TENT Updates! What a semester…

By: Dr. Brandon McFarlane

I’m writing to thank everyone for their awesome work on the TENT project this year and to wish you all a happy holidays.

2019 was a big year for our collaboration with Toronto Fringe.

From January to April, Prof. Glenn Clifton collaborated with Tanisha Taitt to led our curriculum development initiative in which we created 14 modules and piloted a couple of online units. We also transformed the curriculum into a number of well-received blog posts on the business of the arts, including a 12-post series authored by Jacquelyn Ferguson that will be published in the New Year.

In March, Sheridan Research published a feature of our project authored by Brittany German. Special thanks to Debbie Silva for helping with our communications.

In April/May, Victoria Webb received the Orange Ribbon Award for her contributions to our CPS facilitations in fall 2018. Karly-Anna O’Brien received the SWITCH Award for her contributions to curriculum development and excellence in our Creativity Certificate courses.

Allan Turner, clown extraordinaire, facilitated an improv workshop for the research team. Brittany is still disgruntled that it was a workshop rather than a performance.

The entire semester Robyn Miller collaborated with Michael Rugo to create social media content that raised awareness about our project, particularly the incredibly talented student team.

In May, Prof. Brandon McFarlane delivered two project-related workshops at Congress 2019 with the session on talent-orientated research design captivating scholars and research administrators.

In the summer Aura Torres, Rosie Daniels, Declan Rolph, and Lexy Troth produced TENT impact videos. They filmed workshops and interviewed the 2019 cohort. We’ll be releasing the short videos in the New Year as a build up to the funding event.

At the Toronto Fringe Festival, Lucy Eveleigh implemented a number of the recommendations from the fall 2018 CPS sessions. In particular, they redesigned the ‘tip the Fringe’ campaign and sprinkled other ideas throughout the festival. It was Toronto Fringe’s most successful festival ever.

In October, Prof. Clifton, Prof. Brandon McFarlane, Prof. Michael McNamara, and Prof. Jennifer Phenix received the inaugural Collaborative Teaching Award: Inclusivity. Thank you for nominating us for this honour!

This fall, Prof. McNamara collaborated with Carly Chamberlain to plan our CPS sessions with assistance from Victoria. We explored a variety of different ideas until we landed on the champions-style event. Special thanks to Prof. Patrice Esson and Prof. Jennifer Phenix for facilitating sessions and helping create such a fun environment!

Throughout the semester, Robyn collaborated with Prof. Phenix to publish profiles of our new team members. If you haven’t already done so, check out www.creativehumanities.ca to give’em a read.

Prof. McFarlane delivered a CPS training session at Toronto Fringe in December.

The entire team collaborated to create a plan for fiscal sustainability (the event) and the associated zine that showcases why TENT is such an important program. Thank you Aura and Jacki for highlighting TENT alumni, Brittany for authoring the feature of Annie Clarke, Lynn Li and Ayesha Qamar for researching the economics of TENT, Faizal Eidoo for his InDesign wizardy, Taylor Zantigh for writing the history/mission of TENT, and Sarah Whang for all the amazing illustrations.

And, our first Creative Documenter and current Project Manager, Kate Dockeray continued to make us all look great with her mad photography chops and making sure everyone gets paid. Patrick Naval helped tell our story with fun social media posts and videos. And throughout the project, Prof. Owen Percy, Prof. Paul Vermeersch, Dr. Catherine Hale, Lucy Eveleigh, Morgan Norwich, Laura Paduch, Tom Arthur Davis, Sean McNabney, Brittany Tapper, Alison Kwan, and Matteo D’Angelo provided invaluable advice and support.

Congrats also, because:

• Brittany German joined the research team for the Interdisciplinary Flow Initiative.
• Rosie Daniels just received a Talent Trust Award from Nova Scotia.
• Lynne Li joined TD bank.
• Mike Rugo worked at CHEO in the fall and recently joined Mijem in October as an UX Designer.
• Karly-Anna O’Brien joined Loblaws in October as a Supply Chain Analyst.

Whew– I hope I didn’t miss anything! Thank you everyone for applying you creativity and many talents to help emerging artists in Toronto. I wish everyone a happy holidays and looking forward to collaborating further in the New Year.