Director's Message - January 2019

Guy Rodgers with Aaron Salomon, Andrew Tay, and Caroline Lussier at ELAN’s 2014 AGM!

Photo by: Sandra Belanger

The beginning of a new year is a natural time to reflect on the past and imagine possible futures. ELAN had its busiest year ever in 2018. Arts Alive! Québec, managed by Anne Clark, co-produced multidisciplinary festivals in Hudson, Knowlton, Huntingdon, Wakefield and Quebec City, as well as a series of music and words events in libraries. Christie Huff and her ACE Initiative team launched a new series of Arts, Communities and Education projects to take artists into schools all around Quebec. June Park produced more than two dozen workshops in Montreal and the regions to enhance the skills of performing artists who aim to develop their professional careers, while Emilia Alvarez and Mariam Assaf arranged showcases in Canada, the USA, and the UK.

ELAN’s increased activity necessitated the creation of a fifth full-time staff position. Jackie Stamp Smeaton joined us in December as our brand new Administration and Human Resources Manager. Jackie brings a wealth of Admin and HR experience to ELAN, as well as an artist’s sensibility. We also hired Lital Khaikin as Membership and Communications Assistant under a six-month Emploi Québec contract. Lital will work with Sufia Duez and Emily Enhorning to improve ELAN’s Communications and Membership services.

The immediate project on the horizon for 2019 is State of the Arts, managed by Farah Fancy, with staff management by Amy Macdonald. ELAN was founded after a multi-disciplinary gathering of artists in 2004. In 2011, we met with the community again, which led to the development of many of the projects ELAN has worked on since. State of the Arts 2019 is designed to engage with artists and organizations we have collaborated with in the past, and to make new connections with artists and organizations who wish to collaborate with ELAN in the future.

In 2019, ELAN will celebrate its 15^th birthday. A few of you have been with ELAN from the beginning. It has been quite a journey and there is much to celebrate. We look forward to sharing memories with you, and exploring new possibilities.

Guy Rodgers

Executive Director

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.