An April shower of news from Thinking Rock Community Arts (TRCA)!
Read on for details about:

• In Service of Our Stories research project & report

• The Tales We Carry, The Yarns We Weave workshop series

• Production Primer training

• Ontario Arts Council funding recognition event with MPP Bill Rosenberg

• Spotlight: Algoma University intern Tori Grasley

• Other recent news & Coming up next

The Tales We Carry, The Yarns We Weave workshop series

Between December and February, we hosted three story circles and workshops as part of The Tales We Carry, The Yarns We Weave series - with Gerard Sagassige, Pat O’Gorman & Julie Schryer, and Isabelle Michaud respectively - that looked at storytelling through cultural and artistic practices.

We talked with Gerard, and Auntie Kimberly Pelletier, about the importance of storytelling in Anishinaabe communities and cultural practices: how stories carry important information about responsibility and the webs of relationships that connect humans, more than humans, ancestors and the Earth. With Pat and Julie, we learned that stories, songs and tunes are inextricably linked: music is a powerful vehicle for sharing and making stories, but also for connecting us through lineages to storytellers before and after us. Through artmaking with Isabelle, we explored new ways to share, show, and understand our stories - and those of others - by channelling them through our hearts and hands onto paper.

This project has affirmed that story shapes us at every turn, and that we share common threads of story and circumstance that can bring us together across distance and difference. Through this learning process, we also co-created a new Social Fabric with programming participants.

This program was funded in part by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program.

ID: Top to bottom: Gerard Sagassige leads a story circle in December 2025; Pat O’Gorman, Julie Schryer & Raymond Schryer play tunes and tell stories at the AlgomaTrad Centre in January 2026; Isabelle Michaud leads her story circle and workshop at Cafe 4 Good in February 2026.

Ontario Arts Council funding recognition event with MPP Bill Rosenberg

We welcomed Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Bill Rosenberg to our Social Fabric Lab on Thursday, April 9th. During his visit, he added some stitches to our UFO Project and celebrated with us by presenting certificates recognizing two successful 2025 grants from the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), totalling $53,191!

OAC funding matters to us: the OAC has been a key funder of our work at TRCA since our earliest efforts, 14 years ago, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without their support. Miigwetch, merci, thank you to the OAC and MPP Bill Rosenberg for supporting the arts in our community!

ID: Top to bottom: Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Bill Rosenberg adds some stitches to our UFO Project while AD Miranda Bouchard looks on; the gathered group of community friends and partners who joined the Lab and recognition event.

Other recent news

• We published our 2024-25 Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements

• We partnered with OAC to host a virtual grant writing workshop for community-engaged artists, groups and organizations across Northern Ontario

• We completed our first year serving as third-party recommenders for OAC’s Exhibition Assistance Program

• We worked with Dr. Nancy Mykoff of Utrecht University in the Netherlands to interweave the Social Fabric and Walking with Pride and Power projects, through class visits and programming

• We kindled new programming partnerships with North Channel Food Co-Op and Cafe 4 Good

• We launched drop-in programming at AlgomaTrad community dances, and we’ll teach at Family Camp 2026!

ID: The cover of TRCA’s 2024-25 Annual Report, now available on our website.