2015 Margo Bindhardt and Rita Davies Award Finalist
Ruth Howard is the founding Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. She has many years of experience in professional, popular, and community-engaged arts and theatre across Canada and the UK. She is committed to people, inclusive community, mentorship, aesthetic quality, and exploration—elements that conspire to make a compelling and transformative whole.
Photo of Ruth Howard by Denise Grant Photography
Why are the arts important?
Often it's hard to express things in literal ways and in everyday language, and so we need to enter a creative realm and a language of art in order to respond to the complexities of life. It’s not just that art is important: it’s inevitable.
Where can we find you when you’re not working?
I’m usually working; the divide between my life and work is pretty blurred. But, when I’m not working, and I'm not sleeping, you're likely to find me with family members of three generations. You might also find me doing Irish Set Dancing: a type of community social dancing, which has become my huge passion in the past few years. The nice thing about this kind of dance is that I absolutely can’t work, or even think about work, while doing it.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
I enjoy having so much freedom to invent things and then orchestrate them happening. It’s highly enjoyable being the generative force. I also enjoy supporting, enabling and mentoring other artists, young and old. I enjoy all the different kinds of people I get to meet through our community-engaged work, who I wouldn’t otherwise have the privilege of knowing. I enjoy all the creative collaborations that I have with many wonderful artists across different forms, styles and cultures. And I enjoy how my work allows me to gain a deeper sense of awareness, fondness belonging in the place where I live.
What keeps you going?
What keeps me going, is believing in what I do; I have a strong sense of purpose about the kind of art-making that Jumblies does. What also keeps me going is all the other artists and colleagues with whom I’m connected with, who have been sparked by Jumblies’s work and whose own artistic paths I am committed to supporting and upholding.
How do you feel you contribute to the city?
Jumblies contributes to art-making in the city by supporting, demonstrating and initiating a vision of art that’s rooted in the people, places and (sometimes buried) stories of Toronto. At Jumblies, we help build bridges between different worlds of art-making and social, current and historical experience, and help make exciting and meaningful art something that is available to all residents, regardless of wealth, health, ability, age, language and culture.
What is the impact of the arts in Toronto?
The arts are important in Toronto because it’s a place where people can meet across differences, overcome preconceptions and historical rifts. The arts can play a key role in transforming views, relationships and reality. Especially through inclusive participatory art-making, people can get a sense of new worlds of possibility, and this can be a step in creating actual new realities.