GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS CAMPAIGN

Crossing Communities Art Project is an organization that promotes vibrant inclusive dialogues to contribute to our social well-being, our Gross National Happiness (GNH).
Advocating the use of the imagination and culture as a means to share stories, histories, experiences, identities, and values we bring together people from diverse backgrounds to exchange and create networks of friendship to work towards social and economic transformation.

Crossing Communities Gross National Happiness Campaign creates spaces for positive social exhange between people who are on the margins of society with those who are in the center.  We believe that art can lead to sincere dialogue between people with different viewpoints and that this increases the GNH leading to more peaceful and productive communities.  

What is the Gross National Happiness Campaign?

Crossing Communities Gross National Happiness Campaign incorporates integration and not assimilation to bring the histories and ideas of people on the margins of society into the center of civic, national and international dialogues.  Delegates from marginalized communities share authorship with professional artists on projects to engage in a social exchange with students, service providers, social workers, corrections staff, medical staff, politicians, acedemics and others.  The art projects are designed to make visible what is often difficult to see and talk about, making an opening for dialogue where innovative solutions to social, economic and cultural challenges can emerge.

How does the Gross National Happiness Campaign work?

Artists based out of Crossing Communities meet with people who are maginalized, mostly women (including transgendered women) and youth who have experienced histories of violence, poverty, sexual exploitation / the sex trade, and self-harm, many are of Aboriginal descent and many have experienced imprisonment.  Participants from the art projects are selected as delegates to work with professional artists to produce films, videos, photos, painting, dance, music, performance and cross-media.  The delegated and artists present their projects in a variety of locations including government offices, hospitals, correctional centres, social service organizations, schools and universities as well as in galleries and other public places connectiong people from different social and cultural backgrounds creating a space where they can dicuss some of the most difficult topics facing our society such as teen suicide, violence, gangs, homelessness, poverty, sexual exploitation / the sex trade, addictions and the many forms of self-harm.  People who don't typically meet can come together through the art projects to exhange ideas and through this exhange they develop bridges of understanding that can lead to solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in our society.  

Examples of our communitiy events include

Sisters of Sorrow, Sisters of Hope
An honouring of missing and murdered women and girls through film, drum song and audience discussion.  Cinematheque, Winnipeg November 2007

I Am Here / Here I Am
Photographs, mixed media and sound installation created by youth in the Manitoba Youth Centre (MYC) to engage with MYC staff and members of the general community.   May - June 2006

Island Lake Community Radio Project
Youth and elders in remote communities of Wasagamack and Red Sucker Lake produced radio projects to initiate positive inter-generaltional dialogues.  June - August 2007

Clear Lake Riding Mountain - Pictures of Self-Harm
Screening of Pictures of Self-Harm and community discussion led by women with histories of imprisonment.  Riding Mountain National Park Visitors Centre, August 2007

Women and Girls in the Sex Trade - Trying to Exit
Women and girls who are sexually exploited / sex trade workers screen their films and engage audiences in discussions about obstacles and solutions to leaving the sex trade.  
Presented in numerous venues locally, nationally and internationally, October 2005 - current

For information about the Gross National Happiness Campaign, to book one of our community events or purchase a copy of Women and Girls in the Sex Trade - Trying to Exit or Pictures of Self-Harm, please contact us at:      

175 McDermot Ave. - 2nd Floor   Winnipeg, Manitoba   R3B  0S1  Canada

Tel:(204) 947-5430