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2020 NEWS
Covid-19 Closure Now that we've put in thousands of hours on the front lines on supporting marginal artists to secure Covid-19 relief and gain access to needed care networks, on organizing collective austerity resistance, and on successfully advocating for the application of systemic equity in arts sector Covid-19 relief, we're taking time to turn our attention inward. We'll be closed to the public until June 15, as we need a concentrated period of time to undertake the course corrections that are now necessary due to Covid-19 impacts on our own staff and operations, and therefore our continued programming and long-term sustainability. updated June 2020 Covid-19 Response We've deployed our care networks into on-the-ground supports for diverse artists with impairment(s) who need urgent access to public health information, continuing care and/ or relief programs. We've deployed our activist networks into collective resistance to the brutal costs of austerity on the most vulnerable populations among us all. We've sent out over 5,000 messages of solidarity to those on the front-lines; delivered groceries to over 100 stranded artists, driven another 75 to needed medical care, and provided direct resources to struggling collectives. We've been able to defer or course-correct most of our programming. Nothing has been cancelled - yet; except for our consulting contracts (with much regret). updated April 2020 Stage Left Impact We're very happy to welcome Sara Meurling and Troy Emery Twigg to our core 2020 team. Sara and Troy are both working on our Closet Freaks and Full Spectrum programming. Sara is also continuing her successful work focused on the company's longer-term sustainability. Together, our whole team is working on making systemic changes – through models of solidarity. NASO Sector Impact Through DDMAAC, Stage Left's is engaging in solidarity with the Canadian Dance Assembly by collaborating to further our Full Spectrum Arts Equity programming; and also with CAPACOA and Mass Culture to cultivate sector-wide, bottom-up organizing models. Solidarity Impact Through DDMAAC, Stage Left is taking systems-change work back to the basics, with our informal solidarity services – where we hold others up in the struggle to bring about equitable change; because there are an equal number tearing us all down. updated February 2020 Prismatic Festival here we come! We're thrilled to announce that Prismatic Festival has invited us to showcase Closet Freaks at their International Buyer's Market in Ottawa, this September. Making Sector-Wide Impact We're co-producing the 2020 NASO Days gathering in Ottawa, via a collaboration between DDMAAC, CAPACOA and MASS Culture. Decolonizing Theatre of the Oppressed Our collaboration continues, with Dr Cindy Jardine and lead researcher Laurie-Ann Lines, on the use of applied Forum Theatre as a community-driven, participatory research model. We are happy to be supporting this terrific team and their potent community partners, Frog Lake, Heart Lake, and Yellowknives Dene First Nations, and Lac St. Anne Métis. Taking DDMAAC Public We're getting ready to put DDMAAC in the limelight, starting in August, and are happy to again be focused again on national disability arts advocacy and on reintroducing arts services back into our programming roster. updated July 2019 Decolonizing the Academy On March 6, we had the great pleasure of working with a team of potent advocates from MRU's Office of Academic Indigenization and the Campus Equity & Meaningful Inclusion Team. We created and ran a Forum Theatre demonstration (in only 6 hours!), as a Faculty Development Activity, designed to support their capacity to decolonize the classroom. CCEDA Transition We're winding down what started out as The Calgary Congress for Equity & Diversity in the Arts then became The Calgary Collective for Equity & Diversity in the Arts. Both we're arms-length initiatives we launched to meet specific needs in Calgary's arts & culture sector. As many of these needs still exist, we're integrating CCEDA into our regular operations. This program will now be called The Calgary Catalyst for Equity & Diversity in the Arts. updated March 2019 Our first 20th Anniversary Although the company wasn't formally incorporated as a not-for-profit public society until 2003, Michele Decottignies, our founder & Artistic Director, actually began developing the company and its unique practice in 1999 – through artist-community collaborations with artists with intellectual disabilities and street-involved youth, via our applied Theatre of the Oppressed and Epic Theatre practices. New contacts Our new mailing address is: Box 8007 CANMORE RPO Canmore, AB T1W 2T8 updated January 2019 |