About

Defining Moments: Discovering our Canadian Stories is a national digital media arts and citizenship project aimed at engaging youth across Canada to explore, express and showcase their diverse perspectives on Canadian identity. Offered by TakingITGlobal and supported by Canadian Heritage, the program featured interactive workshops in every province and territory, and an online collection of artwork created by youth aged 13 to 30. Each piece expresses the artist's identity and experiences living in Canada. Contest winners were selected and announced on Canada Day 2012 and made up the Travelling Exhibit, which appeared in locations across the country in 2012 and 2013.

National Projections

On January 31^st, 2013, young artists gathered in Toronto to celebrate their Canadian identity at the National Projections event. The evening featured artwork by emerging artists, an Art Battle live painting competition, a panel discussion on art and Canadian identity, and an interactive projection by digital/interactive artist Faisal Anwar. In addition to the main site of Toronto, concurrent satellite events took place in other parts of the country.

Winterlude

Winners of the Defining Moments youth art program were at Winterlude 2013, courtesy of TakingITGlobal and the National Capital Commission, to share their perspective as young Canadian artists and celebrate the culmination of Defining Moments after two years of engaging youth from coast to coast. Winners were acknowledged at an award ceremony at the National Gallery, and engaged with the public through a meet-and-greet at the Defining Moments outdoor exhibit.

A project of:

TakingITGlobal

TakingITGlobal uses the power of online community to facilitate global education, social entrepreneurship, and civic engagement for millions of youth worldwide. Founded in 1999, the award-winning www.tigweb.org is the leading social network for global citizenship, bringing together over 340,000 members with more than 22,000 non-profit organizations across 13 languages. TakingITGlobal's TIGed program serves over 2,400 schools in 117 countries with professional development, engaging lesson plans, and collaborative global projects. (Read more…)

Over the last decade, TIG has implemented many projects serving youth across Canada. Among our past Canadian projects are:

Development of Creating Local Connections (CLC) sponsored by the JW McConnell Foundation
Hosting of the Canadian Youth Delegation to COP13 in Bali, Indonesia
Development of Change that Clicks, a partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of Canada (BGCC).
Organization of the Youth Summit and Virtual Congress for the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) conference in Barrie, Ontario.
Facilitation of an online discussion as part of the National Capital Commission's Carbon Neutral Canada Day
Co-organization of the World Youth Congress, hosted in Quebec City, in partnership with Peace Child International and with support from the Canadian International Development Agency.

TIG has hosted a number of national and international art based projects, which include the Imprints Art Contest on Ecological Footprints, and Evoke: Uncover Your Human Rights Perspective, developed in partnership with the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. We showcase the artwork from these and other projects developed by youth in our online Global Gallery, which includes over 20,000 submissions from young artists. Art submissions for Defining Moments will be displayed both in our collections page and in the TIG Global Gallery.

Supported By:

Canadian Heritage

Defining moments is supported by Canadian Heritage and their Youth Take Charge program. Canadian Heritage is responsible for national policies and programs that promote Canadian Content, foster cultural participation, active citizenship and participation in Canada's civic life, and strengthen connections among Canadians.