We Imagine

We Imagine

Laura Barron is a lifelong educator, performer, writer and social activist committed to cultivating creative confidence, collaboration skills, and self-knowledge through experiential, arts-infused learning. For thirty years, she also enjoyed an international career as a touring flutist, highlights of which include her solo appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and several performances at Carnegie Hall. With a doctorate from McGill and ten years of full-time university teaching experience, she is passionate about translating the mastery cultivated in her creative and educational pursuits for learners from a variety of disciplines. Her powerful facilitation has found relevance and resonance in a wide range of communities. These include corporate executive teams; social entrepreneurs; non-profit boards; students at University of British Columbia, Michigan, Colorado, and many other post-secondary institutions internationally; as well as at-risk youth in India, Nepal, Zambia and Colombia. All of Laura’s socially impactful initiatives are designed to empower participants to become instruments of change in their own lives. She has always strived for relevance in her work, and now harnesses her experience as a performer and teacher in her current role as the founder and Executive Director of. This Vancouver-based non-profit leads numerous arts-based community development initiatives for youth to seniors, in schools, community centres and prisons.
As a facilitator, Laura acts as catalyst, coach, and conductor, using the expressive capacity, sensitive listening skills, and well-honed collaborative abilities she developed as an elite musician, to “synchronize the group participants, ultimately guiding the use of their instruments toward the desired result - a harmonized expression of their complex interactions, creativity, and expertise. As she guides participants, a system is organically created where she helps every individual agree upon working norms. In this way, she enables each person to create something greater than themselves. ” (conductor metaphor from sessionlab.com)