Author: Xenia

Re-imagining music and arts events and activities to make them inclusive, relevant, and accessible to all members of society.

Harpist Sanya Eng, of the PhoeNX Ensemble, teaches an audience member about the harp at a recent Xenia Concert.

Artist Training Program

Harpist Sanya Eng, of the PhoeNX Ensemble, teaches an audience member about the harp at a recent Xenia Concert.
Photo: Nicola Betts

We’ve got big news at Xenia Concerts. After two and a half years of piloting our Artist Training Program with over 100 artists, we are now ready to offer it to musicians around the world!

We started this project for one simple reason: they don’t teach this stuff in music school. Musicians train for thousands of hours to hone their craft, but don’t necessarily learn about the diverse considerations that go into planning an accessible, neurodiversity-friendly performance. We are filling that gap.

The training helps artists understand a diverse spectrum of abilities and sensory experiences so that they can design events that are inclusive and welcoming for neurodiverse audiences. Our long-term vision is to help artists and arts organizations across Canada make their concert experiences more neurodiversity- and disability-friendly.

Program Overview:

-3.5 hours of pre-recorded webinars, with reflection questions for each of the 7 modules
-A one-hour synchronous discussion session with Erin Parkes, Kaylce Carter, Rory McLeod, and Bruce Petherick
-A guidebook on how to design and deliver accessible, inclusive musical programming
-Support in planning your own adaptive concert program

Artists learn about…

Barriers to Inclusion: Challenges that prevent or dissuade participation in music performance for neurodiverse populations and those with disabilities, including physical, sensory, geographic, attitudinal, and financial barriers.

Language and Disability: Exploring various models of disability; understanding the importance of language use in the disability community; how to approach language issues with respect.

Basics of Common Diagnoses: Outline of the characteristics of diagnoses through a strengths-based lens, including autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, learning disabilities, FASD, and more.

Creating a Supportive Sensory Environment: Understanding differences in sensory processing for neurodiverse populations; adaptive strategies to support diverse sensory needs in the environment and concert program.

Communicating with Clarity: Discussing both verbal and non-verbal communication techniques to engage concertgoers with varying communication support needs.

The Adaptive Concert Experience: What to expect from the audience; managing the unexpected; balancing structure and flexibility.

Creative Engagement through Performance: Ways in which performers can engage with audiences with diverse needs through adaptive interactive activities.

Special thanks to those who helped develop, fund, and deliver this program: Erin Parkes, Bruce Petherick, Kaylce Carter, and TO Live

To learn more or register, visit https://xenia-concerts.learnworlds.com/course/xenia-artist-training-program

Welcome Danielle!

We are delighted to welcome Danielle Licorish to the Xenia Concerts team as a Summer Research Assistant. This position is made possible through a partnership between Xenia Concerts and Toronto Metropolitan University through the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Health Equity and Community Wellbeing.

About Danielle

Danielle Licorish is an interdisciplinary writer and creative from Scarborough. Through her passion for storytelling and community engagement, she hopes to facilitate transformative change in the world.
 
Danielle has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Professional Communication and a minor in Sociology. She is a skilled communications practitioner with experience producing effective textual, visual, and oral communications within organizations. Since 2018, her academic, professional and volunteer pursuits have focused on accessible community outreach programming for equity-seeking students and groups.
 
Danielle’s lived experience as a Black, queer, disabled femme informs her vision of community, belonging, and access for all. Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Race Theory, and Critical Disability Studies most commonly influence her research.
 
Regardless of the role or medium, Danielle strives to create bodies of work that inspire, educate, and spark critical thought.
 
As Xenia’s Summer Research Assistant, Danielle is able to combine her love of learning and disability justice with her appreciation for music and the arts. This role is a shared partnership between Xenia Concerts and the Canada Excellence Research Chair – Health Equity and Community Wellbeing.
 
[Image Description: A woman smiles toward the camera, wearing a black top and jeans. She is standing in front of a colourful wall painted yellow.]
Two young audience members dance and smile at a Xenia Concert.

Xenia’s Case for Support & Strategic Plan

Two young audience members dance and smile at a Xenia Concert.

Happy New Year! As Xenia Concerts enters 2024, we’re pleased to present you with our detailed Strategic Plan and our Case for Support. 

Xenia Concerts is in a phase of growth and discovery. Having continued to deliver exceptional programming during the COVID-19 pandemic and emerged stronger than before, our organization remains financially stable, with solid, trusting partnerships, and a pool of talented musicians who love performing for our audiences. 

Now at the beginning of 2024, Xenia Concerts is well positioned to lead the way to a more accessible and inclusive future in the performing arts.

Read on to find out more about our plans in 2024-2025!

Strategic Plan

Our Strategic Plan is a roadmap of how Xenia will evolve over the next two years to expand our impact and further our Mission and Vision. After identifying Xenia’s unique strategic position, the Strategic Plan lays out our Objectives, Key results, and Initiatives, along with explanations of how the organizational structure will evolve over the next two years. If you want to know where Xenia is headed in 2024-2025, this is a great place to find out.

Strategic Plan

Case for Support

Our Case for Support outlines Xenia’s mandate and highlights key facts and statistics about our organization. It tells the story of why the work we do is so important and explains our unique position in the arts landscape. You’ll also find useful facts and figures, including the number of concerts we present and how many people attend, feedback from audience members and artists about our programs, a financial overview, and more. If you know a person or an organization that might be interested in supporting the neurodiversity and disability communities through Xenia Concerts, please share the Case for Support with them!

Case for Support

Introducing our Accessibility Accelerator Co-Designers

We’re very excited to introduce the members of the Xenia Concerts Accessibility Accelerator! Working with Xenia’s Accessibility Advisor, Kaylce Carter, the members of the AccA will help develop implementable, sustainable design adaptations that support accessibility. Xenia Concerts will use these learnings to develop and share resources with the broader arts community, to support the inclusion of disabled and neurodivergent individuals across Canada, both onstage and off.

This is an important step for Xenia Concerts, as we continue to improve our own accessibility practices while helping fellow artists and organizations develop a more accessible performing arts landscape across Canada. The Accessibility Accelerator will run for 18 months, from October 2023-April 2025. Watch our news posts and social media channels for updates on the process. 

The Co-Design Team

Fatima Adam (she/her)

Picture of Fatima, a light-skinned Black woman, facing the camera and smiling. She has short curly black hair, parted down the middle. She is wearing a long sleeve, dark green shirt, and standing in front of a blue and gray backdrop indoors.
Fatima Adam (she/her) is a Toronto-based producer, writer and, performer. Passionate about creative collaboration, she has worked with a variety of organizations and collectives to develop her artistic practice. READ MORE

Mabe Kyle (they/them)

Mabe Kyle a white person with brown hair and brown eyes is smiling standing in front of a large fallen down tree with a light blue shirt with white suspenders, white bow tie, and trans pride colour earings. There is long brown grass and green trees in the background.
Mabe Kyle (they/them) Expressive Arts Therapist in Training. Peer support worker in practice. Maker of poetry, pottery, and photography who loves being creative. READ MORE

Vanessa Ng (she/her)

Vanessa is wearing a black blazer with a white shirt underneath, and she has short black-brown hair. She is holding a trombone at her side and smiling at the camera. There are trees in the background and they are blurred out to put Vanessa in the spotlight.
Vanessa Ng (she/her) is a music educator, activist, and graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. She is currently attending the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto for her Masters of Teaching. READ MORE

Hannah Sullivan Facknitz (they/them)

Hannah, a white femme with round black glasses and curly dark brown hair, stands in dappled sunshine in front of a bookshelf with a very faint smile. Their blue green eyes are prominent as they ruffle their hair.
Hannah Sullivan Facknitz (they/them) is a queer disabled cultural worker and care-mongerer living on the unceded, stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy ̓əm, səlilwətaɬ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh peoples. READ MORE

Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud (they/them)

 [Image Description: Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud, a mixed race Guyanese person with light brown skin and dark curly hair smiles wide with teeth showing and hand holding their face. They are in front of an emerald green wall and wear a brown-black tie-dye shirt.]
Jasmine Noseworthy Persaud (they/them) is a nonbinary, mad and multiply disabled, digital media artist of Guyanese and English descent living in Treaty 13 territory. They are interested in where community arts meets community health. READ MORE

Taylor Stocks (they/he)

Taylor Stocks (they/he) is a trans crip artist, activist, and researcher whose work focuses on the intersection of trans identities and chronic illness. They manage a severe and stubborn form of ulcerative colitis and inflammatory arthritis. READ MORE

Thanks to Our Funders

The Accessibility Accelerator is made possible by funding from the Toronto Arts Council, The Azrieli Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts.