Re-Igniting the Spark! 2024 Workshops and Facilitators Announced!
We are so very excited to introduce you to the workshops and facilitators for the 2024 SPARC Symposium - Re-Igniting the Spark!
This year we will be launching a DEIA Track of three workshops (indicated with an * beside the workshop title and description below) to help you on your DEIA journey. Anyone attending these workshops will get a certificate sent to them post-Symposium.
Workshops and facilitators are listed in order of presentation day/time. The exact schedule will be released in the coming weeks.
Meineka Kulasinghe & Kayla Besse - Stratford Festival Theatre
Image Description: Meineka is smiling, has brown skin, and short black hair. She is wearing a black mock turtleneck, a beige sweater, and a gold necklace.
Image Description: Kayla is smiling, has white skin, and long brown hair. She is wearing a white collared shirt under a black sweater, and glasses, as always.
Changing the Landscape: Activating Your Organization’s Investment in Equity, Diversity and Access*
How might a rural theatre community invite cultural respect and inclusion, when [equity-seeking] identities are [often] not [always] represented within our organizations, on or off-stage? In this interactive workshop, we will share with you two of our most instrumental organizational tools: The Living Guidelines and Pathways to Cultural Belonging (PATH). The Guidelines is a collaborative tool to help your organization ask questions that consider cultural implications of your work, and PATH helps define shared accountability for each step in the process. These tools work in tandem to provide guidance on how your organization can, from an equitable perspective, reconsider its programming, community investment, staff engagement, and new audience development. Supplemental tools will be shared, which invite designers and actors to meaningfully contribute to the accessibility of their theatre productions. By considering the needs of more diverse artists, audiences, and community partners (including age, race, orientation, and disability), these tools aim to increase your capacity to engage with more equitable practices and strategies in ways that are unique to your organization.
Facilitator bios - Meineka Kulasinghe (she/her, MSW/RSW) currently works as the EDI Manager at the Stratford Festival. Meineka collaborates with Festival artists and staff, encouraging them to explore their work from a lens that considers how culture intersects with the performance arts industry. She also provides support in navigating artistic visions while considering artist, creative, staff, and patron needs. Meineka remains curious about how to engage with organizational cultural growth alongside the art of joy. Previously, Meineka provided anti-racism education in community settings, and remains an anti-violence researcher with a focus on immigrant and refugee communities.
Kayla Besse (she/her, MA) currently works as the Accessibility Coordinator at the Stratford Festival. Prior to this, she worked as the Public Education Coordinator at Tangled Art + Disability, and in knowledge mobilization and digital storytelling facilitation roles at the ReVision Centre for Art & Social Justice. She co-produces and co-hosts the Crip Times podcast. In her Master’s work with Dr. Elaine Chang, she was interested in tracing histories of disability representation in literature and on stage, and how these inform public and medical bias. These days, she mostly wants to facilitate a nice time for disabled people in the arts.
Erica May-Wood & Bruce Hunter - RealSpace Theatre
Image Description: A middle-aged duo (woman and man) standing at a microphone, performing with scripts in their hands.
The Creative Spark
Sometimes our work is so focused on igniting the creative spark in our students, communities and audiences that our own flame wanes or we find ourselves stuck and unsure of the next steps forward. This session will be a fast paced, interactive workshop designed to get us out of our heads and back into our imaginative selves. Using a combination of improv games, writing exercises and collaborative creation activities, we’ll work to refresh the leader’s toolbox and re-ignite the creative spark.
Facilitator bios - Erica and Bruce have separately, and together, taught hundreds upon hundreds of people of all ages how to use their imagination to perform and create. They create site-specific, immersive, real-time plays with RealSpace Theatre and are currently re-inventing their work in a rural landscape.
Bruce Hunter taught at Second City for over 30 years, is a member of the award-winning comedy troupe, The Illustrated Men, and has appeared extensively in tv, film and on stages across Canada and Europe (including the Stratford Festival.) https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402742/
Erica May-Wood is a LAMDA trained actor, and experienced facilitator, working with Young People's Theatre, Hamilton Conservatory of the Arts and in schools and hospitals. Her current practice focuses on participatory art, including a global project executed during the pandemic. https://conferenceofthebirds.net/ and an upcoming commission from Harbourfront Centre, By Kids for Kids. Erica also has extensive experience working as a producer and project director with arts organizations such as Harbourfront Centre, and Northern Arts Connection.
Joanne Churchill - Ontario Presents
Image Description: Photo of a woman staring directly into the camera with soft curly hair, light skin and large dark-rimmed glasses. She is resting her face gently on her outstretched hand and wearing a simple black shirt with no patterns.
Igniting New Young Audience Presenters
This workshop is tailor made for community-based groups, networks, producers, creators, and community activators interested in working collaboratively to enhance performing arts experiences for early years, children and youth in their community.
Industry professional, Joanne Churchill, will share with workshop participants meaningful information from a new digital resource titled “From Seed to Season: How to Grow as a New Young Audience Presenter” that has been created specifically to support the cultivation of new presenters for young audiences in underserved, rural, and remote communities in Ontario.
The workshop will illustrate how new or fledgling young audience presenters can implement the strategies, exercises, worksheets, and task lists found in the digital resource to connect performing artists with children and their families. While some of the information presented will be made available in a PowerPoint presentation, time will be made available for open dialogue and questions from the participants that relate to their personal experiences, community, and resources.
Facilitator bio - Joanne Churchill, currently the Project Lead for Ontario Presents’ New Young Audience Presenter Project and author of “From Seed to Season: How to Grow as a New Young Audience Presenter,” is a seasoned arts administrator with a passion for connecting young audiences with professional performing artists. She has worked for Prologue Performing Arts where she facilitated school and community tours, managed special projects for children, teachers, and presenters. She developed the Burlington Performing Arts Centre’s first education outreach program that offered a performing arts series, experiential workshops, teacher professional development, and student mentorship opportunities. Now working as an independent consultant, she has worked with MASC, WeeFestival Arts and Culture for Early Years, and various other artists, agents and producers. Joanne is now the Special Projects Consultant for Ontario Presents and is working to help develop and nurture new presenters in rural, remote and underserved communities in Ontario.
Erin Ball & Maxime Beauregard
Image Description: Headshot of Erin, a white agender neurodivergent or neuro non-conforming human and double below knee amputee from the chest up. Erin smiles with nature in the background.
Image Description: Headshot of Maxime, a white transgender autistic person with short ginger hair, sitting on a stool in a fun relaxed way. They are joyfully and authentically smiling.
Photo Credit: Shannon Smith from Soulnnection.
Creative Accessibility in Performance*
Co-led by Disabled artists Maxime Beauregard and Erin Ball, this workshop shares the artists' approach to collaborative, creative accessibility. Offering multiple ways to engage with the information, Erin and Maxime will share what has worked for them and what has not in terms of accessibility in performing arts.
Plan for the Session
Relaxed time. Start 5 minutes late to allow people to arrive/settle in.
Check in, including access check in.
Powerpoint slides and discussion about process
Short video examples of creative access in performance
Optional movement or bio break
Questions
Check out
Facilitator bios - Erin Ball (ze/zir), a white, auDHD, double below knee amputee and demifemme human, is an international circus artist, accessibility consultant, and workshop facilitator who strives to increase disability-led art and accessibility.
Maxime Beauregard: (they/them) is white joyful autistic trans non-binary human. They are a Disabled performer and EDIA workshop facilitator that strives to live radical access and take action via the Disability Justice principles (created by Sins Invalid). Maxime is also a choreographer, producer, circus artist, contemporary dancer and drag artist.
Miranda Bouchard - Thinking Rock Community Arts
Image Description: A smiling woman, dressed in black with chin-length blonde hair, stands in a darkened room beside a window, looking out.
Photo credit: Chandra Barnett
Make, Do & Mend: Pandemic Lessons from Thinking Rock Community Arts
Faced with lockdown-induced closures and cancellations, we wondered how an organization like ours, which has always worked hands-on and in-person, would weather the storm of pandemic challenges. To our delight, our detour from digits to digital taught us a great deal about artistic translation, the power of shared sensory experiences, and the magic of accessible spaces, all the while expanding our notions of community, creativity, and possibility.
Facilitator bio - Miranda Bouchard (she/her) is an artist, curator & arts manager who brings 15+ years' experience in the non-profit arts and culture sector to her work as Artistic Director at Thinking Rock Community Arts. Her Algoma roots and residence inform her focus on process- and craft-based practices, intergenerational sharing, and projects unfolding in rural places where such practices are prevalent. She's drawn to stories, traditions and modes of making that survive and retain their salience, despite the passage of time. Miranda enjoys contributing creatively as an invested collaborator, establishing reciprocal connections with artists & communities, and supporting the realization of projects through sustained dialogue and exchange. She's studied art, art history, nonprofit management, puppetry, and community economic & social development at the University of Guelph, Toronto Metropolitan University, Humber College, Algoma University and LAB University of Applied Sciences' Institute of Fine Arts (FInland). She has apprenticed in community arts practice and design with Ruth Howard and Jumblies Theatre + Arts.
Lisa Poushinsky - Kemptville Street Piano
Image Description: Picture of a white woman in her forties wearing a blue cardigan sweater and blouse standing in front of a blue door. She has glasses, small twinkly eyes, short light blonde hair, and a big smile accentuated by red lipstick.
Starting a Concert Series From Scratch in Rural Ontario: The Story of the Kemptville Street Piano
Interested in presenting concerts in your community? Don't let a lack of funding or concert venues stop you! In this session, you'll be taken step by practical step through the creation and implementation of the Kemptville Street Piano Concert Series, providing a model for you to follow.
Starting with an overview, KSP founder Lisa Poushinsky will then describe the actions taken, such as acquiring and installing a piano, working with the municipality and other partners, creating a vision for the series and finding and booking the acts, and applying for grants and working with granting bodies such as RTO. You'll see a sample of the yearly budget and we'll discuss challenges faced and overcome, measuring community impact (including financial) and, time permitting, we'll also touch on effective marketing and promotion in rural communities.
Workshop attendees should come away with an understanding of what street pianos can do for communities in public spaces and what installing and looking after them entails, ideas for pitching arts and cultural projects and bringing on board municipal councils and staff, ways to connect and engage community members so they participate in, enjoy, and support your project, and how to start an outdoor summer concert series step by step!
Facilitator bio - Arts Professional Lisa Poushinsky grew up in the Ottawa area where she attended an arts high school. After developing health problems, Lisa changed her focus from sculpture to performance and started her own record label, recording 5 albums of original music and touring regularly across the country.
Lisa moved to the heritage hamlet of Bishop's Mills in 2010 and is now co-chair of the North Grenville Arts and Culture Advisory Committee. As an arts presenter, she is co-organizer of the Twilux Lantern Parade and producer of the Kemptville Street Piano concert series. Lisa is passionate about providing cultural experiences for rural families and can't wait to see what's next for North Grenville!
Stephanie Draker - WorkInCulture
Image Description: Headshot of Stephanie Draker (she/her) smiling directly at the camera against a simple grey background.
Practical Tips on Preparing Grant Applications
The granting process is highly competitive and can be a challenging and intimidating process to individuals and arts organizations of any size. By sharing these practical tips, we aim to help streamline the process and help you create a framework to approach any funding opportunity more thoughtfully and effectively.
Stronger grant writing expertise helps our rural and remote communities enhance the great work already being done and opens the door to new collaborations and opportunities. Your success is our success!
Facilitator bio - Stephanie Draker is a creative and results-driven arts professional with 15+ years of experience working in the arts, culture, & heritage sector across multiple disciplines. Stephanie joined the WorkInCulture team in 2015 and has since worked on numerous initiatives to support the career advancement of artists and arts workers throughout Ontario and beyond. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University with a focus on photography and installation art and a Project Management Diploma from Humber College. She has exhibited as a visual and craft artist and has served as a production and stage assistant for Fly By Night Theatre Company and Kaeja d'Dance. She currently sits on the board of Art Starts Toronto and has served on several committees and working groups in support of advancing the cultural workforce. Stephanie has a deep passion for the arts and the sector's ability to bring communities together and engage thoughtfully and creatively.
Sedina Fiati - Black Pledge Canada
Image Description: Headshot of Sedina Fiati who looks directly at the camera and smiles.
Photo credit: Robert Obumselu
Beyond Black Squares: Celebrating and Uplifting Black Artists*
The Black Pledge is an initiative to dismantle anti-Black racism in live performance. We released our pledge in 2021 and 5 organizations across the country have signed. For the past 3 years, we have learned a lot about systemic issues in hiring Black artists and we have expanded our work to include educational initiatives as well as slow relationship building with Black artists across the country.
The Black Pledge Collective wants to share our experiences and tools with rural artists, artworkers and arts managers on working with Black artists/artsworkers as well as tools for community building with under represented and equity-owed communities. The collective consists of artists who work all over the country, in various disciplines as well as skilled facilitators.
This workshop will consist of knowledge sharing around the topics of anti-oppression, the history of Black performance in Canada and case studies in small groups. We hope participants will walk away inspired to continue their social justice work and relationships with Black communities.
Facilitator bio - Sedina Fiati is Toronto based social justice consultant and award winning artist for stage and screen. Proudly Black and queer, Sedina holds a BFA in Music Theatre from the University of Windsor. Sedina was the co chair of ACTRA Toronto's Diversity Committee where she co-led the committee in several initiatives including a partnership with Working The Scene In Colour and The Sandi Ross Awards and was the 2nd VP of Membership Engagement for Canadian Actors' Equity Association's member council. Sedina recently completed almost 3 years as Nightwood Theatre's Artist-Activist in Residence.
Hollay Ghadery - Scugog Poet Laureate
Image Description: Woman with olive skin and long dark hair with a furry fawn-coloured jacket stands outside in front of a star magnolia tree and smiles at camera.
Photo credit: Matthew Samis
Rural Poetics: Re-Igniting the Arts
Through writing poetry about their communities, workshop participants will gain a new perspective on how to advocate for their communities, and the people in them, with poetry. Attendees will explore how poetry can enrich rural communities and lead to a deeper understanding of and appreciation for local culture and history.
Facilitator bio - Hollay Ghadery is an Iranian-Canadian writer living in Ontario. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions (2021) and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box, came out Radiant Press in 2023 and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, is scheduled for release with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024. Hollay is a poetry editor with long con magazine, a co-host of Angela's Bookclub on 105.5 HITS FM, and a contributing interviewer to HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist and the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. www.hollayghadery.com
Kaitlyn Patience & Keira Park - Ontario Culture Days
Image Description: A white woman (Kaitlyn Patience) with blonde hair smiles. She is wearing a black boatneck dress with a heart pin.
Image Description: A white woman (Keira Park) with brunette hair and brown framed glasses smiles. She is wearing a light blue knit sweater.
Sparking Inspiration: Creating Partnerships in Rural and Remote Communities
Ontario Culture Days will facilitate a presentation and workshop which inspires creative collaboration with rural and remote communities, in the hopes of setting the groundwork for future collaborations. Attendees will “Re-ignite the Spark” of passion and partnership through a hands-on brainstorming session in which potential collaborators are identified. With the goal of creating compelling and valuable arts and culture experiences within their community, participants will gain an understanding of what potential partners can offer.
Facilitator bios - Kaitlyn Patience - Partnerships & Programs Manager, Ontario Culture Days
Kaitlyn is an experienced event planner, program coordinator and advocate for arts and culture. With 18 years of experience in this field, her focus is consistently on community engagement and bringing the arts to the public through partnerships with individual creatives, groups, arts organizations and municipalities. Kaitlyn's experience includes working at Craft Ontario, and notably as the lead organizer at Arts Milton for a number of years, where she developed and implemented award-winning community-engaged arts programming. She now works for Ontario Culture Days as the Partnerships & Programs Manager.
Keira Park - Editorial and Marketing Director, Ontario Culture Days
Keira has been actively involved in the arts and culture sector for nearly twenty years, offering strategic marketing, design, and art direction to organizations such as RBC Taylor Prize, Canada's National Ballet School, and The Royal Conservatory. In her position at Ontario Culture Days, Keira oversees the organization's editorial and marketing strategy, initiatives, staff, suppliers, and contractors. She is motivated to create opportunities for community collaboration, and to engage the public in artistic and cultural expression.
Registration for Re-Igniting the Spark! will open shortly. Please watch our social media channels for updates.
