There is a new project in Prince Albert’s downtown that is working on spreading inclusive teaching for 2SLGBTQ people in the community.
Studio Q and the Prism Project describe itself as a ‘queerative space to explore art and foster creativity, community and allyship.’ The project was started by Alex Powalinsky and Lisa Halsall of All My Relations Photography and All My Relations Creative Connections.
The Prism Project is located on Central Avenue and is hosted by the West Flat Citizens Group.
Powalinsky, who has the title of project manager, said the idea had its nexus from a conversation with the Prince Albert Urban Indigenous Coalition.
“We were invited to come and do a presentation about two-spirit and Indigenous queer belonging and we had a great turnout,” Powalinsky said. “We had 35 people who came to that conversation and we had a circle after.”
The circle’s various community partners include Indigenous organizations and non-Indigenous organizations.
“What we really heard was that there was a need and a desire for more information about how to be more inclusive, how to build more spaces of belonging for 2SLGBTQ people,” Powalinsky said.
Since they had the knowledge, Powalinsky said they had the responsibility to respond to that request.
“We approached Dawn Robins at the West Flat Citizens Group, and we asked her if she would be our host organization,” Powalinsky explained. “We applied for a grant from Women and Gender Equality Canada, and we got it. The grant essentially is to promote equality for 2SLGBTQIA+ people in the region.”
They are categorized as a non-profit because the project is under the umbrella of the non-profit West Flat Citizens Group.
“A lot of people do think we’re an organization, but we’re not. We’re a branch off of an organization,” Powalinsky said.
Powalinsky said working with All My Relations Creative Connections showed them how much of a need there was for this concept.
“It honestly came from us just being involved in the community and people starting to get to know us and hearing our stories and people then saying, ‘you know what, I think that this group needs to hear that story’ and they started bringing us into different spaces,” Powalinsky said.
Another place where they saw the need was through a one-year project with Metis Central.
“That’s another place where we really saw this need in the community and not only a need, but a desire and a willingness from our community to advance some of these things,” Powalinsky said.
The aim of the Project is to promote equality, and they do it through what she calls three branches.
“One of those is engagement, and then knowledge creation, and resource development, and partnerships, and so we create opportunities for Indigenous 2SLGBTQ people to connect with themselves, with one another, and the broader community,” Powalinsky said.
The Prism Project also provides opportunities for the community to engage and connect with Indigenous queer realities. Powalinsky added that they are in the process of creating a knowledge series in the form of a podcast.
“We also create resources and toolkits to share with the community and we also provide community education through presentations and toolkits to help people advance inclusion within their own workspaces,” Powalinsky said.
The community they are serving can be perceived as oppressed on two sides because of anti-Indigenous and anti-LGBTQ attitudes.
“We wanted to create not only one space, but more spaces in our community and communities surrounding us in the region where people can go and feel complete as a person,” Powalinsky said.
She said that in some Indigenous spaces, the queerness has to be separated and in some LGTQ spaces the Indigenous worldview is not represented.
“We work with everybody, but our whole team here is part of that Indigenous 2SLGBT community so that’s the perspective that we work from,” Powalinsky said.
“It’s a chance for us to bring together all the pieces of ourselves and all of our experiences to try and have impact in non-Indigenous spaces and Indigenous spaces in queer spaces, but also in mainstream spaces as well.”
The project hosts workshops and presentations in the space as well as outside in the larger community. The Project is located on Central Avenue, which Powalinsky said was something that was not in their mandate but was important to them. Powalinsky said that when we are talking about community, we are really talking about ourselves.
“Our community is everybody who makes up this place and we have an opportunity being in the downtown to kind of change that narrative and to also show leadership,” Powalinsky said.
“What’s really exciting about what we’re doing here is having a space in the downtown with Indigenous and the 2SLGBTQ communities running it.
“That’s nothing that people have seen before and it’s leading something where there’s a lot of people who share that same vision, so we’re able to connect with people in the downtown here that we normally probably wouldn’t have connected with otherwise.”
They also take part in career days at Post-Secondary institutions. The group was also part of the Prince Albert Downtown Street Fair.
“That was the first time we’ve had visible queer representation at the Street Fair, so that was really exciting for us too,” Powalinsky said.
The Prism Project has another facet with Studio Q, which is located in the basement and serves as a concert space that has hosted bands like DOA and the recent Rocktober Carnival. Art is a core piece of how they do work, Powalinsky said, and this comes from the origins with All My Relations. She explained that in the queer community in general there are many artists.
“I think that it’s because art is a very self-determined process and it’s something where there’s not a lot of interference from other people. It’s a chance for you to kind of go inward and explore who you are and then share that outwardly with people. People appreciate art, and so it’s like appreciating a piece of you.”
Powalinsky said art is an important tool on a queer person’s journey and when they applied for the grant they applied for a systems change grant.
“We are supposed to focus on policies, changing systems, changing norms, attitudes, and beliefs and we believe that art is a really powerful conduit for that, so we provide a space for people to come and engage with the arts, but also to develop their own art practices and to use art as a way to express their visions of equality too,” she explained.
Powalinsky said that the project started on Dec. 4, 2024 but they began to use the project space officially on April 6, 2025.
The Prism Project has been able to gain some traction in certain spaces where the aims of the project are understood.
“I think that the really cool thing was just even looking at my calendar coming up for the next two months, it’s totally full, and those are requests that have come from the community less than us reaching out,” Powalinsky said.
“That’s been a really powerful piece of feedback for me that shows that people are understanding the big picture of what we’re doing with community education and then seeing the turnouts.”
One example she gave was at a recent Karaoke event there were 40 youth in attendance.
“Anyone who works in youth work in Prince Albert, to get 40 kids to come out to your event, that’s a huge success. But we, of course, always want to be able to broaden our reach,” Powalinsky said.
Powalinsky added that the hope is to continue to engage with people inside and outside of the community, including surrounding rural, Metis and First Nations communities.
“We’ve already started that, but to continue that engagement, just to broaden the impact and to make sure that people across our whole region are feeling the impact of the work.
The Prism Project-Studio Q is located at 1114 Central Avenue, Powalinsky encourages the community to reach out.
“If anybody is curious about our work, to please feel free to reach out to us. They can get a hold of us on Facebook, on Instagram, or through e-mail. Creativeconnx@gmail.com, or by calling us, and we’re on Google, so people can search us as well. Or stop in,” Powalinsky said.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
