Open this photo in gallery: The Burnaby Festival of Learning is run each spring on an approximately $150,000 budget, split between Simon Fraser University and the city, with no corporate sponsorship.Sarah Race/Burnaby Festival of Learning Joanne Curry, vice president, external relations at Burnaby, British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University (SFU), is always on the lookout for projects to strengthen the university’s relationship with the city, the third-largest in the province. “Our university is on top of a mountain, and the question is always how to get off it,” Ms. Curry says. Burnaby’s diverse population of 250,000 wasn’t necessarily familiar with what...