STAF
For 21 years, the organization that is now Generator operated as STAF: the Small Theatre Administrative Facility. STAF provided assistance to artists and arts organizations at below-market fees, delivered by a team of arts professionals.
In the decades after STAF was founded in 1991, the independent theatre movement exploded. More artists are creating more work than ever before, with fewer formal tools. The current wave of independent artists run lean operations that are often project-based. Without a subscriber base, they make work they hope will connect with new, frequently younger and more diverse audiences. They require a specific set of tools for a set period of time, without being saddled with the demands of a large organizational structure.
In this environment of entrepreneurship, Generator has become an incubator for the creators who will shape the future of performance in Toronto, and beyond.
Transformation
In 2014, Michael Wheeler was hired as STAF’s Executive Director and Transformation Designer. He invited the independent theatre community to an Open Source Brainstorm at the Theatre Centre, where artist producers identified two major challenges they were facing: burnout, and finding the time and money to complete the producing training they knew they needed. Over the next few years, STAF’s fee-based services were phased out, and Generator launched with education and community-building programs. In January 2017, the Board hired Kristina Lemieux to complete the transformation.
The first cohort of the Artist Producer Training Program in 2015.
The Toronto Star reported on our sector development study in 2017.
An #UrgentExchange event with Toronto Fringe Next Stage Theatre Festival at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2017.
A New Model
Generator is now a hub for learning, mentorship, and innovation. Through intensive programs and online tools, our work expands the skills, tools, and competencies of independent artists, producers and leaders. Learn more on our About page.
Research and Evaluation Study
Generator was part of a two-and-a-half-year research and evaluation study commissioned by Toronto Arts Foundation, with support from the Metcalf Foundation and Toronto Arts Council: "Generator and The Riser Project: Sector developers for independent theatre in Toronto"
Released on November 9, 2017, the report takes a look at two change initiatives in the performing arts sector, Generator and Why Not Theatre's RISER Project. Both ventures have emerged out of the theatre community as new ways of supporting independent artists in today’s context of precarity and limited resources. Read excerpts from the report about Generator here, or find the full 50-page report on the Toronto Arts Foundation's website.