Embedded Files
Flowing Futures: Avon River Design Challenge
A city-wide invitation to imagine Stratford’s river future
Launch Event: Thursday, April 2, 2026 • 10:00 a.m.
Avon River edge beside the Bandshell, Veterans Drive, Stratford
Statement of Interest Deadline: May 30, 2026
Final Submission Deadline: August 28, 2026
Public Exhibition: October 1–17, 2026
Awards Celebration: October 17, 2026
What could Stratford’s Avon River become in the years ahead?
Flowing Futures: Avon River Design Challenge invites artists, students, designers, environmental thinkers, and community members to explore that question through bold, creative ideas. This city-wide initiative brings together imagination, environmental awareness, and civic dialogue to reimagine one of Stratford’s most important natural and cultural spaces.
Participants are encouraged to submit ideas in any creative format—from ecological design concepts and public art proposals to storytelling, digital media, models, sound works, or performance-based ideas. Submissions can be simple or fully developed, making the challenge accessible to people of all backgrounds and experience levels.
Selected works will be featured in a public exhibition across Stratford from October 1–17, with installations and displays at Copperlight (Knox Church), Our Stōr(y), and along the Avon River pathway. A multidisciplinary jury will select projects for exhibition, and visitors will also be invited to vote for a People’s Choice Award.
Workshops, mentorship sessions, and a “River Clinic” with planners, artists, and environmental experts will support participants throughout the process.
Flowing Futures is designed to spark new thinking about how the Avon River can evolve as a place of ecological stewardship, cultural expression, community gathering, and climate resilience.
Presented in partnership with:
BMI Group • Stratford Public Library • Our Stōr(y) • The Boathouse • Pathways to Poetry Festival
This project is made possible in part through support from the Stratford Destination Development Fund (DDF).
Flowing Futures description, guidelines, and submission criteria
👉 Click here to learn more and submit your Statement of Interest.
Submissions are open to individuals and teams from Stratford and the surrounding region.
Writing the River: A Nature Writing Experience on the Water
April 24 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
MAY
Mon., May 11: 9:30–11:00am
Sat., May 23: 2:00pm
Mon., May 25: 7:00–8:30pm
Sat., May 30: 9:00–10:30am
JUNE
Sat., June 6: 9:00–10:30am
Mon., June 15: 7:30pm
Sat., June 20: 9:00–10:30am
Step out of the ordinary and onto the water.
Writing The River is an immersive 60 to 90 minute guided writing and paddling experience that invites you to slow down, listen deeply, and write in conversation with the river. Led by and award-winning poets Zoe Dickinson and Heidi Sander, this unique event weaves together a guided canoe/kayak journey, reflective writing prompts, and intimate community sharing.
Guided by Boathouse staff, paddle through quiet lagoons, pause at Miller’s Point, drift beneath the bridge, and settle into pockets of stillness where words begin to surface. Along the way, Zoe and Heidi will guide you through short, accessible writing exercises designed to help you notice, remember, and respond.
No experience is required, just bring a curious and open mind.
Participants receive a travel notebook created specifically for this event, a place to gather observations, fragments, poems, and reflections across the season.
Writing The River offers a rare invitation: to connect with nature as a collaborator, to experience community without rush and to let the current guide both paddle and pen.
Come for the river.
Leave with words you didn’t know were waiting for you.
Presented in collaboration with the Stratford Writers Festival, Pathways to Poetry Festival and The Boathouse.
Flavours of Home: Stories and Meals that Connect Us
An intimate series celebrating Stratford’s newest voices
Thursday, May 14, 2026
The Common
80 Wellington St, Stratford, ON
Doors open: 5:30 pm • Dinner: 6:30–8:30 pm
Food carries memory, meaning, and the unmistakable flavour of home. At Flavours of Home, each dish becomes an invitation—an opening into the lived experiences of Stratford’s newcomers. This intimate culinary storytelling series celebrates the cultures and journeys that enrich our community, offering a shared table where flavours meet stories of resilience, identity, and belonging.
Each event features a local newcomer who collaborates with Stratford chefs to create a meal rooted in their region of origin. As guests move through the menu, they are invited into a personal story—of migration, memory, and the evolving meaning of home. Held in welcoming venues across the city, Flavours of Home creates space to gather across cultures, honour lived experience, and connect through the universal language of food.
May 14 • A Vietnamese-Inspired Evening with Huong Vo
For this edition, Huong Vo curates a Vietnamese-inspired menu, brought to life in collaboration with the culinary team at The Common.
Born in Vietnam and raised in Kitchener, Huong is part of the 1.5 generation Vietnamese-Canadian experience, navigating identity across cultures and places. She moved to Perth County in 2020 with her husband, and recently welcomed their child at Stratford General Hospital—deepening her connection to the community she now calls home.
A career coach and an emerging poet and spoken word artist, Huong has performed locally and internationally, from open mics to the JAYU Slam at TIFF and the Womxn of the World Poetry Slam. Her work explores identity, memory, and belonging—themes that will also shape the evening’s culinary experience.
Throughout the evening, Huong will share reflections on Vietnamese food traditions, cultural memory, and her own journey, offering guests an experience that is both intimate and evocative—where storytelling, and food come together at the table.
Co-presented with The Common and Asian Heritage Month Stratford
Click here to reserve your tickets. Seating is limited.
More Flavours of Home events will be announced soon.
Illuminating Passion
A Provocation Ideas Festival Benefit
Monday June 22, 2026
Revival House
70 Brunswick St, Stratford, ON
Doors open: 4:30 p.m.
Dinner available: from 5:00 p.m.
Performances & Live Auction: 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
What happens when artists step beyond what they’re known for?
Join us for Illuminating Passion—an unforgettable, high-energy evening in support of the Provocation Ideas Festival, celebrating creativity, reinvention, and community.
This one-of-a-kind benefit gala invites acclaimed performers and community members to reveal hidden talents and unexpected artistic sides rarely seen in public. It’s an evening of surprise and discovery—where artists step outside their usual roles to share something deeply personal, playful, and bold.
The lineup features an extraordinary group of performers, including Sheila McCarthy, Paul Gross, David Keeley, Marcus Nance, Laura Condlln, and a range of other accomplished artists—each contributing to a dynamic evening of creativity, risk-taking, and artistic reinvention.
Hosted by Sheila McCarthy and Chris Blake, the night unfolds in an intimate, vibrant setting, where live performances defy expectations and a curated live auction offers one-of-a-kind experiences and creations.
At its heart, Illuminating Passion is about the courage to create beyond the familiar—and the thrill of discovering new dimensions of talent, both on stage and within ourselves.
Come for the talent you know. Stay for the talent you’ve never seen.
Reserve your seat. Place your bids. Be part of something special.
Click here to reserve your tickets. Seating is limited.
For table seating preferences, please phone Revival House, 519-273-3424
All proceeds support the Provocation Ideas Festival, helping us deliver bold, accessible programming in Stratford and beyond—and continue building a vibrant public space for ideas, creativity, and community connection.
True Tapestries Redux: Threads of Stratford Stories
November 20 & 21, 2026 (7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.)
November 22, 2026 (Matinee 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Stratford Perth Museum – Co-operators Performance Theatre
4275 Huron Road, Stratford, ON
Every community holds stories—quiet and bold, joyful and aching, deeply personal and universally felt.
Following two sold-out performances in 2025, True Tapestries Redux returns to the Stratford Perth Museum—expanding to three performances and once again bringing the voices of Stratford and region to life on stage.
Like its acclaimed debut, True Tapestries Redux features short, true stories and poems submitted by local residents, selected for their honesty, humanity, and resonance. These stories are performed by Stratford actors and artists, accompanied by live music, creating an intimate, moving, and often surprising theatrical experience.
New Themes for 2026: Home & Change
This year, the project takes on a new creative focus—exploring two powerful and universal ideas:
Home — roots, belonging, dreams, community
Change — risk, loss, secrets, grief
Together, these themes invite deeper reflection on what shapes us, connects us, and transforms us.
Hosted once again by Judy Maddren (former CBC Radio host), with Music Direction by Paul Shilton and Produced by Jen Paquette and Elizabeth Cooper, True Tapestries Redux builds on a proven format while expanding its creative scope—offering audiences an evening (or afternoon) of laughter, reflection, and shared experience.
Call for Submissions
What’s your story?
Every life holds moments worth telling.
We’re inviting residents of Stratford and surrounding communities—ages 10 and up, from all backgrounds and experiences—to submit a true story (prose or poetry) for True Tapestries Redux.
Your story can be funny, moving, surprising, quiet, or bold—a turning point, a memory, a relationship, or a moment you’ve never spoken about before.
If it’s true—and it matters to you—we want to hear it.
👉 Follow this link to submit your story or poem (Coming Soon)
Submission deadline: July 31, 2026
A Community Collaboration
True Tapestries Redux is a collaboration between:
Provocation Ideas Festival · Stratford Perth Museum · Stratford Public Library · Blue Moon Publishers
Be part of the tapestry.
Tell your story.
👉 Tickets available soon. Seating is limited.
Report abuse