Jennifer Lyon is a Waterloo-based artist, blending her love of photography, contemporary media storytelling and community building. She is the founder of the Diamond Project, showcasing women’s upliftment in the region, exploring a range of media and perspectives in the process.
Join the Diamond Project on January 14th from 6-9 pm at the Waterloo Public Library for a fun collaborative art event all about connection and self expression. The evening includes 4 interactive workshops, a facilitated discussion, an art exhibit and an interactive installation art piece created by participating artists. Experience a fun co-mingling of all four mediums and learn more about the amazing line up of artists.
Workshops are scheduled to happen in unison with an emphasis on collaboration and will include: poetry/creative writing, illustration, printmaking and photography. The evening concludes with a final attempt at combining all mediums in a collaborative art game. There is a limited number of spots for each workshop. Please arrive early to register. This event can be enjoyed as a drop in with options to participate in the later stages of the workshops and checking out the great art exhibits.
Admission is Free. Open to everyone. RSVP here.
I chatted with Jennifer about The Diamond Project and the Exploring Intersections of Collaboration and Artistic Expression event.
What is Diamond Project and why did you start it?
The Diamond Project is a storytelling platform that aims to showcase women’s upliftment and explores a wide range of media, perspectives, and collaborations in the process. The project offers an engaging exploration of the lives of women and those who support them. It also provides a creative outlet for people who actively encourage the upliftment of women and their allies.
It started out as a passion project in 2017 in an effort to uplift other women; to help others “shine bright like diamonds”. I did this with my camera. I started offering uplifting photo shoots to women and began sharing their stories alongside my photography on social media. It then grew into hosting social events with awesome networking opportunities, more empowering photoshoots, and really amazing collaborations.
I created really great partnerships with local artists, entrepreneurs, and other community organizations with this work and I hope to continue with more awesome events and opportunities to hone my craft.
What motivated you to create this event?
Art is so important. It can influence society by translating experiences across time. It also has an incredible way of bringing people together. Since so much of my work as a photographer and with the Diamond Project involves collaboration, I thought why not host an evening where we teach more people all about the wonders of connecting through art.
How did you choose the disciplines that are going to be part of your event?
It was important to me that each discipline could stand on their own as an engaging workshop and then flow together organically at the end. It was also important that I find artists who would be willing to participate in this style of event. With that in mind, I put out a call on social media and in the end decided on photography, poetry, illustration, and printmaking. I will be facilitating the photography workshop and I’m honestly so excited to have a chance to connect with others in the community. I have included an interesting photo challenge in my workshop and most of the time will focus on how to collaborate with other artists.
Do you intend for this to be the beginning of a series of collaborative art events?
I am hopeful that this will be the beginning of a more formal collaborative art series in the future. I have hosted events in the past where collaboration certainly played a key role but with a big focus on photography and storytelling. This is the first workshop-style event where I have brought in other artists and disciplines to bring a co-mingling of art forms in one room with the focus being on connecting and creating together.
What do you hope that attendees will leave the event with?
I really hope that attendees leave this event with a better sense of what it means to express yourself and your own art within a supportive and collaborative space. It's also my hope that people will learn about and be inspired by the Diamond Project and the work I am doing to promote the empowerment of women through storytelling.
As the organizer, what do you hope to leave the event with?
I hope to leave the event with my tape! I’m always the one with tape at the beginning of events but never at the end. :/ The life of an event planner, amiright?
But in all seriousness, I’d really love to leave this event having made more great connections with people in my community. I really believe that we are stronger together and if hosting a collaborative art event on a chilly Tuesday night in January is how I can show people that, then let’s do it KW!
I’d also love to leave the event knowing that I uplifted the artists who so graciously agreed to contribute their time and talent. I hope they make some great connections, too and come out of this feeling energized and excited for more collaborations in their work.
Follow Jennifer on Instagram at @thejennydoesstuff or the project @thediamondproject.ca
Story by Glodeane Brown
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