Guest Spotlight: Deepesh Paudel on Connections, Characters and Stories from Un(Common) Threads 2025
Deepesh Paudel
Guest Spotlight
Guest Spotlight invites leaders and collaborators from across our community to share their own perspectives. This series will offer lived experiences, practical wisdom, and diverse viewpoints on what it takes to build meaningful creative work in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Deepesh Paudel is a PhD Candidate in Management (Social Enterprise), Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador. His research focuses on the intersection of theatre, markets, and society.
photo of performance by Jing Xia by Ritche Perez
Un(Common) Threads 2025: Connections. Characters. Stories.
While listening to Todd Saunders at the Un(Common) Threads summit, organized by Business & Arts NL, a question sprang to my mind: how does one feel a space? We can describe it, yes. We can speak of the colors, the design, the aroma, and the tangible it holds, but to feel it—emotionally and viscerally—perhaps is a hard nut to crack. In that sense, locating oneself in a space and embodying it seemed mystical and mysterious to me. Before I could even wrap my head around this puzzling self-enquiry, another thought sparked in my brain: what do we mean by embodying or feeling a space? Is it merely consuming the substances — tangibles or intangibles — present in the space, or taking in the aesthetics, or noticing the lack of it, or exploring the functionality and utility of the space? Voila! After listening to creatives and interacting with their fascinating works for four hours at the summit, I found my answer: connections, characters, and stories. The “space” that this year’s Un(Common) Threads created in the Fort William Ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel gave me exactly this.
The summit kicked off with a soulful guzheng performance by the award-winning musician Jing Xia. In the garden atrium at the Sheraton, nestled under leafy foliage and adjacent to a cascading waterfall, Xia blended Eastern traditional music with Western atmospheric elements, setting the artistic and creative tone for the day. Soon, I figured out that Xia’s welcome performance in the garden was an apt segue to Saunders’ opening talk titled In the Garden: Cultivating Creativity. Sure, the garden analogy in Newfoundland and Labrador’s climatic context drew some chuckles in the room; it also made perfect sense, as the Newfoundland-born, Norway-based, architect extraordinaire traced his creative roots to the nature and topography of the Northern wilderness. In his 40-minute presentation, interspersed with slides of riveting architectural designs and pithy epigrams, Saunders unpacked his story, simultaneously inviting the audience to reflect on creativity, patience, purpose, happiness, and connection. (If you think I went overboard with “riveting architectural designs,” see https://www.saunders.no/. Told you!)
“I’m not telling you how to be creative,” Saunders began his talk, alluding to his intentions of invoking questions and introspection in the audience rather than merely being prescriptive. Sharing with us his lived experiences and stories, Saunders uncovered key themes essential in unlocking and realizing creativity. Who is on your line? Early on in his talk, Saunders drew our attention to the importance of a team in collaborative creative endeavors. For him, creative collaboration began long before his professional ventures. As a kid growing up in Gander, Saunders was encouraged to participate in building structures. Exposure to homegrown architecture and hands-on opportunities at an early age enabled him to learn dexterity skills from older family members and cultivate a passion and admiration for shapes, structures, and spaces. Working in a team allows people to balance their dynamics. “We all have our strengths and weaknesses,” said Saunders, and understanding this allows us to be more honest and open with each other about our capabilities, creating an environment where everyone’s voice is heard.
photo of Todd Saunders by Ritche Perez
Another key takeaway from the featured talk was the significance of being at ease with risk-taking. Life is short: why is it important to get comfortable with risk? Saunders reiterated the importance of being comfortable with making mistakes and taking risks. Questions of uncertainty and instability often lurk in the lives of almost every creative person. Instead of viewing them as major hindrances and developing an avoidance mentality, Saunders stressed the need to go with the flow. There lies the spontaneity necessary for a creative spark. By not overthinking and working with whatever we have, we can cultivate creativity as a consistent habit.
Lastly, Saunders reinforced the idea of finding purpose in creative pursuits. How can one make creativity meaningful? What is success in creativity? One way to find meaning is by directing creativity towards value creation for the community. Saunders connected this insight to one of his architectural designs for the Illusuak Centre in Nain, Labrador, where he grounded his imagination in the idea of creating a space that enabled people to come together, share stories, learn collectively, and forge connections. I gleaned a crucial lesson from this reflection: creativity flourishes when it enhances the sociocultural well-being of those around us. On a personal note, listening to Saunders felt like a reassuring remedy in a time when everything seems to be moving at a breakneck speed, propelled by machine learning, generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI), and an algorithm-run virtual world. His talk reminded me of the value of slowing down, staying present, and engaging more physically with the world around me.
Following Saunders at the summit were Kellie Walsh and Tom Power. Walsh, one of Canada’s leading choral conductors and the artistic director of Shallaway Youth Choir, spoke passionately about her leadership approach, which centres on active listening, authenticity, and empowering team members. She particularly emphasized her philosophy of focusing on “extra musical capacities,” through which she strives to use art and creativity to instill courage and hope, promote empathy, and nurture a sense of community among the people she works with.
The third and final speaker of the day, Tom Power, the award-winning host of Q (CBC Radio One), reminisced about his journey from music to media. Recounting his interviews with global icons, Power made a telling point about how focusing on small, spontaneous moments helped him elicit genuine, human stories from even the most renowned figures. He brought the summit to a close by sharing practical tips for honing creativity, including conducting in-depth research, practicing mindfulness, grounding oneself in compassion, and embracing the anxiety that comes with uncertainty.
As I stepped out of the ballroom, reflecting on the stories of these creative leaders, I found attendees gathered around two art installations in the lobby: Rebecca Feaver’s Woven Narratives and Benjy Kean’s Motion Canvas. Whether taking pictures, interacting with the installations, or sharing their perspectives, those engaging with the pieces were visibly in awe and curious about both experimental works. After all, I thought, the art outside the ballroom echoed what was shared inside: creativity is best experienced through connections, characters, and stories.
