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ELAN’s ArtEd Projects Inspire Schools Across Quebec

“Your dance performance was like an addictive TV show”

– 5th grade student at Lasalle Elementary after an ArtistsInspire experience, facilitated by dancer Sonia StMichel.

 

Apply for ArtistsInspire Grants!

Applications for ArtistsInspire Grants are still being accepted! If you have a relationship with an English public elementary or high school, it’s not too late to apply! Every English public school in Quebec qualifies for the $1,500 per year grant to invite Artists to facilitate arts and culture experiences during the school day. Our program brochure is available here and our deadline has been extended to December 16th.

Experiences facilitated by our Artists in schools meet Quebec Education Program Goals!

Our team’s focus throughout November has been on outreach to Educators through every means possible. A number of our Artists presented at Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT) annual convention, and many Educators visited our partner LEARN’s kiosk, where they were given invitation letters and brochures to encourage them to apply for ArtistsInspire Grants.

Thanks to our LEARN partnership, Sylwia Bielec, LEARN’s Pedagogical Consultant for Art Education, presented “QEP 101”, a Quebec Education Program webinar in November which was recorded and shared with our 100+ approved Artists.


Screen shot of the QEP 101 Webinar for Artists

During December and January, musician and teacher, Guillaume Jabbour will be supporting our Artists with consulting and coaching to clearly explain how each Artist’s creative facilitation connects with the Quebec Education Program. We are also drawing on the talents of our Artist community to showcase the difference the Arts can make. From November to March, ArtEd Filmmaker Stefan Verna will be creating a series of short videos highlighting how each Art discipline can inspire children and youth through in-school creative artistic and cultural experiences.

ACE Initiative

Arts, Communities and Education (ACE)—funded by the Government of Canada to enable ELAN to design, test, and scale strategies to connect Artists, Communities, and Educators—continues in full force. Our ACE Facilitator Paula Knowles is busy travelling around the province to connect with our twenty ACE schools, participating in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 phases of the project.

Highlights from November include Hemmingford Elementary in the Montérégie and St. Agathe Academy in the Laurentians.

Hemmingford has just entered the Collaborate Phase with ACE Visual Artist Alyson Champ. Alyson is working with all grades to explore a timeline of the history of Hemmingford, that will become a visual art installation in the school’s entrance. Eryn Dace Trudell, Hemmingford’s ArtistsInspire Artist, will explore the alphabet and vocabulary through dance and movement to begin the project.

CLC Coordinator Heidi Niven (second from right) with Hemmingford Elementary’s ACE team.

In the Laurentians, St. Agathe Academy is now in the Collaborate phase, with art and drama teacher Janet Vekteris and musician Guillaume Jabbour planning a sound exploration and song writing series for the students. The students will learn about the importance of sound and music in our lives and in our communities.


ArtistsInspire Puppeteer Maggie Winston in the schools.

The children’s puppet creations come to life.

ArtistsInspire Artists make magic!

Puppeteer Maggie Winston wrote to us about her opportunity to work with these schools, saying, “this has been great for me this year, thank you so much for all your amazing work and dedication”. So far, four schools have invited Maggie to facilitate creative experiences using the magic of puppetry.

ArtEd team’s overarching goal is to ensure that both Artists and Educators feel supported. Before the introduction of our program and the artistsinspire.ca website, Educators didn’t have a resource to find recommended English-speaking Artists. Thanks to the Government of Canada’s funding for the ArtistsInspire Grant program, Educators now have a place to research and connect with Artists and they are using it!