Judith Marcuse Projects

Grant Description:

The arts can challenge our assumptions about social problems and help us imagine new ways of living and being. As we transition to more sustainable ways of living, the arts can help us craft narratives and imagine possibilities about how we can change our individual actions, our local communities and our social systems.

JMP has served as a leader in arts for social change (ASC) work in Canada for more than 25 years. It acts as a hub for ASC research, expertise and connecting people. A key challenge for the ASC field is training the next generation of practitioners and moving beyond working with arts-based organizations. Many environmental organizations have expressed interest in incorporating arts-based practices into their work, but they lack the capacity to do so. By offering a process to bridge the arts world and the environmental movement, ASC can help create a new awareness of issues related to climate change.

A grant from the Foundation will enable JMP to create ASC internships in environmental organizations to help advance their efforts to communicate in more meaningful ways about a just transition to a low-carbon future. Each internship will be paid and last for 4-6 months. To the greatest extent possible, the internships will be cohort-based and there will be an in-person gathering at the beginning and at the end of the internship.

Background of the organization:

Created in 1980, Judith Marcuse Projects Society (JMP) is a not-for-profit arts company that works in dance, theatre, music, film and new media to facilitate progressive social change. JMP currently funds and runs the activities of The International Centre of Art for Social Change which is a partnership with Simon Fraser University.