Picnics for Living Futures

What kind of city do we want to call home? 

What if we gave ourselves permission to imagine beyond what already exists?

Picnics for Living Futures is a creative community project inviting youth ages 18-35 across Ottawa to gather outdoors, connect with one another, and imagine the city they want to live in by 2050.

Through a series of free, arts-based workshops in parks and public spaces, we explore questions of belonging, care, community, climate, creativity, and civic life. Together, we dream, make, reflect, and create, using storytelling, art, play, and collective imagination as tools to explore what a more joyful, connected, and equitable Ottawa could look like.

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Because before we can build different futures, we have to give ourselves permission to imagine them.

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Each picnic is led by a different local artist, facilitator, or community builder, bringing their own creative practice and perspective into the space. Through activities like collaborative collage, puppet-making, storytelling, letter writing, mapping, and other forms of creative expression, we explore both the everyday moments that make a city feel like home and the bigger systems that shape how we live together.

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These gatherings are not about having the “right” answers. They are about making space for curiosity, lived experience, and collective dreaming. We believe that everyone carries knowledge about the communities they want to build, shaped by what has helped them thrive, what has caused harm, and what they hope could be different.

As Ottawa approaches the 2026 municipal election, Picnics for Living Futures creates space for young people to connect imagination with civic life. The stories, ideas, and creative works generated throughout the series will contribute to broader conversations about the future of our city and culminate in a final community gathering.

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At its heart, this project asks:

• What do we love enough to protect?

• What needs to change for everyone to thrive?

• What kind of Ottawa do we want to create together?

We believe the futures we build begin with the futures we dare to imagine. 💛