By Dan White – Special to the Sydenham Current
In my previous column I introduced you to Laurie Langford, a local visual artist. Laurie’s style of creating is assemblage and collage, where she uses a variety of components both unique and very common to create work that is influenced by her thoughts on subjects from gender roles to world politics. I have chatted with Laurie as she heads out to a thrift store, and she is always a very happy camper on these ventures.
This week, I will focus on two other components of Laurie’s creative life: her writing and her leadership in the arts.
In 1996 Laurie joined her sweet babboo Brad in Chatham and immediately sought ways to become involved in the arts here. This led to her becoming a founding member of ARTspace in 2008. Laurie sat on this committee for eight years and, starting in 2011, began publishing curatorial essays. Her website lists several contributions over the subsequent 12 years.
She has also contributed to the magazine RED: The Island Story Book. This magazine “is a series of publications featuring short stories, articles, and other content related to Prince Edward Island. The publication includes a variety of content, from historical accounts to contemporary narratives.” Laurie’s contributions to this magazine tell stories of her family on the island. Most notably, her great-grandfather, “a notable figure in the 1900s whose story has not previously been told.”
He was a significant figure in the silver fox industry, but after he divorced in the early 20th century while living in a very conservative province, he was shunned and his story was swept from public knowledge. Now, a century later, his great-granddaughter is bringing that part of PEI history back to light. To date, Laurie has had 16 published stories in RED over the past five years.
Influenced and inspired by this process, Laurie decided to continue her post-secondary studies in 2023. She began working on her Masters in Island Studies at UPEI, which has evolved into some fascinating opportunities. Laurie noted that she is very fortunate her advisor has been incredibly open to her taking a unique approach to assignments. Her professor has allowed Laurie to approach projects with an artistic eye, including creating a collage picture book to tell her great-grandfather’s story.
This approach led to Laurie teaming up with her professor and a colleague to create a unique presentation at the 1st International Islands Water Congress in the Faroe Islands in September 2024. In this presentation, Laurie creates visual images while her professor narrates her poetry and her colleague performs his music. The presentation was delivered again in June 2025 at a PEI conference on climate change. It has been so well received that there is talk of it being presented in South Korea in 2026.
Laurie has found that meeting students from across the world through her masters program has influenced her and shifted her perspective. She feels “like a kid at camp” as she learns from both her studies and those studying with her.
Laurie is always a student, looking at the world and her community with an often unique perspective. She is very aware of the impact and value of the arts in our lives, and is also keenly aware that arts are often underfunded, overlooked and underappreciated. Laurie’s philosophy is that rather than being part of the problem, she chooses to be part of the solution in bringing the importance of arts to the fore. She points out that arts and culture contribute more to the GDP than sports and leisure, and while she believes both are valuable parts of a healthy community and should be funded, the balance is off.
It is this conviction that led Laurie to join James Snyder and Tom McCarthy in setting the groundwork in 2020 for the creation of the Chatham-Kent Arts and Culture Network. Laurie has served since the CKACN’s inception, acting as secretary, treasurer, vice-chair and now chair of the organization. She sees the purpose of the organization “as a platform to draw attention to the variety of arts and artists we have in CK. We are part of the glue that binds this community.”
Laurie notes that the hiring of an executive director in February has freed her to leave administrative tasks to the ED, allowing her to seek creative solutions to CK artists’ ventures and make connections to find, support and assist both established and emerging artists.
Moving forward, Laurie hopes to further develop a microgrant program for artists, continue to connect artists from across the municipality—and indeed the province through collaborative projects with other arts councils—and continue to advocate for the support and development of local arts as a culturally significant endeavour.
For the immediate future, Laurie and the board will focus on the Arts and Cultural Heroes Wall of Fame event, working to build it into a “must-attend” artistic event in the calendar year. She also plans to further develop the CK Studio Tour, an annual spring event. These two events are pillars upon which the evolving arts community in CK will be built.
Laurie is another one of CK’s artistic hidden gems and will continue to be a force in the CK arts community and beyond for years to come.
