The delegates list
WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE 2017 EXPERIENCE IN MONTREAL !
With One Voice USA/Canada/UK Arts and Homelessness Exchange, Montréal
With One Voice is an international arts and homelessness movement that aims to connect the sector worldwide – strengthening existing projects, incubating new work, raising awareness of the importance of the use of arts to support people who have experienced homelessness and influencing policy. Formed in July 2016, the movement organises exchanges and summits to bring the sector together to exchange practice and policy, always with homeless people involved centrally.
With One Voice published a North American Review of Arts and Homelessness in April 2017, which showed a highly passionate and effective yet fragmented, under-resourced sector with project desperate to connect with one another. Having met with ATSA in 2015 and with the review showing the city to have many high quality projects and much innovative practice, Montréal has been chosen as the meeting point for the exchange and events hosted during ATSA, When Art takes Action’s 2017 Festival entitled Pas d’Radis Fiscaux: L’État d’Urgence. This will be the first time the North American arts/homelessness sector will have come together in history.
Around 20 delegates from arts/homelessness NGOs, activists, practitioners, policy makers and homeless people will come together to share artworks, practice, methodology and opinions through discussions, presentations and practical workshops such as participatory singing, Legislative Theatre and socially engaged art. During the Festival, With One Voice will host public discussions and workshops, including an open invitation to cultural spaces (libraries, galleries, museums, theatres etc.) to talk about how they work with people who have experienced homelessness.
For more information www.with-one-voice.com
The delegates list
UK | USA | CANADA
UK
Gavin Bailey - Streetwise Opera
Manchester, UK
Gavin is proud to be a workshop leader for Streetwise Opera for the weekly workshop programme at the Booth Centre in Manchester. He has worked for Streetwise Opera for the last 10 years and is constantly inspired by the participant’s commitment, focus and energy within the workshops and performances, and has seen how participants gain confidence to make positive changes in their lives. Gavin has been a professional opera singer for the last 20 years and is also a Tutor at The Arden School of Theatre in Manchester. He is thrilled to be able to lead a workshop in Montreal.
Beth Knowles - Mayoral Lead for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping at Greater Manchester Mayor's Office
Manchester, UK
At present, I combine my skills and knowledge in to developing my creative communications and design studio, Symmetry Creative, as well as my work as a Labour and Co-operative Councillor for Manchester city centre ward, a co-founder and trustee of the urban greening charity, A New Leaf Manchester, Chair of With One Voice and a board member of the People's History Museum and Castlefield Art Gallery.
Beth is responsible for Greater Manchester Mayor's commitment to end rough sleeping by 2020 and radically reduce homelessness in all of its forms within 10 years, alongside Ivan Lewis MP and GM Strategic Team.
She also leads on bringing together GM Homelessness Action Network of civic and civil society, business, faith sector and people with lived experience of homelessness, across the city region and manages GM Mayor's Homelessness Fund. Watch video here
David John Tovey - The One Festival of Homeless Arts
London, UK
David Tovey is a formerly homeless artist, educator and activist who works in a range of media. He is a photographer, painter as well as an installation artist and performance-maker. At the heart of David's practice is a very special quality - the ability to bring you to the subject in ways both beautiful and hard-hitting in equal measure in order to raise awareness about the social issues he tackles. David has exhibited internationally in locations such as Somerset House, Tate Modern and he is also the founder of the UK’s first One Festival of Homeless arts. He speaks regularly at housing and homelessness events and teaches art to people experiencing homelessness at the Pillion Trust and Passage Day Centre. His Man on Bench performances have earned him significant acclaim and have taken place on the pavement of the Southbank and the halls of Tate Exchange.
Dave hopes the exchange will educate him and introduce him to many more projects, opening his network internationally. He’d also love to see the projects in practice, hopes to learn from these projects, and to be inspired to carry on doing what he does in the sector.
Matt Peacock MBE - Director of With One Voice and Artistic Director of Streetwise Opera
London, UK
Matt Peacock founded Streetwise Opera in 2002, a charity that uses music to help people who have experienced homelessness and those at risk of homelessness, make positive changes in their lives.
Streetwise runs an award-winning opera programme in six cities across England every week with over 700 people each year. The company’s opera productions seek to be of equal artistic and social merit, focussing on the achievements of the performers not their needs. Every production has received four and five star reviews in the national press and the last production, The Passion was televised on BBC Four in March 2016.
Streetwise’s international programme, With One Voice seeks to connect and build the international arts and homelessness sector through exchanges of policy and practice. In 2016, With One Voice has worked directly with projects in Brazil, Japan, USA, Canada, Portugal and Australia, produced 40 events during the Rio 2016 Cultural Olympiad and set up 5 new choirs and has been instrumental in Greater Manchester including the arts in the new 10-year homelessness strategy. Matt is a former homeless support worker and opera critic. He is one of 30 social activists profiled in Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s book Britain’s Everyday Heroes; was one of the Evening Standard’s Most Influential Londoners and a Southbank Centre ‘Change Maker’. He was awarded an MBE for services to music and homelessness in 2011 by the Queen.
Ellie Raymont - Producer of With One Voice
UK
Ellie joined Streetwise Opera, a charity that uses music to help people who have experienced homelessness and those at risk of homelessness, make positive changes in their lives in 2009.
Streetwise runs an award-winning opera programme in six cities across England every week with over 700 people each year. The company’s opera productions seek to be of equal artistic and social merit, focussing on the achievements of the performers not their needs. Every production has received four and five star reviews in the national press and the last production, The Passion was televised on BBC Four in March 2016.
She has held several roles in the company from intern to Marketing Manager before becoming International Producer for With One Voice.
USA
Mark Horvarth - Invisible People
LA, CA, USA
Everyone talks about social media's potential to democratize and empower those less fortunate. Mark Horvarth actually makes that happen. Mark, or @hardlynormal as the Internet knows him, is an internationally recognized activist who tells the story of the countless individuals without a voice-- those living in shelters, motels, tents, alongside streets and under highway bridges. His platform InvisiblePeople.tv is one of the most revolutionary and poignant storytelling destinations we've ever seen on the web. Mark's work is extraordinary because he not only helps solve the systemic, scaled problems of homelessness by destroying stereotypes, but he also helps singular individuals, every day.
Beth Burns - P:ear
Portland, OR, USA
p:ear builds positive relationships with homeless and transitional youth through education, art and recreation to affirm personal worth and create more meaningful and healthier lives. Each year our programs serve almost 900 homeless and transitional young people ages 15 to 24.
To truly exit homelessness, kids must develop the internal strength, skills and foresight to make healthy choices. p:ear provides a safe, non-judgmental environment in which youth are trusted to outgrow unproductive and harmful behaviors. We offer individualized mentoring and education programs in a safe, reliable setting designed to foster trust, build self-esteem and to teach homeless and transitional kids – who all too often are regarded by society as disposable, “hopeless cases” – that they are valuable individuals with a future who have something vital to contribute to this community.
Jo Giudice and Heather Lowe - Dallas Pubic Library
Dallas TX, USA
Dallas Public Library (DPL), established in 1901, serves an urban and diverse population of over 1.2 million citizens. DPL has 29 library locations, located across the 360 square miles of the City of Dallas, including a 10-story Central Library in the heart of downtown. DPL was honoured in October 2017 by the Urban Libraries Council as a Top Innovator for the GED Testing Center and Workforce Development programs offered at the library. DPL began their Homeless Engagement Initiative in 2013 through simple programs that helped staff get to know their homeless neighbours. Today, the library offers referrals services, music classes, craft opportunities, urban photography walks, movie screenings, and more. In addition to these engagement opportunities, the library also partners with local social service organizations to offer on-site assistance to meet the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness.
Jo Giudice has been with the Dallas Public Library for almost 15 years, five of which she has served as its Director. She worked her way up through the ranks from Children’s Librarian, Branch Manager, Youth Services Administrator, Interim Assistant Director before becoming the director. This has given her a chance to work at all levels of library service. As Director she initiated a homeless engagement initiative, ESL/GED classes, a GED Testing Center, Small Business Entrepreneur Center and a reinvigorated Dallas Book Festival. DPL’s budget has grown over the past three years enabling the hiring of over 250 new staff and increasing the library’s hours open to the public. Jo attended the University of Florida where she earned a Bachelor’s in Journalism and she earned her Master’s in Library and Information Sciences from the University of South Carolina.
Heather Lowe is the Adult Services Administrator for the Dallas Public Library where she is responsible for system wide programs and services to adults in Dallas. She oversees the Homeless Engagement Initiative as well as adult education, tax assistance programs, and citizenship programs. She develops and maintains community partnerships for services ranging from tax assistance to citizenship instruction to cultural enrichment and more. She is the Events and Fundraising Team Lead for Outlast Youth, an organization that seeks to prevent homelessness for LGBTQ identified youth.
Holly Jacobson - Path with Art
Seattle, USA
Path with Art transforms the lives of people recovering from homelessness, addiction, and other trauma by harnessing the power of creative engagement as a bridge to community and a path to stability. Path with Art currently partners with over 30 social service agencies, 25 arts organizations, employees approximately 25 teaching artists for its four pillared program of arts education, exhibitions and showcases, and “Community Connection”. Path with Art is in the process of creating a replicable model to share with other organizations to create a multiplying effect so that the value of arts engagement can be more widely recognized as a powerful tool to promote and understand the inherent dignity of all people.
Holly hopes the exchange will bring the ability to learn from other orgs, build off our strengths, and identify areas where we could build off each other’s strengths instead of duplicate efforts or work in silos. Discuss marketing and funding challenges. Talk about next steps and how we can build towards an international movement. She is also hoping to discuss leadership opportunities and coalition building.
Colleen Hayward
Seattle, USA
Colleen has been a volunteer mentor for classes offered to students of Path with Art in Seattle. Additionally, she has served on the Program Advisory Board for several years, and makes herself available for a variety of tasks and projects for PwA. Colleen retired as a professor of studio arts at The Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, having previously taught at Mount Holyoke College and Purdue University. She is a practicing artist, active in the Seattle art community. Work: www.colleenhayward.com.
“I have focused much of my time in the last few years serving those living without a home — co-running a nightly women’s shelter and offering creative experiences to women taking shelter at Noel House and Rose of Lima House downtown. I was attracted to PwA’s mission, and have very much enjoyed knowing the students who share their stories, express themselves courageously, and remind me of the healing inherent in making and doing. I am definitely excited about programing that will reach both people who have a place to stay and those who don’t, those who can make a commitment and those who can only be here for this hour.”
Jill Rullkoetter
Seattle, USA
Jill Rullkoetter has been involved in the Seattle arts community for many years serving as Senior Deputy Director at the Frye Art Museum and as Director of Education and Public Programs at the Seattle Art Museum. Her focus at the Frye and at SAM was to broaden and deepen both museums’ engagement with their communities. Jill has served on several boards including the American Alliance of Museums, Western Museums Association, Seattle Architecture Foundation, NW Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in Italy, and Youth in Focus. Rullkoetter has served as a grants reviewer for NEH, IMLS, and the Getty Grant Program, and has participated as a member of several Accreditation Visiting Committees for AAM and as a Peer Reviewer for the Museum Assessment Program of the AAM. Jill holds an MA in art history from the University of Washington and a BA in art history from the University of Missouri.
Marsha Temple - Integrated Recovery Network
Los Angeles, USA
Integrated Recovery Network helps people who have been homeless by providing them with housing, health care and jobs.
Marsha is hoping to learn new strategies to help people who have mental disabilities, especially those with trauma, express themselves through art. Marsha is the Executive Director
http://www.integratedrecoverynetwork.org
Kat Johnson - Institute of Global Homelessness
Chicago, USA
The Institute of Global Homelessness supports the emerging global movement to end homelessness.
Kat would like to better understand the arts and homelessness landscape; not only where organizations exist, but what they do and what the impact is on addressing homelessness in the communities where they are located. She also hopes the exchange can help her better understand how art can intersect with effective practice and policy/practice related to ending homelessness. "In my mind, the practical role of art can be to help people across and within countries deeply understand the experience of homelessness, causes, and the varied shapes/scope across geographies and cultures. This can be useful in debunking harmful myths, garnering public support, making research less dry and more easily understood by people doing work on the ground, etc. I’d be thrilled to have some new ideas about how groups have done this, what works and doesn’t, etc. If I meet people who might be up for partnering with IGH to try a few things, that would be icing on the cake."
Kat has been the Institute’s director since 2014.
Carl Wiley - All Chicago and LYTE Collective
Chicago, USA
All Chicago prevents and ends homelessness through emergency financial assistance, community partnerships, data analytics, and training. Carl also works for the LYTE Collective, providing Chicago youth in situations of poverty and homelessness with safe spaces, critical resources and holistic support (including arts).
Carl would like opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals, learn different approaches and pathways to connect art and homelessness in my every day work, learn more about research and practical resources to share on the importance of art activities as part of ending homelessness.
Carl is the Capacity Building & Training Manager
https://www.lytecollective.org
http://allchicago.org/
Katy Ruben - Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
NYC, USA
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC (TONYC) partners with social service organizations and city agencies, forming theatre troupes with community members who face pressing social, economic, health, and human rights issues. These troupes devise plays based on their real-life struggles, and perform them before diverse audiences. After each performance, actors and audiences engage in theatrical brainstorming – called Forum and Legislative Theatre – with the aim of catalyzing creative change on the individual, community and political levels.
On this exchange we hope to build lasting and meaningful relationships with other organizations across the US and Canada that are working to make structural change around housing and homelessness using artistic and creative practices; we hope that may lead to direct collaborations in various cities. We also hope to gather new skills and practices
Katy Ruben is executive director and founder of TONYC.
Letitia Bouie - Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
NYC, USA
Letitia would like to meet energy driven people who are not afraid to take a stand. People who may be able to help me create a positive impact on getting our voices across in order to stop all of the unnecessary oppression, homelessness and hunger.
Letitia has been an actor with the Concrete Justice troupe for 4 years, and is a Joker-in-training (actor/facilitator) with TONYC.
Jonathan Palant - Dallas Street Choir
Dallas TX, USA
The Dallas Street Choir offers a musical outlet for those experiencing homelessness and severe disadvantage. Through community engagement and public performance, the Dallas Street Choir seeks to improve the way society views those experiencing homelessness. Our model demonstrates that participation in a consistent, structured, safe, and creatively engaging environment better equips individuals experiencing homelessness to find a job, housing and improve their overall lifestyle. For our members, we aim to provide: practical musicianship training; an environment that promotes accountability; and a community that offers compassion and hope.
Jonathan hopes this exchange will be an opportunity to share ideas and information, network with the hope of future collaboration. He hopes to gain practical, hands-on knowledge of working with the street community can understand the needs of our membership and to meet folks who can inspire him with new ideas and ways to improve his program.
Billy McGuinness & Rhoda Rosen - Red Line Service
Chicago, USA
Since 2014, Red Line Service (RLS) has been working collaboratively with Chicagoans experiencing homelessness, and others concerned about the impacts of housing insecurity, to create a wide range of cultural programming. In our three years of operation, we’ve connected with hundreds of citizens and a variety of civic and arts organizations. Our work has evolved and grown since it began, but the essential core of our project is the creation of a community of care, wherein all members of society are valued and engaged.
In partnership with cultural institutions, as well as those focused on homeless advocacy and direct service, RLS strives to open and expand critical dialogues about poverty, social responsibility, and culture. Simultaneously, we aim to stimulate growth and change for program participants, those experiencing homelessness and their housed counterparts. Our work has taken many forms—from home-cooked meals on train platforms to intimate film screenings to a slumber party in a museum lobby—but has always been guided by our commitment to engendering a sense of connectedness. Together, we affirm that shared cultural experiences awaken imaginative possibilities, encouraging people to envision, aspire to, and build alternative realities.
We are keen to learn what others are doing and to share our own work. Further, we anticipate having the chance to establish lasting relationships with colleagues in other cities and to work with them to forge greater solidarity and coordinated action between our various efforts. We hope to meet artists, curators and other cultural workers committed to social justice and the possibilities for change engendered by thoughtful engagement with issues of concern.
http://www.redlineservice.org/
Ruth Shafer - Fort Vancouver Regional Library
Vancouver WA, USA
Ruth works for the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, a public library system with 14 branches. I am currently the Community Librarian/Branch Manager at the White Salmon Valley Community Library, a small rural library.
At the time the art show ‘Homeless not Hopeless’ was hung, I was the Public Services Manager at our larger urban library, The Vancouver Community Library (Washington State, USA). My role as Public Services Manager was to supervise all 9 of the librarians on the staff as well as overseeing the supervision of 35 assistants and oversee all services and programs for patrons on all ages. During the exchange Ruth hopes to hear about interesting and replicable projects from other libraries or museums, with a focus on highlighting the positive contributions homeless individuals have made to their communities.
Canada
Including ATSA, EXEKO, St James Centre, Le Sac a Dos, Opéra de Montréal, Old Brewery Mission, En Marge, Accueil Bonneau and Le Chainon, La Rue des Femmes (all Montreal)
Bernard Racicot - Art thérapeute
Montréal
Born in Montreal in 1964, Bernard Racicot has been painting since age 14. He studied art at CÉGEP de Saint-Laurent, and produced commercial signage for 10 years before making the switch to the community sector. He worked for 14 years with the underprivileged at the Saint James Drop-in Centre's arts workshop, and is now pursuing his art therapy work in Boisbriand and Sainte-Thérèse. In 2017, Bernard released an album of songs titled Peace of Mind. It broaches topics such as mental health and homelessness.
Coreen Douglas - The Kettle
Vancouver, Canada
The Kettle Society has been providing inspiring mental health services in Vancouver for over 40 years. Although The Kettle has grown over the decades, with 8 buildings, over 400 supportive housing units and over 5,000 clients it still strives to be the client-focused, grass roots organization it’s always been. The clients we serve often come to The Kettle in a very vulnerable state. Our ability to meet clients with a caring approach is paramount to their ability to thrive in Kettle programs. We believe that every individual has their own inherent skills, value and worth. Our job is to support our clients rediscover this in themselves.
The Kettle has always had arts programming but never before this partnership with the Vancouver Opera have we had a formal, ongoing singing and creative writing program that is Kettle-wide. Clients, staff and volunteers are working collaboratively to support the production of an original chamber opera* involving themes such as homelessness, mental illness and addiction.
Can opera change lives? Can opera help end homelessness? Yes!
*Requiem for a Lost Girl, written by Onalea Gilbertson, with Marcel Bergmann composer.
Courtney Dugan - Vancouver Opera
Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver Opera is regarded worldwide for its fine mainstage productions; for its country-leading education programs, which have reached more than 1.6 million children and their families in more than 40 years; for its innovative and award-winning community programs; and for forging ground breaking cross-cultural creative partnerships that have brought opera to new generations of Canadians.
VO offers educational programming in the community and for students of all ages.
Courtney is the Education and Community Projects Coordinator.
Onalea Gilbertson - Writer and Composer
NYC, USA
Onalea is a performer, creator, director and recording artist based in New York originally from Calgary AB Canada. Since 2008 Onalea has co-created theatrical workshops and performances with the homeless community.
Onalea’s piece Requiem for a Lost Girl: a chamber musical about homelessness (composed by Marcel Bergmann); explores themes of poverty, homelessness, mental illness, addiction and missing and murdered women in Canada. Community building and striving to bring attention to stigma are paramount to the work Requiem unfolds as a memorial service for a young woman lost to the street and is created and performed in partnership with a chorus of people who know the experience of homelessness.
The Vancouver Opera will present the work in May 2018. Past performances: (The High Performance Rodeo (Calgary) and the New York Musical Theatre Festival.) More to know requiemforalostgirl.com
Monica Mandujano - responsable de la salle d'art Dans la Rue
Montréal, Canada
Born in 1976, Monica Mandujano grew up in Mexico. In 1991, she began her studies at the Institut National des Beaux-Arts (INBA), with a specialization in metal sculpture. In 1996, she emigrated to Québec, where she obtained certificates in plastic arts and in cultural facilitation from UQAM.
Monica began working with troubled youths in 2005, at Passages, a shelter for young women, as an arts instructor. After six years there, she moved on to Vitrart, an initiative for social reinsertion through the use of stained glass; some of its stained glass works are on permanent display at the Ronald McDonald House of the Sainte-Justine university hospital centre. For the past four years, she has been in charge of the art room of grassroots organization Dans la Rue.
As an exhibition curator, Monica shows great commitment to young people. She shines the spotlight on their work in various projects and exhibitions with partners such as the Darling Foundry, Skol, Chat des Artistes, Pirata Théâtre and Usine C.
Julian Diego - Sketch
Toronto, Canada
Julian Diego is a Community Arts practitioner and passionate advocate for access and inclusion in art-making. He believes that everyone has creative aspects that can be encouraged and developed, and that as
they do, communities develop and deepen their understanding of members and themselves.
Julian has facilitated arts programming, with a focus on marginalized youth, for over a decade in Toronto. He is fascinated by different ways to increase the palette of expressive options available to people who may not be able to afford or access traditional opportunities. Currently working on the project Know Man's Land, a 9 month exploration of healthy masculinity for racialized men.
Julian is an experienced screen printer, a highly trained kung fu practitioner and performer, and is certified as a Mentor Artist-Educator through the RCM.
He is a Programme Coordinator at Sketch
Lysanne - St-James Drop-in Center
Montreal, Canada
Since 2011, Lysanne is the creative arts program coordinator at the St-James Drop-In Center, an organisation that provides a sense of community for people dealing with issues of mental illness and homelessness downtown Montreal. She graduated with a BFA from Concordia University in 2009, and in 2013, she completed a graduate degree focusing her art practice on drawing and community interventions. Her interest in the relational aspects of making art has led her to facilitate workshops for several community organisations, and undertake collaborative or community-based drawing research projects. She feels deeply about issues surrounding poverty and homelessness and finds meaning in the art-making and community experience of the St-James Drop-In Centre.
Pierre Vachon, Director of Communications, outreach and education at the Montreal Opera
Montreal, Canada
Pierre Vachon is a musicologist. Holder of a doctorate in musicology from the Université de Montréal and a specialist of 19th century music and opera, he has published numerous articles on Romantic music, opera, and the history of music in Canada. He has contributed to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography with biographical notes on Romain-Octave Pelletier, Rodolphe Plamondon, and Emma Albani, and has penned a biography of the latter. He gives regular seminars on music and opera across Québec, and has been a lecturer at the Université de Sherbrooke, the Université de Montréal and UQAM. For nearly 20 years now, he has been both a host and guest on ICI Musique (Radio-Canada radio). Since 2006, he has been director of communications, outreach and education at the Opéra de Montréal. He is also co-founder of the Société pour les arts en milieux de santé.
Marc Pronovost
Montreal, Canada
Marc is General and Artistic Manager, and co-founder, of B21 - an organization working on project management and evaluation of the social impact of artistic projects in relation to sustainable development goals in Canada and in the State of New York, USA. He holds a MA in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of Geneva. He also works as a choreographer and co-Artistic Manager for Maison Corbeau, an immersive theatre company based in Montreal that aims to challenge the public to physically take part in theatrical events and to break the standard passive behaviour. Being an artist, a researcher and a project manager, Marc also works with various cultural and social organizations as well as with corporations and government agencies to collaborate or create events that engage the public in a participatory creative process. He published his first book, in French, on "art social" - something close to community arts - with L'Harmattan, Paris. A second book is underway (Curating Live Arts) and will be published in 2018 at Berghanh Books.
This is made possible thank to
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Matt Peacock MBE |
Ellie Raymont
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Marc Provonost Freelance Producer in Montreal |
