Director's Message: February 2017

February is a month for hibernation or cocooning. Though things may appear quiet, ELAN is working hard behind the scenes on three projects that you will be hearing a lot more about this spring and summer.

Five partners were chosen last November for ELAN’s ACE (Arts, Communities and Education) Initiative. They are busy preparing projects for the current school semester. Take a look at the ACE update below for more information.

Thanks to Canada Council for the Arts’ Market Access funding, we have just begun preparing a third edition of the Visual Arts Market Access project that brings gallerists and curators from the United States to visit Quebec artists’ studios. A call for submissions will be circulated in March, and the studio visits will take place in late summer or early fall.

We are also in the very early stages of an 18-month Performing Arts Market Access project, also funded by Canada Council. This project will produce specially designed workshops in Montreal and the regions, as well as a series of showcases to create touring opportunities for performing artists working in music, theatre, and dance. A call for submissions will be circulated in April for showcases, which will take place between summer 2017 and summer 2018. The project is based on recommendations from ELAN’s Performing Arts Market Access report which was funded by Canada Council in 2015-16.

Keep an eye on ELAN’s Facebook and Twitter, and on future editions of ELANews, for updates. And to be very first in line for news and opportunities, become an ELAN member.

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.