Generator is collaborating with The City of Brampton to offer the City Brampton Independent Artist Community of Learning Program. This mentorship program will bring together 32 Brampton-based artists to learn from peer mentors and each other, in Fall 2020.
This pilot program is offered at no cost to participants and supports The City of Brampton Culture Master Plan goals of developing communities of practice and building Brampton’s identity. The City of Brampton and Generator are excited to work together to connect Brampton-based artists, facilitate dialogue, and increase the confidence of Brampton artists in applying for funding and connecting with their audiences.
What is the City of Brampton Independent Artist Community of Learning Program?
The City of Brampton Independent Artist Community of Learning Program is a five-hour process to connect Brampton artists with one another and with peer leaders who are working in the performing arts. Participants will meet online in eight-person learning pods. Each pod will have two two-hour online meetings with a peer mentor. These meetings will focus on two topics:
Applying for grants: professional development and project grants at the federal, provincial, and municipal funding levels
Connecting to your audience: skills and strategies for knowing who your audience is, and tools to reach them
The meetings will have a peer-based learning structure, using the tools and experiences of everyone involved to guide the learning and connection. The learning will also lean heavily on, and make connections to, Generator’s ArtistProducerResource.com tool. Advance reading and exercises related to the topic may be sent for completion prior to each session.
In addition to these two group meetings, each artist will have a one-hour
one-on-one meeting with their peer mentor to dive deeper into their specific
questions and learning goals.
Key program outcomes include:
Expand your network in Brampton and learn from peers and working artists
Increase your knowledge and confidence in applying for funding at the federal,
provincial, and municipal levelsGain skills and strategies to understand your audience and expand your reach
Who is it for?
The City of Brampton Independent Artist Community of Learning Program is for any artist living in the city of Brampton. Those who are working in the performing arts (dance, theatre, music) may get more out of the program, but artists in any discipline are encouraged to apply. When is it taking place?
The City of Brampton Independent Artist Community of Learning Program runs throughout November 3-20, 2020.
Learning Pod 1: November 3 & November 17 - 10 AM-12 PM with Adriano
Learning Pod 2: November 5 & November 19 - 5-7 PM with Sedina
Learning Pod 3: November 4 & November 18 - 10 AM-12 PM with Eva
Learning Pod 4: November 6 & November 20 - 10 AM-12 PM with Rose
Learn more about the four peer mentors below.
How do I get involved?
[Applications closed on October 27, 2020 at 11 AM] This is a unique opportunity to grow your own practice and learn from working artists in the GTA at no cost.
As part of the application, you will be asked to identify all Learning Pod sessions that you are available to attend.
You must be 19 years or older and be able to attend both of the two-hour online meetings with your peer mentor.
We will do our best to accommodate everyone who is interested. Priority will be given to applicants from equity-seeking groups, including those who identify as Indigenous, Black, People of Colour, Trans, Nonbinary, Queer, Disabled and intersections of those identities.
All applicants will be contacted by the end of the day on October 28, 2020, regarding confirmation of their acceptance into the program and the Learning Pod for which they are registered.
About the Peer Mentors
Sedina (right)
Sedina Fiati (she/they)
I am a performer, producer, creator for stage and screen. I was born in Toronto to a Trini mother and Ghanaian father. I am also proudly queer and femme. My professional practice spans 16 years +. I got started as an artist when I took my first piano lessons as the Ontario Conservatory of Music in the Albion Centre in Rexdale, where I grew up and lived until about 10 years ago. I have a BFA in Music Theatre from the University of Windsor and I have hustled at so many jobs ranging from usher at Massey Hall, office temping, facilitator, box office manager, outreach coordinator, child care. For the past 2 years at Generator, I have been proud to exchange knowledge with various BIPOC artists as a part of the Artist Producer Training Program.
My uncle and aunt moved to Brampton in the early 1990's when it was still called Bramalea and almost everyone else has followed suit. Now, 90% of my extended family on my mother’s side lives there. Maybe you know one of my cousins, sister, aunts or uncle? I look forward to meeting and sharing knowledge with you! (I am on the right in the blue dress, photo from Peel Pride in the Square, July 2019, pictured with my partner and friend)
Adriano Sobretodo Jr. (he/him)
I am a Toronto-based actor, arts educator, Co-Artistic Director of Litmus Theatre and Theatre Amihan, and General Manager of Theatre Smith-Gilmour.
Though I’ve worked on a bunch of huge projects with matching budget, the ones I’m most proud of are the small theatre productions I spearheaded as an artist producer.
Ten years ago, I started a company with two friends called Litmus Theatre. I love Litmus because we tell classic stories, like Frankenstein and Brave New World, and stage them in unusual locations. The company’s first production, Matchbox Macbeth, premiered in my Little Italy backyard shed with a 15-person audience.
Another group close to my heart is Theatre Amihan. I’ve often felt confused to be “Filipino-Canadian,” someone born here but raised by my immigrant parents. I started Amihan with a like-minded colleague out of a yearning to connect with Filipino culture. Just before Covid hit, we co-produced Tales from the Flipside, a three day new-play reading Festival in Toronto.
It’s a lot of work, but the most artistically gratifying projects are definitely the ones I self-produced.
adrianosobretodojr.com / litmustheatre.com / theatresmithgilmour.com
Eva Barrie (she/her)
About the human me:
I’m a mixed-race artist from a small town in Alberta. There wasn’t a tonne of theatre that spoke to my family there, so I never grew up seeing theatre. When I was 15, I moved to Berlin, Germany, where the art reflected what I needed in my life; it was bold, reckless, unapologetically political and empowered me to be the same.
Moving back to Canada, it took me many years to find my feet, and learn how to express myself through my work (I’m still learning!). Nowaways, I’m curious about theatre that questions boundaries in audience and genre, and how we can embody anti-racist, anti-capitalist values in leadership.
I love gardening, and my fave food is malai kofta.
About the professional me:
Originally from Okotoks, Alberta, Eva Barrie is a mixed-race, Dora Award-winning actor, director, creator, and the Co-Artistic Director of Shakespeare in the Ruff. She graduated from Ryerson University’s Performance Acting Program and has trained with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company in Saratoga Springs, NY and New York City, NY. Most recently, she was the Urjo Kareda Residency recipient at Tarragon theatre, pursuing a residency focused on play development and artistic direction.
For Ruff, Eva has led the company through new play development and radical adaptation. She created and directed Ruff’s My Co-Mates & Brothers in Exile, a comedic promenade piece following a refugee’s journey to Canada, and was the dramaturge/director for Portia’s Julius
Caesar, a feminist take on Julius Caesar. Through Ruff, she has taught workshops in composition, community-engagement, and site-specific theatre.
Eva was in Berlin’s first Shakespeare in the Park ensemble in a bilingual production of König Heinrich der Vierte, and directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in Bangalore, India, for the Parikrma Humanity Foundation. She has also taught the Shakespeare Scene Study at George Brown Theatre School in Toronto. Because of her diverse creation background, she was invited to be the Program Co-director of Nightwood Theatre’s Young Innovator’s Lab, leading the cohort in innovative theatre and non-hierarchal creation methods.
As a playwright, her writing has been supported by the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, The Theatre Centre, Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Theatre Gargantua, DaPoPo Theatre, Theatrefront, and Factory Theatre. She has been a playwright-in-residence at Theatrefront, Factory Theatre, and is her piece Untamed, a play exploring female misogyny and protest, is currently under commission at Tarragon Theatre.
Rose Hopkins (she/her)
I am a theatre artist and producer. I am particularly interested in exploring place and space and the way that they inform the human experience. I was raised in Hamilton, Ontario and continue to call the city home. I recognize the value of regional voices, stories, and people and I believe that all communities are deserving of creative experiences, regardless of their city’s population. My passion for the sustainability of the Hamilton arts community informs much of my work as a producer, and I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to produce my own work in my hometown, but also to support other artists and organizations in the city. I can’t wait to meet the artists in Brampton, to share some of my experiences with them, and to learn from them too!
