Research Outside the Box

I am delighted to finally announce the launch of the vitality tool, Vt. It has taken almost a year and a half to develop this tool, and we deliberatively designed it to make you think about the meaning of vitality for your own community. You can also add to the six proxy indicators that we identified from our discussion papers that best typify. You can rate your own community and then compare and contrast it with other Canadian communities, and see the results in a series of unique graphs, developed by my research associate, Rob Newell, to whom I am indebted.

I still struggle with ideas around how to integrate the arts more fundamentally with my research, and the videos accompanying the six proxy indicators are one attempt, as is my website design. I would like to acknowledge the wonderful contribution of one of my Board members for my Canada Research Program, a watercolourist from Vancouver Island, Leanne Cadden, whose art is the foundation for the new website design and much of the Vt section.