Cards for Community

The Cause

What is the purpose of Cards for Community?
Cards for Community aims to connect strangers, neighbours, creators of all kinds, age & stage through sharing stories on a 4x6 postcard.

Loft 112 invites Calgarians— young and old, artists, musicians, storytellers, craft-makers, photographers, writers, cooks, bakers, ANYONE who lives, works, plays, gathers in our city and wishes to participate - to open up this city, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, story by poem, image by song by handicraft by recipe by language on a 4x6 postcard.

LOFT 112 is a literary / creative space in Calgary’s East Village. It is a place where unheard voices are given a platform and a place of collaboration. Loft 112 is a respectful community that welcomes and celebrates everyone and does not discriminate based on ability, age, orientation, nationality, gender nor religion. In 2021, Loft 112/Lisa Murphy Lamb won The SANDSTONE City Builder Award recognizing artists and organizations that make Calgary a better place to live.

Why Cards for Community?
As a community/creative/arts & literary space, Loft 112 chose this project because it celebrates ‘story’ in its many forms, inspires and builds a connection between members of Calgary’s vast and diverse communities and strives to open up our understanding of who Calgarians are, what their stories are, and what is valued in our city. As a literary/creative space we continually look for projects that support the diversity of creative, literary and cultural life in our city. This one is our most ambitious projects in terms of scope of geography but we are excited to make genuine connections through this project: through stories, through meeting new people, learning about what happens around the city and making some new friends.
By bringing 'stories' from across the city into a central location, Calgarians can open up their understanding of Calgarian stories, languages spoken, food shared, lesser celebrated landmarks and geography… and who knows what else! We can only guess as we have no idea what we will receive. But we KNOW it will be spectacular.

This idea came from working with university students from around the world. We sincerely thank the students from the University of Calgary Global YYC Challenge

Who Will it Benefit?

We have launched a massive physical and virtual invitation mail-out to schools (public, separate, private, charter); cultural groups and clubs, senior organizations, places of worship, community centres, organizations that support/celebrate persons with disabilities, arts groups....and more! Around 1000 invites to individuals and groups have been sent and more will be as we identify holes. Our goal is to receive one postcard from every neighbourhood in Calgary. We want contributors of all ages and all stages to tell their stories. We want stories told through various lenses. We want stories told through poetry, textiles, languages other than English, through repurposed objects, photography, art, recipes, family stories....

But this project is more than postcards! By participating either as a postcard storyteller or as a viewer of the exhibit, stories will be shared. Our city will open up. Where is Red Carpet neighbourhood? Who lives there? What is special about this neighbourhood: Calgarians will join in with hundreds of their neighbours to share stories/art/poetry/craft/music/recipes...through a large scale physical and virtual art show displayed at Loft 112 & The Central Library in February 2022 There will also be a Festival in conjunction with the art show. Loft 112 will curate various celebrations (up to 6) during February based on what we learn from postcard submissions (dance, music, readings, food….? We won't know until we receive stories) both at Loft 112 and in the communities.

We think this has the potential to impact hundreds if not thousands of Calgarians from across the city.