The Power Plant

In conjunction with Smokestack Garden 2026, Waard Ward collective members will lead a flower arranging workshop for children ages 5+, inspired by the philosophies and approaches of Ikebana – a traditional Japanese floral arrangement practice. Participants will learn about sustainable flower arranging as well as formal elements of design, such as combining different textures and contrasts and creating focal points. The youth will also be encouraged to consider minimalism, asymmetrical balance, and embracing the slow, considered process of arranging flowers.

Children will be able to take their arrangements home, as well as create a few collaborative arrangements for The Power Plant’s reception and office areas. Children must be accompanied by an adult caregiver at all times.

This workshop is presented in partnership with Destiny’s Child Care, a series of gatherings for artist parents/caregivers and their children/niblings who are eager to practice anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist liberatory education and parenting in both their work and caregiving lives. Our programs experiment with arts-based intergenerational learning to envision and action collective liberation.

As a project conjured up by Collective Collective, Destiny’s Child Care is a dream, a rehearsal, an ongoing practice. It is a re-embodiment of all the ways resistance has and continues to happen throughout the many apocalypses that are inflicted upon marginalized communities.

With special thanks to RBC Foundation for its support of The Power Plant's artist-led Smokestack Garden project, and to the Canada Council for the Arts for making this program possible through its generous support of Waard Ward and Collective Collective.

We are excited to offer this special workshop at no cost to attendees, thanks to the generous support of our program sponsors and partners.