Announcing ELAN's New Executive Director

Big news from ELAN!

It is my great pleasure to announce that ELAN has hired Miranda Castravelli as our new permanent Executive Director! Miranda (she/her/hers) joins us with a diverse background, having worked in arts, education, sales, and technology, including several years in the film industry. Notably, Miranda served as President of the Women’s Art Society of Montreal for almost 5 years, helping the organization to dramatically grow its membership during her tenure. She is also a multi-disciplinary artist with a background in writing and visual arts.

“Miranda brings her experience in both the arts, community and corporate leadership. We are excited and committed to supporting her as she launches into bringing renewed energy, and stability for the organization as we move towards an immediate future of relative instability in the art sector. We are in good hands. I am so happy to welcome Miranda to ELAN.” – Angie Cheng, Board President

We are very excited to welcome Miranda to the team and to the ELAN community, and I’m sure there will be many wonderful opportunities over the coming weeks and months for you to get to know her (as always, keep your eye on our events calendar!). For my part, it has been a privilege to serve in the Interim role, and I look forward to continuing to support ELAN’s community in my new role as Director of Programming.

Nick Maturo,
Interim Executive Director / Director of Programming

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.