Arts Ahead is an annual symposium organized by Arts Management post-graduate students where art professionals from various backgrounds come together to highlight the importance of arts management, and the arts industry as a whole, through workshops and discussions. Usually held in person, the symposium embarked on a new path this year because of the pandemic, as it was held entirely online! Despite this change in setting, what remained consistent was the hard work and dedication contributed by students to organize the entire event, and the commitment put into ensuring its success.
The two-day event, which took place on March 3rd and 4th 2021 on Zoom, explored the theme of Vibrations: Arts, Wellness & The Search for Balance, and the mission set forth was to “connect and inspire arts workers and creatives to explore their personal wellness and encourage them to focus and expand practices in physical, emotional, and financial health.” With this in mind, each day of the event was full of insightful panels, workshops, and some “vibrational moments” – including several lively dance breaks to help break up the day.
The scheduled layouts of Day 1 and Day 2 allowed participants to have a balance of obtaining important information related to the arts, such as with a discussion on financials for creatives, as well as the chance to engage in mindfulness-based, art-focused activities, such as with sound and dance therapy workshops. Each speaker, workshop facilitator, and moderator contributed immensely to the messages that participants were able to extract and retain, which only made each component of the day that much more meaningful.
Rebecca Peirson, the Program Coordinator of Arts Management, reflects on the symposium with much admiration. She says, "The annual Arts Management student-led symposium, Arts Ahead, marks my favourite juncture in the program because it’s the culmination of each student’s hard work, their collaboration as a cohort, and their determination to collectively put their learning to the ultimate test – the execution of their capstone event. In this sixth edition of Arts Ahead, this year’s team has had the biggest challenge to date: to pivot to the virtual space. I could not be more proud of the soon-to-be graduates. Because of the supportive and safe community they have created as a cohort, they have superseded all expectations and innovated and figured out how to become ‘broadcasters’ in this virtual world.”
Thoughts from some of the students involved in Arts Ahead:
Ciragh Lyons, one of the Co-Chairs of the symposium, shares, “This was the first digital Arts Ahead and that brought with it possibilities and complications. Working remotely meant that we weren't able to huddle together to plan, but once we’d established our theme of Vibrations: Arts, Wellness and the Search for Balance, the teams knew their roles things got underway smoothly. Arts Ahead has many moving parts, and many of them put to use skills that we’d been learning throughout the course, Fundraising, Marketing, Event Management.
Our Programming team put together two days of diverse and interactive programming that enabled people from all over to join. They were able to engage in meaningful panel discussions, participate in workshops that gave tools for creative therapy and enjoy Vibrational Moments to connect with their mind and body. Overall, it was a resounding success! We set the bar for future digital events and Arts Ahead is an excellent jumping off point for students to try out areas of interest within the Arts management sector.”
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Allie Fenwick, who was part of the Marketing team, says, “I really enjoyed working on the marketing committee for Arts Ahead. It was a collaborative, team-oriented experience that provided an excellent learning opportunity for future arts managers. The Arts Management cohort had to be highly creative and agile to pull off this new online event format. I think we succeeded in creating an interesting and enlightening experience for everyone involved. It is truly a valuable component of the program that amplifies what we learn in our courses.”
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Grace Guest, also part of the Marketing team, shares, “The prospect of organizing this year’s Arts Ahead was daunting, to say the least. Forced to operate over Zoom in a somewhat strange, inhospitable climate, we really had to commit ourselves to the project— the platform isn’t necessarily a breeding ground for creativity and excitement…polls did come in handy, though. We arrived at the theme fairly quickly, as everyone’s wellness is really being tested right now. We are all coping with change and upheaval in some way shape or form and looking for methods to manage it. Programming really did an excellent job identifying specific points of distress and finding the perfect people to mitigate them. As a member of the marketing team, I really had the opportunity to delve into the digital sphere and to explore the most relevant tools at our disposal. It was an incredible learning experience- getting to be creative but also getting to tap into the wants/needs of audiences right now. I think we’ll all have gained a deeper understanding of engagement post-pandemic. Pursuing a career in Communications, I feel really grateful for the experience.”
© Images from Arts Ahead
Rui Kang, who was involved in the Operations team, shares, “Everything was lining up for the last minutes. We made many mistakes during the rehearsal, which is the night before. We switched to hosting the event on Zoom one month before, in February. It was a kind of rush for many of us. It was also due to the fact that we were the first-year hosting Arts Ahead online, so we had to test out many things, and they were all completely new to me and my team. Overall, it was a great learning experience, and I loved working with my classmates, even though we never met each other before, but all of them I have collaborated and engaged with online. They are awesome. It was definitely a great memory.”
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Mengshi Liu, who was part of the Programming team, says, “Since it was the inaugural digital event for Arts Ahead, the programming team felt a bit lost at the beginning, even though we were all passionate about programming and had some experience organizing events. Fortunately, we quickly developed a plan and centered ourselves on the following three pillars: 1. Brainstorm anything we would personally like to have in the event and anything interesting we have witnessed in other similar online events. 2. Attend other online arts events to learn from them. 3. Put together experiences and skills that we have in organizing non-digital events and see if they are transferable into an online setting. After the brainstorming stage, we started to organize our thoughts and develop an itinerary.
I think our event went exponentially well, beyond our best expectations… [and] our speakers were wonderful! They brought their knowledge and shared their passion with us. All the attendees, including ourselves, had a great time together.”
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Alicia D’Ariano, who was also part of the Programming team, says, “It was awesome to be a part of putting on an event as an emerging Arts Manager. It adds real life experience to your portfolio through taking this program at Centennial. The preparation goes all the way back to September - it takes a lot of months to put an online event like this together. Programming pieced together our ideal event into two days and gathered speakers/panelists from there after we had the big picture in mind. It took a lot of emails, as we were strictly digital, a lot of contracts, and drafts of the flow of day. All in all, I think we did an awesome job, and our event was even better than I imagined it to be! I was really proud of our team and our class as a whole.”
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Jasmine Vanstone, another student in the Programming team, shares, “Behind the scenes in programming, the event was enjoyable because my team values everyone’s input; we managed to secure individuals from diverse backgrounds to engage with each other and the participants at the event. Many brainstorm sessions were involved in creating engaging virtual content as the previous year’s symposium was in person and allowed time for organic conversation and networking. Overall, I feel that the event effectively highlighted experiences managing personal, organizational, and social wellness and provided tools in managing financial health and practicing arts-based mental wellness. There are too many experiences to pick my favourite moment, but I was proud of The Balancing Act panel as I was tasked with coordinating that session.”
Congratulations to everyone involved in yet another exceptional year of Arts Ahead!
Written by: Alexandra Few