Slow returns
9 Visions for Youth Leading Care
We are happy to share a vivid collection of new works from 13 Ontario creatives who reflected on their pandemic experiences and offered hopeful ideas for a future of community care through any crisis. These pieces were developed over several months for I Love My Gig Ontario 2025, a fellowship where artists, producers, and other gig workers in arts and culture took time to look back, slow down, and reconnect with their own stories and suggestions for the future of care.
The collection includes nearly 30,000 words of writing, more than 100 images, and 25 minutes of audio and video. Grounded in their lived experience, Fellows explored themes such as disability, burnout, parenting, access, mutual support, and the uneven pace of recovery. Some works are quiet and personal. Others propose bold shifts, from safer cultural spaces to stronger peer networks and small acts of care that helped people get through the hardest days.
One thought from a Fellow stayed with us: “What we build together will outlast what tried to break us.” These projects show what that can look like. They remind us that honesty, connection, and creativity are powerful tools for future care.
We invite you to spend time with these works, move at your own pace, and let them spark new conversations about how we look after one another in the present and in the future.
Currently, these works are available in English only. French translations will be available in the coming days.
