In Response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has struck with remarkable rapidity and is affecting every aspect of our lives: as artists, cultural workers, quarantined travelers, parents of young children, and caretakers of aging parents. To maintain the safety of ELAN’s staff, our work will be conducted remotely until further notice. Presently, our main focus will be working closely with other arts service organizations and funders to provide support to artistic communities.

In the next few days, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec will release a form that artists can use to record lost revenue and unbudgeted costs. Similarly, our sister organization the Quebec Drama Federation is urging theatre professionals to keep detailed personal records of their financial loss. A template with instructions on how to fill it can be found here. In addition, QDF is collecting data on how COVID-19 is affecting English theatre companies and individual artists. If these forms are relevant to you, we encourage you to complete them.

We have created a COVID-19 page where we will regularly post information on services and resources available to artists, ways to support artists, and general updates from funders, the Government of Quebec, and the Government of Canada. Please note that this page is in development. We welcome you to check back in regularly for new updates. If you have a resource in support of artists that you would like to share, feel free to contact us at communications@quebec-elan.org.

This unpredictable pandemic is stressful for everyone. We have a shared responsibility to minimize transmission of infection by following public health guidelines. We also have a duty to help one another. We can get through this by working together and sharing the resources we have.

Guy Rodgers

Executive Director

Land Acknowledgement

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtià:ke, the original name for Montreal in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk—also known as Mooniyang, which is the Anishinaabeg name given to the city by the Algonquin. While we are based in this city, our projects have also taken place in many regions across Quebec.

We acknowledge the colonial origin of English and French in Canada, and recognize that both languages benefit from official status throughout the land. The province that we know as Quebec is an amalgamation of the traditional territories of the Innu and Inuit nations, Algonquian nations, as well as the Mohawk nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kanien’kéha and Anishinaabemowin are but two of the original languages of this province; Atikamekw, Cree, Inuktitut, and Innu-aimun are also among the many Indigenous languages spoken across Quebec as majority languages, all well before French and English.

ELAN acknowledges the important work being done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to revive the traditional languages of these territories, and their advocacy for the official status of Indigenous languages.

You might also like

Land Acknowledgement