional dancer since childhood, she continues to share her cultural heritage through performances at festivals across Goderich, London, and Toronto. Siwi will present a case study on “From Movement to Meaning: An Immigrant’s Journey of Belonging Through Art”

Accessibility

Programming for the summit will take place in the Lower Hall & Theatre at Blyth Memorial Hall. The Youth Theatre Workshop will be held at Phillips Studio.

Memorial Hall’s ground floor is fully accessible. Memorial Hall has a lift that allows barrier free access to the Orchestra Level of the Theatre. The rows of the Orchestra are on a raked floor, so while the aisles do not have any stairs they are sloped.

Memorial Hall has fully accessible, gender neutral restrooms on the ground floor and an additional accessible restroom located on the orchestra level.

Phillips Studio (Youth Theatre Workshop Only) is accessible but there is a small lip to go over to enter and non-automatic doors that staff can assist with. There are single stall bathrooms available.

If you have any accessibility questions or concerns please contact us: culturaloffice@huroncounty.ca