Louise Cournoyer was roaming through Queen’s Park, ruminating about how lovely the setting is, when the idea first came to her: Wouldn’t this be a great place for a nice little coffee shop?
As she walked, the idea grew. Wouldn’t it be nice to have something to draw people out to The Gallery at Queen’s Park? Wouldn’t that little patio-like area at the front of the gallery be a nice spot to sit with a coffee?
And wouldn’t it be lovely to combine her love of coffee and art with some sort of social enterprise that could help un- and under-employed people, especially those facing mental health challenges?
All of these thoughts led Cournoyer down the path towards a new idea: the Coffee C’Art.
The Arts Council of New Westminster is hosting a visioning session on Wednesday, Nov. 14 to help flesh out the concept. The basic premise is simple: a mobile espresso cart, to be designed by local artists and community members, that would bring members of the community together.
“I’m a big fan of local coffee shops, so I always try to support the local shops,” Cournoyer said. “I’m from Montreal; I love my coffee shops.”
Cournoyer is a fan of the work being done by the Arts Council of New Westminster; her son, Will Clements, served as the arts council’s music programmer over the summer.
She also works as a mental health clinician, so she’s well aware of the employment challenges faced by that population. And she’s a fan of the idea of helping to create employment – along the lines of what has been achieved by the HOpe Centre in North Vancouver, where inpatient and outpatient mental health services for Lions Gate Hospital are based. There, the Canadian Mental Health Association runs a Blenz coffee shop that employs people who have faced mental illness.
Putting all of those ideas together, Cournoyer took her suggestion to Stephen O’Shea, the arts council’s executive director.
“Here’s an idea I’ve had to connect the community at large, the arts community, to develop a social enterprise to help people who are unemployed or underemployed,” is how she sums it up.
The arts council board agreed it seemed like a valuable idea and applied for grants to help with funding – so far, it’s received a ONE Prize grant from River Market and a Neighbourhood Small Grant through Family Services of Greater Vancouver.
Now they’re opening the doors to ask New Westminster community members to help make the idea a reality.
“We really want the community to come and tell us what they think,” Cournoyer said.
The visioning session will solicit input on every aspect of the project – what the cart should look like, where it should be stationed, how the whole plan will work, how to get artists and local art involved, how to incorporate good, locally sourced coffee.
“Frankly, I want a good coffee too,” Cournoyer said. “We want to do it right.”
Cournoyer is already tossing around many ideas. Perhaps the cart can find a home base in front of the gallery but travel to a variety of community events over the summer season. Perhaps the cart itself can be designed by local artists and be, in itself, a work of art. Perhaps it can include an art sales component, with local art postcards or books by local writers. Perhaps it can include a performance component – with poetry readings, music, storytelling, children’s storytimes.
“Of course the sky’s the limit. This is what we’re going to vision,” she said.
The project still needs to secure more funding in order to become reality, since there will be sizable costs involved in building and outfitting an operational cart, but Cournoyer is crossing her fingers that it can become a reality for the summer of 2019.
And she’s hoping that plenty of interested community members will turn out at the visioning session on Nov. 14, so the community will be engaged in the project right from the beginning.
“My hope is that people see the cart and say, ‘This is the cart I helped build,’” she said.
GET INVOLVED
The visioning session is on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at The Gallery at Queen’s Park. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the session will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Organizers ask that those who want to attend register in advance so they know how much coffee to provide, but walk-ups will also be welcome on the night.
See www.tinyurl.com/NWCoffeeCart for all the details.
