WHY JOIN? ARTISTS - Members OPPORTUNITIES FEATURE
WHY JOIN?
1. Who Should Join?
CultureBrew.Art welcomes all Indigenous or racialized artists resident in Canada who work in the performing and media arts, as well as any person or organization who wishes to find and collaborate with Indigenous and racialized artists.
2. How does CultureBrew.Art define “Indigenous”?
There are Indigenous peoples on every continent and island the world over. As a Canadian initiative, CultureBrew.Art allows Indigenous artists to self-identify as First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and/or Mixed Ethnicity, with space to add details of your specific nation or territory.
We also welcome Indigenous artists who hail from beyond Turtle Island (North America) – as long as you reside in Canada – with space provided to allow you to be more specific (e.g. Maori, Samoan, Sámi, Hmong, Maasai, Yucatec, Berber, etc.)
3. How does CultureBrew.Art define “racialized”?
Language is always evolving. Instead of using IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, People of Colour), or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour), we have chosen “racialized” to describe people who have historically and are continually marginalized or discriminated against because of their skin colour. Racialized therefore includes people who are members of the African, East/Southeast Asian, Latinx (Latin American), South Asian, West Asian (Middle East/North African) diasporas, as well as those whose Mixed Ethnicity includes one or more of these racial or ethnic heritages.
4. What if I’m someone who lives and identifies as a white person?
Then we encourage you to be a part of the CultureBrew.Art community by subscribing as an Engager, giving you access to the hundreds of Indigenous and racialized artists (IARA) who are looking forward to collaborating with you on your projects! Whether you’re looking for IARA for your film crew; teach classes or workshops at your school, community centre, or social service agency; sit on panels, advisories, or assessment juries; consult on issues of cultural knowledge, customs, and history; and of course, collaborate on every kind of artistic or cultural project, CBA is the place to find IARA!
5. I’m a member of a religious or spiritual practice which suffers from overt discrimination or that has a minority status. Can I register?
As long as you self-identify as Indigenous or racialized, and work either in front or behind the scenes, in the performing or media arts, CultureBrew.Art welcomes you regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, disability, language, or religion.
6. Does it cost anything to join?
Membership for Indigenous and racialized artists is only $25 annually. If this is a barrier for you, please contact us.
For Engagers – individuals and organizations who wish to collaborate with and hire IARA – monthly and annual subscription rates will be posted once the Engager Portal has launched. To be notified as soon as the Engager Portal opens, please join our mailing list.
7. I have feedback.
We love hearing from our CultureBrew.Art community, because we know that there’s always room for improvement!
For technical feedback, including bugs or navigation issues, please contact us at Technical Support.
For feedback about privacy or security issues, please contact the Privacy Officer.
For everything else – the good, the bad, and the ugly! – contact us.
ARTISTS - Members
8. How does CultureBrew.Art define an “Artist”?
In order to make CultureBrew.Art as inclusive as possible in the Canadian arts and culture sector, “artist” includes all Indigenous and racialized persons who work in the performing and media arts, including cultural industry workers, such as film production crew (e.g. members of IATSE), musicians, producers, arts administrators, stage managers, cultural consultants (e.g. Indigenous Elders), and diversity/decolonization consultants..
9. What is a Member?
Membership is restricted to Indigenous and racialized artists who have paid the $25 annual fee (or equivalent).
10. Why do I have to pay?
We believe that Indigenous and racialized artists deserve a safe digital space that respects your personal and private information, and provides digital tools that will support your artistic practice. Frankly, it takes money to maintain technology, to ensure that security updates are regularly and properly applied, and to prevent hackers from disrupting our systems. Since we refuse to monetize your data by selling it to third parties, we hope that you will agree that the annual fee of $25 represents good value.
That said, if you are not able to manage $25 at this time, please contact us.
11. I have a promo code. Why do I have to provide my credit card information if I don’t have to pay the annual fee?
The sad reality is that the internet is full of hackers, trolls, and other unsavoury folks who often target people of colour, particularly Indigenous and Black women. Requesting credit card information is one way to discourage these people from signing up in the first place, and could help us track down anyone who contravenes CultureBrew.Art’s Code of Conduct and/or Terms of Service.
12. I want to join, but I don’t have a credit card. What can I do?
We recognize that not everyone has access to a credit card. If you are an Indigenous or racialized artist, please contact us, as we are doing our best to be as inclusive as possible.
13. How do I know that the people contacting me are legit?
People who contact you directly through CultureBrew.Art will either be other Members (i.e. Indigenous and racialized artists who have completed their profiles and paid the annual fee or equivalent), or Engagers who have paid a subscription fee to access artist profiles. Like you, each person has agreed to our Code of Conduct and Terms of Service.
That said, we encourage you to practice safe internet engagement. Look up a company’s website if you’re not familiar with them (you should be doing that anyway as basic research), and/or ask other IARA if they know anything about the Engager. Check out the Canadian government’s Get Cyber Safe Blog for 5 Practical Ways to Make Yourself Cybersafe, and other tips to improve your digital literacy. If you find yourself the target of online harassment, Heartmob offers resources for reporting and documenting bad behaviour. And of course, if you believe that someone has contravened either our Code of Conduct or Terms of Service, please report that person to us immediately.
14. Can I change who sees my profile?
If you would like to make your profile temporarily unavailable to others to view, click “unpublish”. You will still be able to make changes to your profile.
15. Why can’t I upload my resume?
We had initially designed CultureBrew.Art to allow artists to upload their resumes, but discovered that some artists were including private personal information that increased the risk of identity theft or harassment, such as date of birth, home address, or other sensitive information.
Instead, we provide space in your profile for your bio and/or artist statement, and encourage you to make the most of that space to talk about your artistic practice, and the kinds of lived experiences that make your work unique and culturally distinct. In anticipation of Engagers finding you on CultureBrew.Art and requesting your resume, check out Consumer Protection BC for tips on reducing your risk of identity theft.
16. How do I use CultureBrew.Art to find Indigenous and racialized artists?
For the moment, we have focused on launching and upgrading the Artist Portal for Indigenous and racialized artists (IARA) to create their profiles and connect with each other. The Engager Portal, through which Individuals and organizations may access and search for IARA, as well as post job opportunities, is still in development and anticipated to launch January 2021. To be notified as soon as the Engager Portal opens, please join our mailing list.
17. How do you define “Engager”?
For CultureBrew.Art, an Engager includes any individual or organization who wishes to collaborate with and employ Indigenous and racialized artists (IARA). This includes:
- ad agencies
- artist collectives
- community and social service agencies seeking artists to work with refugees, recent immigrants, LGBTQ2S+ youth, and other marginalized groups
- digital and new media producers (animation, gaming, AR, VR, XR)
- film training programs casting student projects
- film/TV production, including casting directors
- government agencies filling arts advisories and peer assessment juries;
- independent producers and directors
- media outlets seeking diverse perspectives, experts, spokespersons, and panelists
- music and other arts/cultural festivals
- post-secondary performing arts training institutions seeking faculty
- public/private schools seeking artists in their schools
- theatre, opera, and dance companies
- and IARA seeking like-minded IARA with whom to collaborate
THE OPPORTUNITIES FEATURE
18. I have filled out the form and have submitted my opportunity. What happens next?
Thank you for submitting an opportunity to CultureBrew.Art! You can learn more about next steps at Opportunities Postings - "Next Steps".
19. How many opportunities can I post with my Engager subscription?
You may make as many postings as you'd like throughout the duration of your subscription, pending posting approval. So post away and let's make sure that the CultureBrew.Art BIPOC artists learn about your opportunity!
20. Ongoing postings - no submission deadline
Opportunity postings with no submission deadline (ongoing postings) will be listed for one full year following posting approval – even if your subscription was only a month! If you subscribe for less than a year, we suggest marking the expiry date in your calendar to remind yourself to re-submit your ongoing opportunity next year!