Exploring Newcomer Experiences: VivaCity Showcase

Photo by Danayal P.

Photo by Melani B.

On Thursday March 23, the VIVACITY Showcase was finally here! The event was held at the Calgary Public Library, and was an incredible success, providing visitors with a chance to learn and explore the exhibits that were focused on topics surrounding challenges and barriers that newcomers face when moving to Calgary. The event was an exciting and informative gathering that brought together guests from various industries that were interested in civic innovation.

Throughout the day, attendees had the chance to listen to keynote speeches from a number of experts in the immigration field. Then, the guests had a chance to visit the students’ exhibits, leave their responses, as well as talk to the groups about the work that they did and the purpose behind their exhibits. The guests were intrigued by the work that the students did and had an opportunity to learn more during conversations with the students. We feel that through these conversations they began to understand and think more about the challenges that newcomers face daily and thus became more empathetic of the topic.

Finally, the event concluded with a thank-you note to all of the guests, library hosts, community partners and J5 Design and John Vardalos who opened their design studio for us. Without all of their support and dedication, the VivaCity course and the Showcase could not have been such a tremendous success. 

Overall, the day of Vivacity Showcase was a fantastic opportunity for students and guests to learn, observe, and network with industry professionals. It provided them with a valuable insight into the topic of newcomer experience and inspired them to look into either simplifying the journey that newcomers go through, or it broadened their understanding of the topic, leaving them with valuable insights.

-Team Benevolent Empaths-

Confluence

After a long and winding road of planning, re-evaluating, pivoting, and refocusing, Confluence installed the final iteration of our project on March 19. With a final goal of discovering what makes newcomers feel welcome, Stories of Welcome guided participants along a path of first telling how they welcome guests.

Each day we found our installation covered with a wide variety of input. Included in the mix were children’s drawings and unrelated greetings. But most people truly engaged with the project by sincerely sharing their stories of welcome. Knowing that people from all over the world visit the library, and wanting to build inclusivity into our design, we translated our instructions into the six most common languages spoken in Calgary. The success of this was seen in the number of participants who contributed in their own languages--an important lesson to consider for future attempts to make Calgary a more welcoming city.

We would like to thank our distinguished professor and fearless leader, Catherine Pearl of Mount Royal University, the generous host of our class space, John Vardalos of J5 Design, and the many guest speakers who shared their knowledge and expertise.

then describing how they reach out to new neighbours, and last, to write about when they felt welcome in a new city. We all felt uncertain regarding that last one, given that it can be a difficult question to answer, which is why we were very pleasantly surprised by the amount of feedback we received!

-Team Confluence -

The Rocky Path to Success

Introducing Team Euphoria. A team composed of Jon Axford, Emma Berger, Mj Laurel, Kirstyn Valentine and Marisa Wong, with the goal of ensuring that individuals experience euphoria while participating in our experiment. Team Euphoria’s design journey has not been easy. We knew what we wanted to accomplish, but we were having trouble in finding the right way to exhibit that while also emphasizing the newcomer and immigrant experience.

The world cafe- style sit downs that we had with professionals helped provide insight and helped us navigate through our design process. They asked questions in regard to our topic of “Belonging” to ensure that the experience leaves a positive impact, while also allowing us to learn more about the subject through the participants. The world cafe sit downs, admittingly made us more confused at one point, as there were so many good ideas coming from a multitude of individuals. At the end of the day the biggest takeaway that we got was to “trust our gut”!

We designed a systems map that would involve organizations that could be funders, sources for testers or client sources in order to better understand the ecosystem and where our experiment would hold value. We also wanted to ensure that the experiment was as interactive as possible, posing different activities while staying within the topic and navigating through different lenses. After multiple pivots, as can be seen on the Design Brief screenshot below, Team Euphoria is happy to announce that our design has been approved with only some minor tweaks to be done!

-Team Euphoria-

The Centre of Belonging

Our exhibit, the Centre of Belonging, was recently hosted at the Central Library Create Space from March 19th-23rd. Along with the 5 days that the exhibit was open to the public, our exhibit was also featured in the Vivacity Showcase on March 23rd. My group didn’t know what to expect from our exhibit going into this experience. The exhibit was centered around what makes people feel like they belong. It featured a few sticker-wall style questions, and two long-form questions for more in-depth responses. Our goal was to ascertain what might be added to the city in order to make newcomers feel like they belong when they arrive.

My group was pleasantly surprised by the response we received at the exhibit. In particular, the sticker walls were most used with over 100 answers submitted. For the long-answer questions, we received not only meaningful written responses, but also drawings of what makes people feel like they belong. We also received many responses from children that provided an interesting perspective on the concept of belonging. On Thursday, during the showcase, it was interesting to engage with people as they were filling out our questions. We really got to see the exhibit in action!

Overall, this was an experience that pushed my group to innovate and think about the challenges that newcomers face when coming to Calgary. We would like to thank the Central Library and Myke Atkinson for hosting our exhibit, and J5 Design and John Vardalos for providing the space for us to work in our course this year. 

Written by Nicole, Team 2Belong