Words While We Wait ‘The Food Edition’ is now on

Kawartha Lakes – Words While We Wait ‘The Food Edition’ is now on! Running until December 2025, the public art program consists of 11 locally crafted poems, illustrated by Kawartha Arts Network artists. The exhibit can be found in 11 bus shelters in the Lindsay Transit system, with original artwork on display at City Hall in Lindsay.

‘The Food Edition’ follows a call for temporary public art issued in 2020/2021. At the time, the initiative gathered stories through poetry from residents about their experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. Called Words While We Wait, this temporary public art initiative placed poetry posters in bus shelters to document the community’s experience in a creative and illustrative way. 

“Five years later, many feel that the biggest connection made during the pandemic and changes since is our relationship with food,” said Donna Goodwin, Economic Development Officer – Arts and Culture, at City of Kawartha Lakes.

“From sourdough starters and backyard gardening, to food insecurity and the rise of food delivery to our doors, our connection to food in this agricultural community seemed at an all-time high. So we reached out again to gauge feelings and interest in food, and our residents did not disappoint,” she added.

The six-week Call for Submissions launched on World Poetry Day (March 21, 2025), to coincide with ‘April is National Poetry Month’. It was a creative and community-led way of getting to know how people were feeling and how they would explain their current situation and relationship with food. The public call for submissions hoped to capture individual and collective experiences of our community once more.

This project is part of the City’s Economic Development Arts and Culture portfolio. Working with its partner, the Kawartha Arts Network (KAN), selected submissions were paired with a KAN artist, for illustration and installation on Lindsay Public Transit bus shelters and the main floor of City Hall for viewing.

“The Kawartha Arts Network - your local artists’ cooperative - is very pleased to be involved in the second Words While We Wait project,” said Lesley Drummond, Director of KAN. “Not only does it give local literary and visual artists a challenge to create works based on a theme, but it allows the general public to experience these art pieces in an unexpected everyday location.

“We are very excited with the results and hope everyone makes a visit to City Hall to see the actual artworks on display by our eleven participating artists,” she added.

View the original artwork: Kawartha Lakes City Hall, 26 Francis St. in Lindsay, from 8:30am to 4:30pm. Paintings are for sale by the artists. Their contact information is included in the display.

We hope you enjoy this temporary exhibit. For more information, please contact Economic Development, City of Kawartha Lakes, or Kawartha Arts Network.