Future Arts Network launches publishing mentorship workshop for BIPOC women and others of marginalized genders
Applications due January 9 for program aimed at breaking into the industry and arts leadership
Kristin Cheung. Photo by Elise Miccolis
Michelle Ha. Photo by Fanxuan (Rae) Pang
A NEW VANCOUVER nonprofit organization is launching an arts mentorship workshop geared to BIPOC women and others of marginalized genders.
The focus is on breaking into the publishing industry.
Applications are open until January 9 for the program, which will run from January 23 to February 15. Applicants must be 18 years or older and have a keen interest in writing and the arts; no experience is necessary. Each participant will receive an honorarium of $500 at the end of the program. Information and applications are at futureartsnet.ca.
The inaugural workshop will include mentoring sessions on pitching book proposals, grant writing, marketing, and more. Participants will also develop a collaborative book that will be published in spring 2023. Speakers currently include former Room magazine publisher and poet Molly Cross-Blanchard, Hungry Zine cocreators Kathryn Gwun-Yeen and Kyla Pascal, award-winning author Jessica Johns, author and journalist Doretta Lau, Hugo Award-winning editor and writer Chimedum Ohaegbu, and more.
Future Arts Network Society was established in 2022 by Kristin Cheung and Michelle Ha, with the aim of reducing systemic barriers in the arts and encourage future cultural leaders.
The society grew out of “The Future is you and me,” the country’s first interdisciplinary arts mentorship program for women of colour and cofounded by Cheung and Megan Lau. Over five years, the initiative hosted annual professional development workshops, produced an online symposium in 2020, and developed a community research report in 2021 with Cineworks titled “A Seat at the Table: Black, Indigenous & Women of Colour in Metro Vancouver’s Film and TV Industry Speak.” That project ended in 2021.
Cheung and Ha were inspired to launch the workshop after a May 2022 report from the Writers’ Union of Canada revealed a continued lag in publishing authors that are representative of Canada’s demographics. Nineteen percent of survey respondents self-identified as BIPOC, compared to the 27 percent that comprise the Canadian population.
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