The Gathering Divergence
Multi-Arts Festival & Conference Spring 2024

June 4, 2024: Online
June 6-7, 2024: Nia Centre for the Arts & Online

The Gathering Divergence Interdisciplinary Festival & Conference (GDMAF/C) is a festival and conference with a specific focus on Indigenous, racialized, deaf, disabled and mad, women and other historically – marginalized arts communities. Held over 3 days, GDMAF/C features performances, literary readings, visual arts exhibition, panels, workshops and creative investigations from diverse practices.Held at Nia Centre for the Arts – Toronto’s newest multidisciplinary Arts centre.

Tickets: General Admission: $15 | Accessibility Pricing: $5

Outreach for Grassroots Arts Organizers: Finding Resourceful Ways to Reach Participants workshop | June 4, 2024 at 12:15 pm via Zoom

This workshop will address actionable steps and techniques for often resource-strapped IBPOC organizers to identify and build relationships with groups and media that share their audiences. 

As a case study, Pam Lau will use the past 3 years of data running outreach for their community arts program Ideas From I:

• Nearly doubled the number of applicants from previous years, from 65 in 2022 to 118 in 2023 in a 2-week application period
• +801% accounts reached, +1782% accounts engaged and +17.5% follower growth in a 3-week period of announcing and talking about the program
• Got platforms with up to 272k reach to share our call for applicants
• Got articles written about us in RepresentAsian Project, A Photo Editor, Women of Influence
• Ad spend: $35. The rest was organic and word-of-mouth

Techniques discussed will include:

• Building rapport with your network year-round so when it’s time to share your call for applications they’ll happily oblige
• Outlining a strategy for targeting existing communities and groups that your potential applicants frequent
• Putting together a press kit and pitching earned media press coverage for your program to establish trust
• Structuring the copy of your marketing materials to make it easy to understand what your program is and who is it for
• Using testimonials and past participants’ work to validate the effectiveness and impact of your program
• Reducing the overwhelm of the application form and making it more seamless for people to apply

Bio: 

Pam Lau is an independent photographer and educator. Ambassador for Canon Canada and Curatorial Advisory Board Member for PhotoED Magazine. She is a recipient of the Applied Arts Young Blood Photography Award and was named a photographer to watch in a 500px spotlight on Asian Heritage Month.  

Frustrated with a culture of gatekeeping and lack of transparency, Pam co-founded Ecru; a grassroots educational initiative for those who face financial, cultural and institutional barriers to entering creative industries. From 2021-2023, Pam has co-facilitated ‘Ideas From I’; a free film and photography program for pan-Asian youth funded by ArtReach via Toronto Arts Council and the City of Toronto.