Leaving Room to Be Surprised – The Artists’ House

I’ve spent much of my life making plans.

Running art festivals required enormous amounts of planning—dates, layouts, artists, advertising, schedules, permits, signs, volunteers. You imagined how something was going to work and then did everything possible to make it happen that way.

The Artists’ House has been teaching me something quite different.

Over the past 2 years, some of the things I thought would take off haven’t. Other things I couldn’t possibly have planned have quietly found their people.

Poetry Night is a wonderful example. We’ve had book launches, new hosts, first-time readers, seasoned poets, people who simply came because they were curious, and summer evenings that eventually wandered outside to the campfire.

We’ve explored questions like: What question are you living with right now?, Who helped shape the person you are today?, and one of my favourites from Kelly Watt: If you could say anything you wanted, what would that be?

None of those evenings has been quite the same. And perhaps that’s what I’ve come to love about them.

I’m learning that sometimes our job isn’t to know exactly what something will become. It’s to create a place for something to happen—and leave a little room to be surprised.

This Friday we’re doing it again. I don’t know exactly who will walk through the door, what they’ll bring to read, or where the conversation will take us. And perhaps that’s the point. Please join us for Poetry Night from 7-9pm. 2 Townley St. Nottawa.

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