Thirteen high school and four undergraduate students have joined CAFKA in the pilot of its new Youth Council initiative: Young Contemporaries. Since February, participants have been working toward a youth led project for inclusion in this year’s biennial exhibition.

Through successive sessions of group brainstorming on the biennial theme, Stay With Me, hands on workshops with local artists, and creative ideation through mad-lib play, youth participants identified collective themes of nostalgia, loss and belonging. Actively imagining community engagement with their work, the group developed the installation, The Missing Seat using materials graciously donated by The Working Centre’s partner secondhand store, Worth A Second Look (WASL). Anthropomorphizing household objects and furnishings at a table decked out with a feast, there waits a single vacant table setting inviting visitors into the sculptural mural to generate community connection and reflection.