This summer, young people in Calgary picked up paintbrushes, markers, and watercolours to say something about their communities. Across three workshops, ECHOFORM x YPC Alberta’s Artivism Project gave youth a space to name the issues they felt were overlooked, and then turn those ideas into artistic postcards headed for local decision-makers.
The project was led by Diya Kunisetty, Chair of the Young Politicians of Canada Alberta Chapter (YPC Alberta), with ECHOFORM proudly supporting as a sponsor and collaborator. Between July 26 and August 23, youth created approximately 30 pieces of artwork exploring everything from mental health and hunger to urban development and the night sky.
The idea for The Artivism Project grew out of conversations between ECHOFORM’s founder, An̄urika Onyenso, and Diya. It is an extension of ECHOFORM’s Artivism Cohort here in Edmonton, carrying the same belief that art can be a doorway into civic life over to youth in Calgary. With Diya and YPC Alberta leading on the ground, the project took on a shape and energy all its own.
At its heart, the project started from a simple belief that Diya returns to again and again: changemakers don’t have to be the loudest voices in the room. As she puts it, any youth can be a changemaker, “even if they don’t have the loudest voice in the room.”
Session 1: Shawnessy Public Library (July 26)
The first workshop set the tone for everything that followed. Youth gathered at Shawnessy Public Library to talk about the issues they felt adults and government officials were missing, brainstorm ideas for change, and express those ideas through art. About 12 postcards were created that day.
Diya built the session around three core ideas: inclusivity, engagement, and impact.
Inclusivity: Rather than a debate-style event that rewards the most confident speakers, the workshop used art as a way for every young person to contribute.
Engagement: Many youth see civic life as boring or inaccessible, something that happens in meetings full of people in suits. Making postcards let participants be creative and feel a sense of ownership over the issues they chose.
Impact: Too many youth conversations end without anything tangible coming out of them. Here, every participant made something real, knowing it would be shared with local officials.
The session also came with honest lessons. As a brand new initiative, the project didn’t yet have an established participant base, so the team relied on personal outreach and social media. Even with pizza and gift cards as incentives, Diya admitted turnout was smaller than hoped. Organizing the workshop also meant juggling promotion, supplies, scheduling, and finding an accessible community space.
Those lessons shaped what came next. Instead of asking youth to come to them, the team decided to bring the workshop to youth where they already were.
Session 2: Aliki’s Art Studio (August 19)
The second workshop almost didn’t happen. Diya emailed around 14 art studios and organizations across Calgary and heard nothing back for over a week. So she did something she describes as genuinely terrifying for her: she picked up the phone and called every single one.
The result was six no’s, five voicemails, and one maybe. A few quiet days later, an email arrived from Aliki’s Art Studio asking her to call the next morning. After a short, heavily prepared phone call, she got the answer she was hoping for. In her words, she was “genuinely jumping from happiness.”
On August 19, Diya led a 1.5 hour Artivism workshop with the studio’s youth advanced art class. Participants worked in watercolour and explored environmental protection, green spaces, wildlife, and urban development.
One piece stayed with Diya long after the session ended. A participant painted a night sky scattered with bright stars, explaining that we can barely see starlight anymore. It was a quiet but powerful reminder that light pollution and the loss of natural spaces are community issues too.
Session 3: A Collaborative Workshop with HRC and Project Therapeia (August 23)
For the third session, YPC Alberta tried something new: partnering with multiple youth organizations on a single workshop. The YYC Human Rights Collective (HRC) and Project Therapeia joined to bring their communities into the room together.
Before anyone touched a paintbrush, HRC led an interactive brainstorming activity. Participants were asked to name an issue in their world or community, explain why it mattered to them, describe what they would want to change, and think through how to communicate that through art. Diya loved how this made the link between an idea and an artwork much more intentional.
The conversations covered a wide range of topics, including the environment, mental health, smoking and addiction, hunger, the experiences of labourers, urban development, and the importance of community spaces. Some ideas were deeply local and personal, while others connected to much bigger issues. No one was handed a list of topics. Everyone started from what genuinely mattered to them.
By the end of the day, participants had created 14 artistic postcards.
Meet Our Partners
The Young Politicians of Canada Alberta Chapter
The Young Politicians of Canada is one of Canada's leading youth-run, non-partisan, not-for-profit organizations dedicated to educating, empowering, and engaging the next generation of civic and political leaders. With thousands of members across Canada across six provincial chapters and dozens of local divisions, YPC provides meaningful opportunities for youth to shape the future of Canadia.
The third workshop would not have been possible without two Calgary youth organizations who brought their communities, ideas, and energy into the room.
YYC Human Rights Collective (HRC)
The Human Rights Collective is an action-orientated organization dedicated to raising awareness, promoting education and creating measurable impact around global human rights issues. We want to empower members to advocate for those whose voices are unheard, engage the community through events and volunteer opportunities and give meaningful and transparent action that connects knowledge with real world outcomes.
HRC shaped the heart of the August 23 session by leading the interactive brainstorming activity that opened the workshop. Their facilitation helped participants move from naming an issue to understanding why it mattered to them, and then to imagining how art could carry that message. That intentional groundwork is a big reason the postcards from this session felt so personal and grounded.
From watercolour, creative writing, theatre arts, and more, Project Therapeía works to foster emotional wellness and healing through creativity!
Project Therapeia helped bring youth from their own networks into the workshop, widening the circle of voices in the room. Their involvement made this session a true collaboration between youth-led organizations, bringing new perspectives into the conversation.
We’re deeply grateful to both organizations. Their partnership showed exactly what this project hoped to prove: youth reach further when they build together.
What We Learned and What’s Next
One of the biggest takeaways from the project was the power of partnership. Recruitment was the main challenge early on, and working with Aliki’s Art Studio, HRC and Project Therapeia let the project reach youth through networks that already existed. Those partnerships also helped YPC Alberta refine the workshop format and adapt it to different groups and settings. As Diya reflected, “partnerships matter.”
The project also showed that civic engagement can stretch well beyond voting, petitions, or formal advocacy. Youth named issues affecting their communities, talked about why those issues mattered, and communicated their perspectives in a way that felt personal and accessible. For Diya, civic engagement can be a speech or a letter, but it can also be a painting or postcard that makes someone stop and think.
With approximately 30 pieces of youth artwork now complete, the next step is the one Diya has been thinking about since the beginning: bringing the collection and the perspectives behind it to Calgary MLAs, municipal councillors, and other community leaders.
In the meantime, Edmonton will get to see these postcards up close.
The artwork from The Artivism Project will be on display at ECHOFORM’s Artivism Showcase, Stories That Echo, on October 17 at Edmonton City Hall, alongside work from our Edmonton cohort.
And this is only the beginning. The Artivism Project has plans to continue, with more workshops and opportunities for youth to bring their voices to decision-makers. That growth is a testament to ECHOFORM’s mission of using art and storytelling to support youth civic participation, connection, and community engagement. What started as a conversation has become a youth-led project with its own momentum, and that is exactly what we hope our work makes possible.
At ECHOFORM, we’re so proud to have supported this project, and we can’t wait to see where these young people’s ideas go next.
Read Diya’s Reflections
Diya documented the project in her own words on Youth Are Awesome (YAA), a youth-written blog run by Youth Central in Calgary. Read her posts for the full story behind each session:
You can find all of Diya’s posts on her YAA author page.
About Diya
Diya Kunisetty is a Grade 12 student from Calgary, Alberta. She is committed to promoting youth voices through her work as the Chair of the Young Politicians of Canada Alberta Chapter, and as a member of both the Calgary Mayor’s Youth Council and the International Youth Advisory Board of Youth Volunteer Corps. In her free time, she loves to bake, play tennis, and watch sci-fi movies.