Off the Eaten Path (OTEP) is an initiative by The Wave Projects, aiding diverse restaurants and food businesses looking to participate in curated food projects. These projects celebrate and reflect their culture and services as well as activate under-utilized urban spaces for community design research.
OTEP has a direct impact on the financial health of persons and small businesses. The community at large in Nova Scotia benefits from social events created to convey a message of inclusivity; a need with our growing immigrant population. This is essential to the well being and quality of life of Nova Scotians as well as our city's liveability.
My Role
Urban Planner + Community Designer
Project Lead
Fund Allocator
Research + Report writing
The Social Role of Community Festivals in Placemaking
The Findings, Impacts and Reflections of Halifax Asian Food Festival 2021.
2020 - 2022
My Role at Off the Eaten Path (OTEP) as an Urban Planner and Community Designer is to explore the utilization of Food as a tool for Placemaking. We curated multiple projects under OTEP such as Asian Food Festival (AFF) 2021 and 2022, as well as, World Cafe. I lead the curation of these projects and conducted research and report writing to allocate funds and sponsors.
My role included curating the written and digital content for AFF 2021 and 2022 such as website content, sponsorship packages, packages to businesses and fund applications. After conducting qualitative and quantitative research during Asian Food Festival 2021, I wrote a report exploring "The Social Role of Community Festivals in Placemaking" that garnered extensive support from the city and varying organizations. This report aided in bringing a greater AFF event to Halifax Waterfront the following year of 2022 with support from TD Bank, Build Nova Scotia, Downtown Halifax, Arts and Culture funds and ACOA! We excitedly expanded within Atlantic Canada and bought AFF to Prince Edward Island.
In addition to AFF, World Cafe is a placemaking project in partnership with Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) aiming to integrate art students on the creation and design process of a food market cafe, meanwhile allowing us to study the utilization of Food + Art in placemaking.
Asian Food Festival
Off the Eaten Path (OTEP) aids diverse restaurants and food businesses looking to participate in curated international food festivals like AFF, that celebrate and reflect their culture and services. OTEP has a direct impact on the financial health of persons and small businesses. The community at large in Nova Scotia will benefit from social events created to convey a message of inclusivity, a need with our growing immigrant population. Celebrating our diversity and conversing in a safe and welcoming environment is essential to the well being and quality of life of Nova Scotians. This is liveability, this is placemaking.
World Cafe
World-Cafe POP-UP features Halifax’s newest food concepts and chefs. In collaboration with NSCAD, we're curating a space serving as a diverse Food Market but, with a twist. The space's furniture, textiles, cutlery, and interiors will be designed by NSCAD students. Our role as Urban Planners is to study the affect of Food and Art in placemaking.
We are keen on exploring the role art plays in placemaking. We asked, how can Art be utilized as a tool to prompt a sense of place. Teaming up with NSCAD and Dr. Aiofe McNamara encouraged us to apply for a partnership with MITACS on research opportunities and funding. Students and professionals studying related topics such as Food Security are encouraged to partake in the project.
(World Cafe is a pending project).
FOOD & ART
as tools for
PLACEMAKING
