,

ELAN 15 : Week 1 (2004-2005)

This year, we’re celebrating ELAN’s 15th Anniversary, which we’re marking at our Annual General Meeting on August 26, 2019! In this series, we’ll be sharing a bit of our history, and featuring some of our long-standing collaborators, team members, partners, and community members who have helped shape ELAN into who we are today.

Writers’ focus group.

In 2000, the Department of Canadian Heritage (PCH) advised the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) that they were negotiating a matching grant agreement with Canada Council to increase support for minority language communities. PCH asked QCGN if English-speaking artists would be interested in negotiating a similar agreement.

In May 2001, several dozen representatives of the English-speaking artistic community were invited to a meeting at the McCord Museum. The problem for English-speakers in Quebec is not language retention but population retention. During the preceding three decades, hundreds of thousands of English-speakers chose to move away from Quebec in a steady exodus that left the community enfeebled, fragmented and vulnerable. The challenge in Quebec was to build a sustainable community so that artists and cultural workers could stay in Quebec rather than leave. A consensus was reached that, in some areas at least, English-speaking artists are a minority in need of assistance.

Visual Arts focus group.

TV and film focus group.

Quebec Arts Summit trio.

Funders from Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage.

In October 2001, a draft agreement (Memorandum of Understanding) for an initial three years of support was signed by PCH and Canada Council. The resulting IPOLC program distributed a considerable amount of extra money to English-speaking artists via regular Canada Council programs. Six volunteers were appointed to a committee to negotiate with Canadian Heritage and Canada Council. During their regular meetings, the idea of an English-Language Arts Network began to emerge.

Between November 25-27, 2004, Quebec Arts Summit launched a process of creating a multi-disciplinary network for Quebec’s English-speaking artists. QAS assembled more than 200 artists, government officials and community partners. It was the first time that representatives of the entire English-speaking arts community had been brought together. They concluded that the creation of an English-Language Arts Network could help create conditions to empower English-speaking artists to live and work in Quebec.

ELAN incorporated in April 2005, received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage, and created a small website. Our offices were located in the Atwater Library with the Quebec Writers’ Federation.

 

Photos by Patrick Saad.

/by
,

ELAN15: Call for Performers

ELAN is marking its 15th Anniversary this year, and what better way to do it than by celebrating the work of our members! We’re looking for Performing Artists to take the spotlight during our 15th Anniversary celebrations!

We welcome short performances in Dance, Theatre, Music, Spoken Word/Poetry, and Video Art, with the following criteria:

  • The set up and strike should take no more than 1 minute;
  • The piece should be no more than 5 minutes;
  • A maximum of 5 performers for ensemble pieces;
  • An artist fee will be offered based on the number of participants to be confirmed.

Performances will be held between 8 PM – 10 PM, on the evening of our Annual General Meeting on AUGUST 26, 2019. Performers/groups will have the opportunity for a 30 minute rehearsal each at the Rialto Theatre in the afternoon.

We encourage a diversity of applicants, from various disciplines and regions in Quebec. Travel bursaries will be offered for those outside of Montreal.

We are accepting digital applications only, of the following materials:

  • Documentation of the proposed work: If you’ve performed the work before, please include video or photos of this particular work. If it’s a new work, include some photos (roughly 5-7) or video of previous performances to give the selection committee a better sense of your work.
  • Text description: A brief description of the performance you are proposing. If there is dialogue involved, please submit a script.
  • Brief bio: A brief bio of performer or collective.

Video submissions can be a hyperlink (for example: YouTube or Vimeo), a zipped folder, or a file (if you are sharing it from a cloud service like Dropbox, for example, please leave it up until we’ve confirmed that it’s downloaded).

Please email your submissions to: communications@quebec-elan.org.
Emails MUST include the following subject: “ELAN 15 Video Submission – Your Name”.

Submission deadline is JUNE 30, 2019.
We will be responding to applicants mid-July.
/by
,

ELAN15 Booklet: Call for Submissions

This year, ELAN is marking its 15th anniversary, and what better way to do it than by celebrating the work of our members! We are printing a collectors’ edition booklet on ELAN’s history, and we want to feature a few pages of our members’ work!

For this booklet, we welcome submissions from LITERATURE and VISUAL ARTS:

Please email us the following:

– 3-5 images, 1-2 poems, or a short (half-page) text.

– an anecdote about your time as an ELAN member

Email your submissions to: communications@quebec-elan.org.

Emails MUST include the following subject: “ELAN 15 Submission – Your Name”.

Submission deadline is MAY 31, 2019.

This booklet will be launched at our Annual General Meeting on AUGUST 26, 2019. Selected contributors will be paid: stay tuned for more announcements in the coming weeks!

PERFORMING ARTISTS: keep an eye out for an upcoming news on how you can apply to be featured at our AGM!

/by