A five-part workshop series digging deep into what slow touring looks like in practice. All sessions are now available to watch on YouTube. The series will continue in fall 2026 with new sessions – stay tuned for announcements!
Winter 2026 Sessions Wrap-Up
Thank you so much to everyone that joined us for season 2 of the Slow Touring Sessions, and to all of our guest speakers! We look forward to seeing you again in Season 3 (look out for details coming in the fall). This year, we learned a lot about the different ways our colleagues are slowing down their work, from the early seeds of creation to heading out on the road for tours and artist residencies.
Dr. Terri-Lynn Brennan and Christine Friday shared with us their approaches to Touring with Indigenous Values, including working in a relational way, pushing back against the weaponization of “professionalism”, and changing their definition of success to be less about big tours and flashy awards and more about connecting with community and the land.
Rachel Marks and Claire Senko gave us The Rural Perspective on Slow Touring, which is centered on the beauty of rural hospitality, the resources that exist within the community (picture locals cooking dinner for artists!), and investing in youth to prevent the next generation of arts leaders from moving away.
Tenaya King joined us from Julie’s Bicycle to get us talking about Sustainable Touring, from artists establishing a green rider to venues providing incentives for audiences to walk, bike, transit, or carpool to the theatre. Tenaya has kindly shared some of her workshop resources with us, which can be found here.
We partnered with Réseau Ontario to bring you a workshop on International Slow Touring, featuring Liv Cazzola and Kaitlin Milroy who shared their experiences undertaking a 6-week slow tour in Europe (with a toddler in tow enforcing slowness along the way!), and Frédéric Roz who brought the perspective of the arts in France and spoke about meaningful ways to host artists for longer, such as short-term residencies, and finding ways to bring the art out into the community.
Finally, Brandy Leary and Jenn Goodwin joined us to speak about Creation Partnerships and Residencies, letting us know how important these are to the creation of new work (especially larger scale work like dance and theatre). They spoke about the importance of being able to take risks, and how slow creation results in better artwork in the end.
A big thank you also goes out to Veronica Johnny and Tasheena Sarazin who provided opening welcomes and grounding for the workshops, as well as sharing their perspectives with us on each of these slow touring topics.
Thanks to the Department of Canadian Heritage for their support of this program.
