ELAN’s Post-Pandemic Strategy
Organization: English-Language Arts Network (ELAN) Quebec
Event: Annual Board Retreat & Strategy Pivot
Context: Shifting funding landscapes (Canada Council for the Arts), geopolitical disruptions impacting local English film/TV production, Quebec legislative shifts (Bill 96, Law 25), and a rising backlash against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks.
Core Objective: To transform an extensive, complex list of community vulnerabilities into a streamlined operational playbook by auditing what ELAN must Decrease, Increase, Remove, Add, and Sustain over time.
Strategic Context: The Macro Environment
ELAN’s board retreat took place against a backdrop of unique systemic vulnerabilities threatening the English-language cultural sector in Quebec:
The Quebec English-language film and TV sector has stagnated due to an over-reliance on US productions (disrupted by LA climate events, industry strikes, and political shifts). Unlike the robust, self-sustaining French-Quebec media ecosystem, local English media faces structural precarity, further exacerbated by impending funding threats to the CBC and an aging heritage workforce.
The phase-out of printed newspapers requires alternative municipal calendars (e.g., partnering with or learning from platforms like La Vitrine). At the same time, the generation of future artists (youth) consumes media entirely via fragmented, non-traditional digital pipelines (iPads and mobile phones, streaming, social media), leaving them disconnected from traditional community media.
Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) granting structures remain rigid, frequently failing to support "out-of-the-box" multidisciplinary or alternative digital formats like podcasting. Furthermore, current funding models prioritize rigid, quantitative final product metrics over qualitative process-based impact and artist testimonials.
Actionable Framework
To translate these complex challenges into clear governance directives, the board structured its findings into an operational roadmap.
1. What Should Be Decreased?
Siloed Committees: Decision: Decrease separate structural silos. Rather than maintaining standalone committees that isolate Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB), these principles must be structurally woven into the fabric/DNA of all ELAN operations, budget lines, and programming.
Annual Awards Program: Decision: Pause / Decrease priority. While a multidisciplinary, community-nominated gala looking through a decolonial lens (rather than a traditional "best of" hierarchy) is a powerful concept, the organization is not operationally ready to launch a project of this scale.
Board Size and Regulatory Overhead: Decision: Decrease board size. Re-engage the Governance Committee to review organizational by-laws and optimize board size for agile decision-making.
2. What Should Be Increased?
AI Capacity-Building and Advocacy: Build out educational workshops (collaborating with partners like the Quebec Writers' Federation - QWF) focusing on the ethics of AI, copyright protections, frameworks for artists, secure fair compensation models, and audit the environmental/green costs.
Localized Community Art: Elevate art that empowers local communities. Focus on five strategic pillars:
Equipping artists to maintain authentic production practices using modern tools.
Actively integrating new arrivals into the Quebec cultural landscape.
Democratizing the meaning of art for the general public.
Expanding physical and financial access to art across the province.
Maintaining aggressive regional outreach beyond Montreal.
Youth Mentorship: Address the aging workforce by engaging youth through modern networks (e.g., leveraging social media channels for collaboration). Partner with institutions like the Fonderie Darling, QWF, and QDF to build reciprocal mentorship programs where senior artists champion youth, helping them navigate entrepreneurship and stay rooted in their local communities.
3. What Should Be Removed?
"Membership Growth" Campaigns: Removed as a primary independent target; membership expansion will instead be treated as a organic byproduct of stronger community partnerships.
"Bridge Building" Programs: Removed as an isolated budget line. Inter-linguistic communication (FR-EN) will be embedded within active, collaborative projects rather than treated as a separate administrative exercise.
4. What Should Be Added?
The Decolonial Anglophone Identity Project: Introduce a dedicated discussion framework exploring the complex, realistic conception of English-language identity in Quebec. This involves codifying a modern, inclusive definition of the English-speaking community—one that reflects its true intersectional diversity—and rallying public support around it.
Funding Body Data Accountability: Actively mobilize the community to submit data requests to granting bodies (like the CCA). By auditing who is left out (e.g., tracking low funding rates for experimental vs. community arts), ELAN can leverage hard data to challenge systemic funding biases.
Artist Entrepreneurship Frameworks: Partner with specialized platforms like YES Employment + Entrepreneurship to design DIY toolkits. These will train artists to operate sustainably as independent businesses, relying on collective community power ("strength in numbers") rather than depending entirely on traditional, shifting institutional grants.
To ensure these initiatives remain active and are not dropped in the post-pandemic landscape, ELAN will back its equity objectives with clear financial accountability:
Financial Accountability for EDI: Capitalize on existing budget lines that have historically lacked execution and tie these to measurable actions.
Decentralized Representation: Avoid speaking on behalf of marginalized communities. Instead, ELAN will direct its funding toward established cultural partners already representing specific equity-seeking groups, reinforcing structural solidarity over performative advocacy.
Process-Oriented Impact Reporting: Provide training to help artists build comprehensive impact reports for their grants. These frameworks will look beyond the final product to measure the qualitative, transformative value of the creative process on the participants involved.
By executing this refined matrix, ELAN ensures it protects its vulnerable sectors from global and legislative volatility, keeping its programming deeply resonant, legally compliant, and youth-accessible for years to come.