Past Statement of Actions

December, 2025

The Arts Club strives to be kind, clear, and fair employers, creating a home for talented staff whom we value, develop, and retain. We are committed to fostering a welcoming, supportive, and creative place for artists—to be an incubator where artists create exceptional work fully reflective of our community. We seek to have a culture that crackles with positivity, a generosity of spirit, and a willingness to engage with difficult content and conversations.

We want to learn more about people’s experiences at the Arts Club and, with this knowledge, explore where there are barriers to inclusion within the company—including those created by systemic racism. Our job is to take this information and create strategies to improve our working practices so that we can move forward and build bridges for the future.

The Arts Club is committed to these direct actions:

1. Reviewing, updating, and publicly posting our Statement of Actions on an annual basis.


2. Continuing to prioritize EDIA initiatives as a vital part of the Arts Club ecosystem by formalizing our multi-departmental EDIA Task Force so that it meets bi-monthly. This will allow us to be responsive to evolving initiatives and to support accountability of the various tactics that come out of training, consulting, and ideation sessions.

As a company, we have started MONTHLY EDIA drop-in sessions that tackle many topics; including areas such as representation, respectful language, understanding equity vs. equality among many others. We also invite feedback from staff about topics that might resonate with them so that this process is transparent and inclusive.


3. Continuing to reassess our Bullying and Harassment policy every year to make sure that our best practices evolve over time. This policy will be integrated as the guiding principle for staff, volunteers, artists, and all other people with whom we interact. We will work on strategies to support awareness around the policy and create consistency in its application.

This work is ongoing and we continue to examine and practice these policies.


4. Continuing to provide anti-oppression training to our staff in the 2024–2025 season. This training is part of the onboarding process for all staff with opportunities provided to review, discuss, and receive feedback on the concepts and issues presented to better integrate anti-oppression and anti-racism practices into our work environments. This will also include training in decolonization practices and increasing our understanding of Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous communities, training to increase awareness of accessibility, as well as ongoing anti-oppression training focussing on supporting our 2SLGBTQIA + communities.

In 2025 we continued to provide anti-racism training, accessibility training, as well as 2SLGBTQI+ awareness training as part of the onboarding process. The Education Team held a Faculty Training day in 2025 to focus on tools to support equitable and accessible classroom environments.


5. Working with IBPOC/BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigenous, and Disability communities, organizations that work with these communities, and artists from these communities to develop relationships, opportunities, and practices that lead to better and more authentic representation in our artists, staff, teachers, students, programming choices, and audiences.


• We will regularly review the groups that we’re working with to see what communities we may be missing and where intersectionality may lie amongst them.
• We will seek opportunities within our existing programs to amplify the voices of artists from equity-deserving communities to create platforms for under-represented stories and experiences.
• Continue developing our Land Acknowledgments that include actions that can directly uplift/support Indigenous artists and communities.
• Seek funding to support a Indigenous Engagement Coordinator role at the Arts Club.
• Seek new Indigenous partnerships to expand programming and develop meaningful engagement with our Host Nation communities.

In 2025, we partnered with Savage Society and the NAC Indigenous Theatre to present their production of You used to call me Marie…. During the run of this production, The Arts Club hosted an Indigenous Artist Market in the lobby of the BMO Theatre Centre as well as oAered a free workshop for the public called, Land, Body, and Spirit: A Metis Workshop, facilitated by Indigenous instructors Jil Goranson and Ceanna Wood.

In Fall of 2025, The Arts Club also started their Indigenous Community Pricing program, offering discounted tickets to self-identifying Indigenous guests.

We also continued to offer Open-Captioned Performances, and Relaxed Performances during 2025. We had an ASL Interpreted performance for The Mousetrap, and worked with the VCC Career Awareness Program to oAer work-experience opportunities and workshops for the disability community taking part of that program.


6. Incorporating EDIA practices in our hiring processes to support anti-oppressive working environments.


• We will provide onboarding training and seek out partnerships with organizations who work with equity-deserving communities to help diversify our workforce.
• We will create clear expectations at hiring that the Arts Club is a safe workspace and our teams align to this commitment.
• We will work with organizations to ensure that we are aware of and are following best practices when engaging with various equity-deserving communities.
• Continue adding accessible entry points into our spaces including accessible auditions for each show and in our hiring practices.

We continue to practice and develop these processes as well as search for new partnerships to create more access for potential employees.


7. Continuing our work with our Accessibility Coordinator to ensure that our EDIA work is influenced and informed through lived experience. We will work to deepen our connections and develop new relationships with our Indigenous host nations. We will seek funding to support an Indigenous Coordinator role at the Arts Club. We will also develop our initiatives around working with our disability communities and explore other areas of access need for our community.

Attending the Discovery Conference:

This fall, Amy Amantea, Accessibility Coordinator at the Arts Club, attended The Discovery Conference, the first disability-led arts and access conference presented by The Disability Collective. The event brought together artists, administrators, and access professionals from across Canada to explore and share how accessibility can be reimagined as a creative and collaborative process not just a policy requirement.

Attending the Discovery Conference reinforces our commitment at the Arts Club to embedding accessibility into every part of our practice; from production planning and marketing, to audience engagement and community partnerships. The learnings from this conference will directly inform our evolving accessibility strategy, helping us continue to create welcoming spaces where everyone can experience and participate in the power of live theatre.

We are continuing to look for funding to support an Indigenous Coordinator position at the Arts Club.


8. Continuing our work to make the Arts Club’s venues and environments physically accessible for patrons, staff, contractors, and artists. This will include fundraising to make improvements to our venues and continuing to offer staff training. We are currently fundraising for improvements at the Stanley BFL CANADA Stage and are working on a 3-year strategic plan to make the lobby more accessible for patrons, staff, and artists.

The Arts Club is continuing to develop our Accessibility plan for the Stanley BFL Canada Stage and fundraising is still underway.


9. Building the Denis Simpson Fund, our endowment dedicated to long-term sustainable and systemic change on the Arts Club’s journey toward decolonization, through an annual fundraising campaign. This fund focusses on supporting employment opportunities for emerging IBPOC/BIPOC artists.

The DSF now sits at $200,748.17 and distributes approximately $5,500 each season to IBPOC/BIPOC artists. Each August, we continue to dedicate the month for growing this fund. For 2025 we hired 2 Assistants through this fund (Lisa Goebel as Assistant Choreographer for Disney’s Frozen and Johnny Trinh as Assistant Director for Cambodian Rock Band).


10. Formalizing a robust and effective company-wide mentorship/internship program that includes providing entry points for members of equity-deserving communities. This will include paid opportunities for emerging or mid-career theatre practitioners to collaborate in every element of working for a theatre company.

Developing this program is now part of our 2030 strategic growth plan.

As the Arts Club's leadership team, we stand by these actions, we believe in forward movement, and we will continue to work closely with outside organizations as well as our EDIA group, comprised of a diverse selection of our dedicated staff, to ensure that this work remains at the forefront of our minds.

Sincerely,

Ashlie Corcoran, Artistic Director
Peter Cathie White, Executive Director