in partnership with ACORN

Wednesday May 6
6-7:30pm

The ongoing housing crisis in Ontario affects all low- and moderate-income, precariously employed workers, including artist-producers in the performing arts. This workshop is an opportunity for arts workers in Generator’s extended community to connect with leading organizers in the housing justice movement to learn more about their rights as tenants, what housing justice organizing looks like locally, and how to connect with supportive resources. This 90-minute session will take place online and include a presentation from ACORN leaders followed by an opportunity for questions and answers.

This workshop is best suited for: People working (full-time, part-time, or occasionally) in the performing arts who are low- to moderate income and and have a vested interest in housing justice. This might include renters, people who are precariously housed, and people who are curious about renting in the future. 

Registration is required. This workshop will take place online, on Zoom. 

Accessibility information: ASL interpretation will be provided upon request and the Zoom call will have live captions. Workshop slides will be provided to registered participants after the session.

If you’ve ever nodded along in a board meeting while secretly wondering what you're actually looking at, then this workshop is for you.

Finance expert Kristina Lemieux will guide you through a practical and easy-to-follow look at balance sheets and income statements. You don’t need any accounting experience. We’ll use real examples, humour, and keep it light on the jargon.

This session is designed for arts leaders, board members, and staff in Canadian non-profit arts and entertainment organizations.

What if your art didn't just move people—it mobilized them?

This workshop challenges the passive model of arts engagement and explores how artist-producers can transform performance spaces into launchpads for community-led change. We'll examine why so much socially conscious art stops at truth-telling, leaving audiences feeling informed but unequipped for real change. Together, we'll learn how to bridge the gap between witnessing injustice and taking action—reclaiming the social capital and power that gathering spaces have always held.

At the Hamilton Fringe

In this workshop, led by Generator Toronto’s Director of Operations Bianca Guimarães de Manuel, participants will learn how to map out the producing trajectory for a performing arts project with intention, clarity, and rigor. We will cover different approaches to planning, how to build a critical path, budgets, and how to bring your values into a producing plan. Limited space, advance registration required. This workshop is presented as part of HFTco’s ALERT program.

Bring your own devices (laptop, tablet, smartphone) or notebook to take notes and apply trainings right away!

Producing with Care is Generator’s new program to support artist-caregivers. For this season, we are offering in-person sessions to support performing arts artist-producers who are caregivers of young children. 

More info

Is your target audience still "everyone" in this chaotic year of 2026? How do you know what's working and what's simply being shouted into the void? How do we find not only audiences, but foster a sustainable community of supporters? In this hands-on workshop we will situate our work in the context of the rapidly changing world and realistically assess how we can reach people. We'll go through each step of creating a successful marketing campaign. Amidst the hundreds of advertising platforms, services, AI provocations, and fake information — become a confident navigator in your journey towards audience building.

Generator presents An Approach to Professional Standards in Contracting, hosted by Rachel Penny.

This practical workshop covers professional standards in contracting, including who sets them, how to complete contracts, and how to shape agreements that reflect your project’s values.

Session led by: Rachel Penny

A Public Conversation on International Producing, hosted in partnership with Generator

Generator’s Nikki Shaffeeullah moderates a casual conversation with Rhubarb! Festival director Ludmylla Reis and artist-producer Josh Marchesini about their experiences with and research on international producing. Attendees will be welcome to join the conversation.

This online session will support participants to read agreements with clarity, spot common issues, and build language for negotiating terms that meaningfully reflect a two-way relationship. This introductory workshop is primarily intended to support artists and arts workers who receive contracts from engagers. The workshop will also be of interest to producers and engagers who are interested in developing their contract writing skills with a view to greater transparency and equity.

Led by lawyers Elisabeth van Rensburg and Damian Di Biase, the session will consist of a presentation followed by a Q&A.

Cozy up at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa, Ontario for a special two part workshop and community networking series hosted by Generator’s Patricia Allison. These sessions will take place on December 10th, 2025 and January 15th, 2026 from 6:30 - 8:30pm. Sign up for one or both. Each session will have similar formats but cover different material.

Cozy up at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa, Ontario for a special two part workshop and community networking series hosted by Generator’s Patricia Allison. These sessions will take place on December 10th, 2025 and January 15th, 2026 from 6:30 - 8:30pm. Sign up for one or both. Each session will have similar formats but cover different material.

Twitter is X, TikTok almost died, news is out of Meta, Instagram is new vertical. Social media is full time, all the time. Don’t cringe — embrace the weird and find your niche! In this class, we’re going to create, digest, and “critique” a lot of digital media, focusing on content made for social media. The truth is, you don’t have to go viral. After investing enough time, social media can become a powerful tool for anybody.

Work with real templates, budgets, and examples. Get familiar and excited about planning! How does each campaign play a part in telling a larger story? How do we evaluate performance towards sustainable growth? From planning to reporting, we’re going to talk about labour and capacity. You’ll leave the class with a list of recommendations, contacts, resources, and a solid idea of what everything costs. Most importantly, you’ll be able to apply this knowledge for projects of any size.

Whether you hire a designer or do it yourself, building an intuition for visual storytelling well ground you through important conceptualisation and negotiations. Learn how to design, layout, and deploy print and digital materials. We’ll also chat about Generative AI and practise simpler and more accurate alternatives.