Culture Brew’s IBPOC Artists Database

These sessions are part of IBPOC Digital Strategy – Phase II: Digital Tools Professional Development Series.

Upcoming sessions: 
Presented by Anju Singh and Valerie Sing Turner, Culture Brew
Tuesday, January 19, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST
Thursday, January 28, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST
Friday, February 19, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST
Thursday, February 25, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST

Register on Eventbrite: https://digital-tools.eventbrite.ca

Session 1: An Intro to CultureBrew.Art: Artists – Your Community is Waiting!
January 19, 2020 (hands on)

CultureBrew.Art (CBA) is a digital platform that connects Indigenous and racialized artists – actors, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, directors, designers, singers, stage managers, technicians, administrators, composers, and other performing and media arts professionals – in a central, searchable database. By joining CBA, you can search for, meet, and connect with other BIPOC artists just like you. After signing up, you create an attractive online short form “CV” profile that includes details about your artistic practice and your marketable skills, which subscribing employers – individuals and organizations – can search and view.  Subscribers are envisioned to not only include theatres, dance and opera companies, film/TV casting professionals, and directors/producers in the arts and broadcasting sectors, but also schools, post-secondary training institutions, social service agencies, government agencies, ad agencies, and more!

During this session, we will walk you through the setup of your CBA artist profile, and offer tips to not only make the most of your talents in your profile, but also to ensure that your profile will show up in the ways you want to be found in searches by subscribers as well as your fellow BIPOC artists. Please come to the session with your portfolio materials (images, video demos, audio clips), a profile photo, and a bio or artist statement.

NOTE: ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST SELF-IDENTIFY AS INDIGENOUS AND/OR RACIALIZED ARTISTS TO REGISTER FOR THIS SESSION AND TO JOIN CULTUREBREW.ART. IN ADDITION, YOUR FIRST YEAR OF MEMBERSHIP IN CBA WILL BE INCLUDED FOR FREE AS PART OF YOUR WORKSHOP REGISTRATION. 

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Session 2: Artists Building Digital Tools – Sharing Our Findings
January 28, 2020 (educational/hands on)

In this session we will share tips and tools to help artists and arts organizations best prepare to build digital tools, platforms, and websites specifically with diversity, inclusion and equity in mind. The skills and expertise of artists lends nicely to the work of technical development, and we aim to empower you to use your strengths to build tools that suit artists and the arts sector to support the way that we need to work as arts practitioners. As an arts organization who has experienced multiple successes and challenges developing our CultureBrew.Art technology project, we have learned through our development process that there are better ways for artists to work when we are building technology products. This session will walk through the technology build process from project conceptualization to development and execution. Please note that this session will operate through a decolonizing lens that challenges assumptions of how tech “should” be built. We are interested in sharing healthy and radical ways to work to support the arts sector.

NOTE: ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND.

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Session 3: Digital Tools for Anti-Oppression Work in the Arts: Safety, Privacy, Data Security
February 19, 2020 (educational)

As arts organizations, our resource-strapped realities can make the tech giants  – Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Mailchimp, Facebook, etc – seem like our only options. After all, they offer convenience and ease of use at generally affordable rates. However, when we work with vulnerable communities such as Indigenous and racialized artists, individuals with disabilities, and members of LGBTQ2S communities, it is critical to consider our due diligence when we collect and store sensitive personal information and – in our pandemic reality – their entire selves in video calls!

This session explores the risks and considerations of doing anti-oppression work with vulnerable communities in the virtual realm and provides alternatives for digital tools that some organizations may opt to use. In particular, we will discuss the implications of storing data on US servers, and the session facilitator – Anju Singh will share her experiences, concerns, and considerations about online safety and security when they do online work.

This session will demonstrate Canadian hosted and/or self-hosted options for digital tools that are appropriate and that may help increase safer online engagement for arts organizations that work with marginalized artists and communities, and/or wish to build their engagement with these groups.

NOTE: ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND.

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Session 4: An Intro to CultureBrew.Art: Finding Indigenous & Racialized Artists
February 25, 2020 (hands on/educational)

Are you looking for Indigenous and racialized artists for your production or project?

Whether you’re an artistic director, film/TV casting professional, festival curator, student filmmaker, school teacher, social service agency, or government policymaker, CultureBrew.Art’s searchable database of BIPOC artists is the resource you’ve been waiting for! CultureBrew.Art (CBA) is a digital platform that champions Indigenous and racialized artists in the performing and media arts, everyone from actors, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, directors, composers, and singers, to designers, stage managers, producers, cultural consultants, and other cultural workers.

As a subscriber in CBA, you can search artists by discipline, racial/ethnic identity, location, and other fields; view full artist profiles that include portfolio images, video demos, and audio clips; as well as message artists directly to share and offer opportunities.

During this session, we will walk you through the setup of your individual and organizational profile. Please come to the session prepared with a profile photo, artistic statement or bio, your organization/company logo, your mandate, and your diversity/decolonization statement, if you have one.

NOTE: EVERYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN ENGAGING AND HIRING BIPOC ARTISTS IS WELCOME TO ATTEND. 

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Bios: 

Valerie Sing Turner is the founder/Artistic Producer of Visceral Visions, which incites intersectional and intercultural artistic community in Vancouver and beyond through a potent mix of storytelling, advocacy, and professional development. The company’s latest initiative is CultureBrew.Art, for which Valerie is Creative Director/Co-Executive Director as part of a shared leadership model with two other women of colour (Tri-ED). An award-winning multidisciplinary artist who performs, writes, dramaturges, and directs, her latest work in development is a 10-actor play, In the Shadow of the Mountains, for which she was artist-in-residence with National Arts Centre. A leading voice on issues of diversity/decolonization in the arts, Valerie was honoured as the 2019 recipient of UBCP/ACTRA’s International Women’s Day Award in recognition of her “outstanding contributions to the Union, the industry, and causes of social justice”. She is a member of Canadian Actors’ Equity, UBCP/ACTRA, Playwrights Guild of Canada, and Banff’s Cultural Leadership 2018-19 cohort.

Anju Singh | Technical Director | CultureBrew.Art
Anju is an active, multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in the non-profit and arts sector for over 15 years. Alongside her passion for the arts, Anju is excited about the ways in which she can apply technology in her work in arts and the non-profit sector. Anju’s degree in Philosophy from Simon Fraser University trained her for critical and analytic thinking, as well as a love for problem solving. Following her studies, her training was nicely rounded out by her experience working in arts and non-profit organizations where she developed values that prioritize people, relationships, and more equitable practices. Anju brings to CultureBrew.Art a breadth of skills including experience from the tech sector, non-profit management, human resources training, and a strong history of operations experience. As an artist and musician, Anju’s contributions and interests cross several artistic disciplines, an important element of CultureBrew.Art, and she brings extensive experience creating, producing, and showing artistic work.