Artists’ Capacity Building Clinics

Index

Grant Writing          Marketing          Digital Distribution          Media Relations          Accounting

We are excited to announce the second round of ELAN’s Artist Capacity Building Clinics!

While the pandemic continues to isolate artists from their communities, collaborators, and mentors, ELAN recognizes the deepened need for one-on-one support and guidance. Building on the feedback from last year’s program, this year’s clinics aim to support artists and ELAN members working remotely.

The Artist Capacity Building Clinics will provide subsidized, private consultations with experts in the following areas:

  • Accounting

    with Dael Foster

  • Grant Writing

    with Amber Berson

  • Marketing

    with Amy Blackmore

  • Digital Distribution & Monetization

    with Daniel Webster

  • Media Relations

    with Carolyne Van Der Meer

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Clinics will be scheduled between February and March and provide one hour of consultation. Priority will be given to ELAN members (membership is pay-what-you-can, and you can click here to sign up ), and participants will otherwise be selected on a first-come-first-served basis. The cost to attend a clinic is $12.00, payable through Interac. You will be provided with payment instructions after reserving a clinic time slot through Calendly.

If cost is a barrier to attend, or if you have any issues regarding registration, please contact Iso at membership@quebec-elan.org.

Depending on the clinic, you may also be asked to provide support materials in advance – these will help your consultant make the most of your time together. You will be provided with information to prepare for your clinic after registering through Calendly.

To ensure we are able to provide these services to as many of our members as possible, we kindly suggest a limit of one clinic per person. If you wish to sign up for a second clinic, please contact Iso at membership@quebec-elan.org, and they can add you to a waiting list once all members have had a chance to sign up.

How to apply:

To reserve a spot in any of the clinics below, interested applicants must:

  • Select the clinic you would like to attend, and click the Registration link below the description to view available slots

  • On the Registration page on Calendly, select the time slot you would like to reserve, and fill out the registration form.

  • You will receive an email confirming your reservation, which will include how to send Interac payment to secure your clinic. Please send Interac payment by end of day to finalize your clinic reservation.

  • The reservation confirmation email will also include instructions on how best to prepare for the clinic meeting. Please be sure to read these instructions carefully, as you may be asked to provide documents ahead of your consultation.

  • Once your Interac payment is received, you will be sent a Zoom meeting link for your consultation appointment

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Grant Writing with Amber Berson – SOLD OUT

These hour-long clinics will provide attendees with personalized advice and feedback on the art grants landscape and the grant-writing process. Depending on need and interest, attendees will get advice on the grant application process, learn about what funding and grants opportunities are available to them or might best suit their work, and receive feedback on grant drafts or applications in progress.

About Amber Berson
Amber Berson is a writer, curator, researcher, and SSHRC-funded PhD. Candidate in Art History conducting doctoral research at Queen’s University on artist-run culture and feminist, utopian thinking. She is based in Tiotia:ke, also known as Montreal, the unceded traditional territory of the Kanien’ke’ha:ka Nation. She/her pronouns.

Amber is the Executive Director of The Visual Arts Centre in Montreal.

In her spare time, Amber works on knowledge equity projects and is a co-lead of Art+Feminism Wikipedia project. She was the 2019-202 Wikipedian-in-Residence at Concordia Univeristy Libraries.

Amber most recently curated Utopia as Method (Régart, 2018); World Cup! (articule, 2018); The Let Down Reflex (Blackwood Gallery at University of Toronto, Missausauga, 2018; The Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 2017; and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space, 2016; with Juliana Driever); TrailMix (Eastern Bloc, 2014, with Eliane Ellbogen); *~._.:*JENNIFER X JENNIFER*:.~ (Eastern Bloc, 2013, with Eliane Ellbogen); The Annual Art Administrator’s Relay Race (2013, with Nicole Burisch); The Wild Bush Residency (2012–14); and she was the 2016 curator-in-residence as part of the France-Quebec Cross-Residencies at Astérides in Marseille, France.

Amber’s writing has been published in a variety of publications, including Canadian Art, C Magazine, Revue .dpi, Esse, Fuse Magazine, M/Other Voices, The Creative Independent and the St Andrews Journal of Art History and Museum Studies.

Her expertise lies in the areas of project management, organizational development, grant-writing, and research.

Click here for Dates & Registration

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Digital Distribution & Monetization with Daniel Webster – SOLD OUT

Daniel is an arts and entertainment product developer who is driven to building equitable platforms adding value for artists, producers, and audiences.  As a problem solver and strategist he has pushed a range of entrepreneurial projects into the mainstream.

Are you getting value for your digital media? Let’s discuss your options.

About Daniel

Daniel founded the concert company  Greenland Productions in 1993 and also created TIXZA, a ticket solution for small venues in 2014. He is Co-founder of Osheaga Music festival and the creator of the Green Stage at Osheaga. Dan’s early work in co-creating the peer-to-peer file sharing technology FLIPR in 1999 was his first foray into offering a solution for artists to self-distribute music in the internet age.  Daniel is currently managing ELAN’s (English Language Arts Network, Quebec) ARTSCAST project which adds value for artist produced live streams and digital products.

Click here for Dates & Registration

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Marketing with Amy Blackmore

Sell yourself without selling out. Learn how to craft your messaging in order to propel your career forward in this straight-forward consultation with Amy Blackmore. Sessions may cover important topics ranging from creation of your own personal branding, to online presence, to in-person networking tips and interview skills.

About Amy Blackmore:

Amy Blackmore is the Executive and Artistic Director of MainLine Theatre, the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival and the Bouge d’ici Dance Festival. A META-nominated (Montreal English Theatre Awards) choreographer, Amy studied contemporary dance at Concordia University. Recent credits include co-direction/movement for Gratitude (Hyper-Allergenic Productions), direction for Malunderstood (KS Presents) and direction/choreography for Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show (MainLine Theatre).

Spearheading innovative projects over the years, Amy’s recent collaborations include the visioning of the Fringe World Congress taking place in Montreal in 2016. This event garnered MainLine Theatre a nomination to the prestigious Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montreal. This event inspired Amy to then move on to chair the QDF Congress: Shaping the Future of English Theatre in Quebec which took place in February 2018 at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts.

An eager advocate for the arts, Amy is a former board member of English Language Arts Network (ELAN) and Quebec Drama Federation (QDF). In 2019, Amy was a finalist for the Montreal Junior Chamber of Commerce’s Young Cultural Entrepreneur award and a leadership fellow at the Canadian Arts Summit. She currently sits on the board of La Caisse de la Culture and is the Interim Vice-President of Parts+Labor_Danse.

Click here for Dates & Registration
Click here for Additional Dates

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Media Relations with Carolyne Van Der Meer

About the session:

These hour-long sessions are open to anyone looking to develop some media relations skills to help publicize or promote their creative work. Sessions will focus on one of the following four key areas (your choice): developing key messages, writing a news release, preparing for an interview with a journalist with a comprehensive Q&A, or pitching a story to a specific journalist or media outlet. The goal of these sessions is to provide you with some basic tools to help you manage your own media relations. Having these tools in your repertoire will do three main things: 1) ensure you get the right messages out to your publics; 2) help reduce your fear if you are intimidated; and 3) help you get the coverage you intend for your work as an artist from the appropriate media outlets.

 

How to prepare:

 

Once you’ve confirmed your spot, we ask that you send all supporting material *at least* one week in advance of your session. This can include a draft of a news release, a media pitch or a Q&A,or simply an project outline, depending on where you are in the process. Documents can be sent to admin@quebec-elan.org.

 

About Carolyne Van Der Meer

Carolyne Van Der Meer has 30 years of experience in PR and communications, more than 10 of which were spent in media strategy and media relations. She was an official spokesperson for several years, and has trained executives to speak to the media. Carolyne has also worked extensively as a journalist. In addition, she has promoted her work as an author: she has three published books: Motherlode: A Mosaic of Dutch Wartime Experience (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2014), Journeywoman (Inanna Publications, 2017) and Heart of Goodness: The Life of Marguerite Bourgeoys in 30 Poems | Du coeur à l’âme : La vie de Marguerite Bourgeoys en 30 poèmes (Guernica Editions, 2020). Her fourth book, Sensorial, will be published by Inanna in spring 2022.

Click here for Dates & Registration

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Accounting with Dael Foster – SOLD OUT

About the session:

Participants will receive an hour-long consultation with arts accountant Dael Foster, with the possibility of a half-hour follow up session to be scheduled after meeting. The first, on February 23, will give participants the opportunity to meet with Dael, to introduce their specific financial situation and accounting concerns, and to discuss their questions. Dael will offer advice and next steps. Depending on need, a half-hour follow-up session will be available, during which unresolved questions can be revisited.

About Dael Foster:

Dael Foster is a self-employed bookkeeper and accountant with 30+ years of experience in preparing personal income taxes. When not adulting, she can be found singing (badly) and doing costume design for community theatre. 

Click here for Dates & Registration

460 Sainte-Catherine West
Suites 706 & 708
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3B 1A7
Phone: (514)-935-3312
admin@quebec-elan.org

Click here to view our Accessibility Audit.

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtiak: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.