Post-graduate students in the Arts Management program never fail to impress with their annual Arts Ahead symposium, and this year was no exception. Similar to last year, the symposium was held online through Zoom, which is an adaptation of the program’s typical in-person symposium. However, students successfully carried out the two-day event with an abundance of thought and care, as there were engaging panel discussions and inviting workshops that centred around their theme – Reawakenings: Art as a Catalyst.
This theme held special importance for students throughout the symposium, as it reflected their mission for the symposium. They share, “Our mission is to strengthen and broaden the arts community through critical, creative, and collaborative measures regarding our futures and responsibilities as arts workers and audiences. We must find ways to reconnect meaningfully during the biggest disruption of our lifetime.”
Rebecca Peirson, the Arts Management Program Coordinator, shares, “For the second year in a row, the students have had to pivot with provincial restrictions into a digital world, but it is without a doubt that this year’s theme couldn’t be more apropos. Without naming the biggest disruptor in our lifetime, this year’s cohort focused their energy, anxiety and purpose into Reawakening’s: Art as a Catalyst.”
Below are the thoughts of some of the students involved in Arts Ahead 2022:
Vanessa Mangar, Co-Chair
"My name is Vanessa Mangar and it was a pleasure and honour to be one of the co-chairs for Arts Ahead this year. As co-chairs, our main responsibility was to make sure that tasks were being completed in a timely manner with regard to the critical path that was created by us at the beginning of the year. The other important task was to maintain the health and motivation of the team in a way that was healthy for ourselves by setting the appropriate boundaries. My counterpart, Leah Totten, and I had to have a strong working relationship with each other to ensure the success of the event. Lucky enough, we hit it off, had similar working styles, and are now great friends.
For the actual days of the symposium, I was over the moon with the success of the event. Everything ran fairly smoothly and each member of the team worked hard to ensure the success of the event. I couldn't have been happier with the results and the response we received afterwards. In all honesty, I learned so much through the process that it will not fit in this short paragraph.
I will summarize my learnings in that I learned a lot about communication both internally and externally, how to effectively manage a team, developing and maintaining a critical path, dos and don'ts for the next time I run an event, how to set healthy boundaries, effective time management and organizational skills, the importance of self-care throughout, and of course, all the logistics of planning and running a virtual event.
All in all, I think my favourite parts of the process were seeing the event come to fruition, seeing everyone's hard work paying off, and working with my amazing co-chair Leah because I know I've gained a friend for life and hopefully a future business partner."
Leah Totten, Co-Chair
"My name is Leah Totten, and to add to what Vanessa stated above, our roles and responsibilities as co-chairs were to create, implement, and maintain systems that allowed each individual and committee to excel in their respective areas and ultimately deliver on the agreed-upon tasks and targets. One of our responsibilities was to predict potential issues before they happened so we were proactive in our approach and develop communication strategies that motivated, delegated, and confirmed the completion of quality tasks with our peers.
Overall, I have tremendous feelings of pride when I reflect on the symposium. We overcame many challenges as a group in the planning process. It was incredible to see how everyone really stepped up and how things came together seamlessly over the two-day event.
When I first considered throwing my hat in the ring for co-chair, I really had no idea what to expect or what the role entailed – that’s what has made it so exciting! Every day, every week and every month allowed me to learn and refine new skills, techniques, and strategies related to project management, communications, operations, leadership, conflict management etc. So, it was an incredibly enriching experience overall.
My favourite part was definitely getting to work closely with my co-chair Vanessa. As you can imagine, the process is quite demanding, but we complement each other well and had very similar working styles, which made it enjoyable. I gained a friend and colleague who I have tremendous respect for, and who taught me a lot through the process. In addition, being co-chair also allowed me to connect with classmates in various ways outside of the course curriculum and get to know their goals and strengths as emerging arts workers."
Cara Humeniuk, Development Team
“Considering our cohort had a lot of curveballs thrown at us, Arts Ahead was an extremely successful event! Navigating the ever-changing pandemic landscape was very challenging, but we figured it out as a class and were able to put on a very cool virtual event. As part of the development committee, some of my roles and responsibilities were to create the event slide deck for all department use, solicit businesses for experience package items and find social media partnerships within the arts community.
We faced a lot of challenges in our department because of the pandemic, such as businesses not being financially able to give in-kind donations for our experience packages, as well as not being able to hold in-person fundraising events pre-event. A lot of our plans had to change, but the development committee really worked well as a team and was successful at pivoting. I learned a lot about online communication, project managing and event planning through this event. I am very proud of what our class produced this year. We gave it our all and produced a very fun and interesting symposium.”
Tate Peacock, Programming Team
“Arts Ahead was a great learning opportunity. As someone with very little event planning experience, I didn’t really know what to expect! I chose to join the programming committee and my teammates and I were responsible for developing the event itinerary, nominating and reaching out to guest speakers, and organizing the networking segments. It was a lot of work! Looking back there are so many things I would do differently now, but that’s just part of the learning process.
At the end of the day, the stress was worth it. The entire process played a large role in preparing me for my current internship position and I have gained confidence in my organization and communication skills! Overall, I think Arts Ahead was a great success. I am excited to see what next year’s cohort will put together.”
A Message from the Marketing Team
“Pulling off a professional symposium, while still learning on the go, was a mammoth task, and the Arts Ahead Marketing Team hit the ground running. Marketing involves the expected advertising and communication strategies such as establishing a social media posting schedule, creating graphics and newsletters, liaising with the press, monitoring ticket sales, and regularly interacting with the public’s response via social media, email, and web analytics. The sheer amount of work involved in setting up a successful symposium was surprising, but we all jumped at the opportunity to exercise our creative muscles. There were many lengthy discussions around brand colours, buzz words, and how to get key messages out succinctly.
The Marketing Team’s paramount responsibility was the promotional content for the event, and a lot of our job revolved around building trust and consistency with our audience. As a team, we finished the project with a bolstered sense of confidence tucked snugly into our belts. The experience was tough, but the hard and soft skills we gained far outweighed the groggy mornings, and the event itself was so worth it. Being able to network and converse with seasoned industry professionals was absolutely invaluable.”
This symposium was full of hard work, passion, and talent – congratulations to everyone involved on such a successful Arts Ahead! To learn more about this year’s speakers, workshops, and more, click here.
Article by: Alexandra Few