Arts in the Margins was an unmatched opportunity for me to apply and expand my skills and knowledge in my sector of interest. I am a passionate scholar and artist who believes in strengthening communities through creative practices. Next fall, I will complete my final semester at McGill University’s Faculty of Arts, where I major in History and double minor in Health Geography and Art History. When I first read the internship posting for the Arts Internship Office’s program with Arts in the Margins (AIM), I was quickly convinced. I wanted a hands-on internship where I could easily appreciate the impact of the work I was doing. I was also keen on working with an association committed to the advancement of social justice through creative arts, which is the very mandate of Arts in the Margins. More practically, I wanted to be trusted with stimulating tasks, notably grant-application, internal and external writing projects. Finally, I was looking forward to building genuine connections with the people I was working with. Overall, my internship experience far exceeded my expectations. I am thrilled with and thankful for my time with Arts in the Margins this summer.
Arts in the Margins is a Tiohtià:ke / Montreal based registered not-for-profit organization that seeks to build and support healthy, self-sustaining communities through creative arts. Its activities include the curation and organization of cultural events in Montreal with underrepresented artists and communities. Arts in the Margins organizes accessible, interesting and safe events that bolster cultural engagement. AIM’s activities are however multifaceted: AIM also has youth outreach programs for artistic education and recreation, such as their ‘after-school’ program operating in Little Burgundy, a historically Black neighborhood. Finally, AIM operates as a counselling and support network for other arts-based organizations who can benefit from AIM’s directors’ expertise and decades of experience in arts-based activism. Arts in the Margins is a small not-for-profit: there are just a few employees. Entering this environment as a summer intern, diverse responsibilities and opportunities would fall into my lap.
When my co-intern Wendy and I had our first meeting with Peter and Eric, co-directors of the NFP, Arts in the Margins had no social media accounts. Our first tasks were thus to set those up. I spent the first couple of weeks designing profile pictures from the logo; I was not expecting to apply graphic design skills in the internship, but it was a pleasant surprise. When social media was up and running, I started working on a project that would take up a large chunk of my time with AIM. Peter and Eric needed to draft AIM’s sustainable development plan for the 2023-2025 Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Quebec (CALQ) funding application. The sustainable development plan would include three axes of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic sustainability. I first conducted academic research on urban sustainability paradigms established locally in Montreal. It was incredibly validating to apply my research skills – finding and reading relevant articles – outside of the university setting, and realize they were useful in the ‘real world’. I also scanned through the documents of arts-based funding councils on local, provincial and national levels to see what ethical concepts drove and operated in funding programs. My key finding was the notion of cultural safety, that situates individuals at communities at the crossroads of different cultures.
After that, I drafted the social sustainability component of AIM’s sustainability plan. I also edited the plan in its entirety, providing feedback about the environmental and economic components to our plan. It was challenging and validating to critically assess the work of my superiors, Eric and Peter. We simultaneously built a relationship with a small indigenous Montreal-based non-profit, Resilience. Building this relationship was key to our summer goals: it enabled Arts in the Margins to connect with the indigenous community in Montreal, thus opening opportunities for AIM to support the indigenous cause. My final project was researching funding perspectives for Arts in the Margins. I found a variety of programs that AIM would be eligible for, including one that would match up to every dollar of private donations. AIM is a small and rather new non-profit, so these programs could majorly impact AIM’s financial status.
Overall, my internship with Arts in the Margins helped me grow as a scholar and person. I got to see how the skills I had developed in university could be applied in the ‘real world’, in the direction of making it a better place. I also had a tremendous amount of fun, both in the work I was doing and with the people I was doing with. I am very grateful to have received a grant to fund this internship; it was both personally helpful in funding my summer and the year to come and validating to be remunerated in this field of work. Thank you to our donors and to the Arts Internship Office for facilitating this experience.
