A hands-on, art-meets-action pop-up that invited Calgarians to illuminate their hopes for the city’s future. Participants created messages and mini projectors that became part of public projection artworks, lighting up the city with community voices and ideas.

Bug Bright was a buzzing, hands-on adventure where kids (and kids at heart) created a radiant glow bug using simple materials, LEDs, and cell batteries, blending art and science to explore basic circuits in a playful, interactive way. Alongside the making, participants were invited to pause, breathe, and connect with their emotions, discovering how their inner light can shine through big feelings with a little mindfulness. At the Bug Bright pop-up booth, participants also picked up A Light-Up Guide to Calming Big Emotions, a free interactive zine to keep their glow going beyond the activity. Bug Bright was a free, family-friendly experience that celebrated curiosity over perfection, showing how creativity, science, and mindfulness can come together to help us beam from the inside out.

Don’t flurry, this event helped Calgarians unwind this winter by playing a game designed to melt away stress. Let It Blow used bingo as a framework to encourage the Calgary community to try self-soothing techniques to keep cool, calm, and collected.

Participants grabbed a Brrr-Bingo game card at one of the participating businesses to partake in the FREE, family-friendly Chinook Blast event. They braved the cold and stopped by CRATE's pop-up booth to craft a Just Brrr-Breathe critter to discover how a blast of air can help you chill out.

Read the full report here.

Let’s light it up. Guess Watt? It wasn’t watt you thought. This free, interactive, child-centred experience encouraged kids (and kids at heart) to be observant and craft a little light to shine in the darkness. Guess Watt aimed to artfully cultivate mindfulness by introducing the public to a self-driven scavenger hunt and hands-on activity. Participants solved clues and went on a quest to find items that brightened up the night. At Guess Watt HQ, they built a DIY projector— a functional mindful focus tool using simple art supplies. Guess Watt cast a spotlight on additive colour theory to help the Calgary community focus their attention on the present moment and, in turn, support mental wellness.

Glimmers (of Light) was a means to observe an unfamiliar phenomenon: tiny moments of goodness captured as shadows of various colours—yellow, magenta, cyan, red, green, blue, and black. The Nigh L!ight art activation shed light on a self regulation technique designed to enhance emotional well-being through craft and play. The opposite of triggers are glimmers; defined as “small moments when our biology is in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to feel safe or calm” (Moniuszko, 2022). The hands-on art activation was an opportunity to get crafty, delve into a magical world, embrace a child-like sense of wonder and create a glimmer of your own, by incorporating STEAM components. This FREE, kid-friendly concept required no artistic skills, just a willingness to get creative and enhance your emotional wellness by playing with coloured shadows.  

Originally developed as a Beakerhead activation, Bug Hunt invited participants to explore how big emotions show up in the body through a self-guided scavenger hunt.

Printed Bug Hunt sandwich boards were strategically placed throughout the festival grounds. Each station featured a QR code that unlocked a different emotional learning activity, including Storm Starters, Angry Portraits, Flip It, and Feel the Feels. Participants were encouraged to investigate the content, reflect on a prompt, and try a simple body-calming technique before continuing their quest.

The activation encouraged kids and kids-at-heart to map how emotions bubble to the surface while discovering creative strategies for navigating them. Through playful exploration, participants learned about emotional awareness, body sensations, and regulation techniques in an accessible and engaging way.

The Bug Hunt headquarters was a unique stop in the scavenger hunt with art supplies for participants to create functional art that incorporates STEAM components to expand their emotional competence. This FREE, kid-friendly concept required no artistic skills, just a willingness to get creative and learn body calming techniques.

Girl Guide Version:

The concept later evolved into a series of four facilitated hands-on stations for Girl Guides, where participants crafted an angry portrait, explored the Hand Model of the Brain through science, identified where they "feel the feels" in their bodies, and created a What Bugs Me Bug using pipe cleaners, LED lights, batteries, and clothespins to combine emotional learning with STEAM-based creativity.

Read the full BUG HUNT, FINAL REPORT.

This interactive experience aimed to warm the hearts of the Calgary community and give participants goosebumps (the good kind).

Our Friends Of Chinook Blast activation—The Warm Fuzzy Challenge—was a free, family-friendly experience, focusing on warm-hearted ways to engage the five senses and improve mental health.

We encouraged participants to complete five Warm Fuzzy Challenges scattered within the parameters of Chinook Blast—think scavenger hunt with a mindful twist. This self-driven activity enabled participants to start from one of five entry points and engage in up to five Warm Fuzzy challenges.

Read the full Warm Fuzzy Challenge Experience Report.

A FREE art activity for kids and kids-at-heart to create a mini world that brings them joy or peace. With the objective of capturing your glimmers, aka micro-moments of happiness.

Worry Monster an art activation at Market Collective. Offering kids (and kids-at-heart) an opportunity to craft their own worry monster to eat their worries. The Giant Monster also ate the audiences’ worries.

Calm Quest is an interactive activation for kids (and kids-at-heart) that invites participants to creatively explore ways to manage stress and big feelings. Designed as a self-directed experience, Calm Quest allows participants to enter at their own pace and follow their curiosity.

Hidden throughout the event space are four Calm Quest sandwich boards. Participants search for each board and complete a simple, guided task. Think of it like a scavenger hunt with a mental wellness twist.

One sandwich board would be the CRATE’s pop-up location/ vendor booth (or if preferred be a scheduled workshop) where the participant has an opportunity to create a functional toy to create their own calm. 

Each sandwich board introduces a different Calm Quest activity, complete with clear, step-by-step instructions that encourage mindful attention, grounding, and self-kindness. 

Activities include:

Rainbow Search
Find objects in your surroundings that match each color of the rainbow to gently focus attention and slow the mind.

5–4–3–2–1 Grounding
Name five things you see, four things you feel, three things you hear, two things you smell, and one thing you taste.

Lazy 8
Trace a Lazy 8 with your finger, starting at the star, while taking slow, steady breaths to support regulation.

Kind 2 U
Explore the power of self-talk by completing the sentence: I am… and practicing words of kindness toward yourself. 

Calm Quest meets participants where they are, using play, movement, and creativity to make emotional regulation approachable, engaging, and fun for all ages.

MEDIA: Mixed Media, Found Objects, Paint, Graphic Design

Being a kid-at-heart, I love finding ways to showcase the child-centric element of the CRATE Brand; finding unique and interesting ways to create engaging material thoughtful of the age demographic of the child.

Wanting the material to reflect the craft I use in my art therapy practice, the easel and chalkboard display intentionally hand-drawn signage reminiscent of child-style art. I always consider the type of material - is it functional, can it be reused, repurposed, or easily recycled?

Dimensions: Easel/Chalkboard Sign - 24 in W x 44 in H; CRATE Box Display - 24 in W x 72 in H

Snow Down: It’s Snow Mystery was a FREE, family-friendly game set within Chinook Blast that invited participants to slow down, get curious, and solve a playful winter mystery when the festival’s frosty symbol was found shattered. Instead of rushing to answers, players gathered clues from participating businesses and pieced together the story through observation and imagination. The journey led to Snow Down Headquarters, where participants created their own Snow Down Globe—a calming, creative keepsake. Open to all ages and no art experience required, the activation blended storytelling, mindful exploration, and hands-on making.