In solidarity with Palestine, and in concert with a growing number of cultural actors around the world, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) commits to the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) that was launched in 2004 as part of the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. PACBI advocates for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, based on their continued complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights as stipulated by international law.

Solidarity with PACBI means that MAI will not collaborate, fund, or accept funding from the Israeli government or related funding bodies, and calls for a boycott of all cultural and academic products that normalize the state of Israel. We acknowledge that based on our organizational scale, these demands are not difficult to carry out. However we believe that it is important to consider such stances within the context of the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

We strongly encourage Montreal-based artistic groups, cultural workers, and artists to publicly support these demands and share this commitment with their members.

To learn more about PACBI, visit https://www.bdsmovement.net/pacbi 

MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) is looking for motivated individuals with a passion for Montreal’s cultural scene, and more specifically for pluridisciplinary and intercultural arts, to join its Board of directors!

Deadline to submit your application: October 16, 2024, at 11h59 HNE

We’re looking for people with knowledge, experience and a keen interest in :

✔︎ Cultural organizations funding;
✔︎ Philanthropy and fundraising;
✔︎ The legal field

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MAI’s board of directors is currently made up of six members and organizes approximately five meetings per year (zoom or in person at the MAI), including the Annual General Meeting which takes place in November. It is recommended to join at least one of the board of directors’ committees (human resources committee, financing committee, café-bar committee, development committee). Meetings take place in French and English, which reflects the bilingualism that is at the heart of the MAI. We prioritize people who live in Montreal and around.

Selected candidates must be available to participate in the MAI’s Annual General Assembly which will take place in November 2024 (date and time to be confirmed).

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Joining the MAI’s board of directors means contributing to the excellence and development of pluridisciplinary arts in a unique place like the MAI, which is a leader in accessibility and intercultural artistic support, and has been for the past 25 years!

For more information about MAI’s mandate and programming, please visit About and 2024-25 Season pages.

For any questions, please contact Camille Larivée, General and Artistic Director:  [email protected]

To submit your application, please fill the form and attach your bio and CV.

Deadline to submit your application: October 16, 2024, at 11h59 HNE

MAI acknowledges that the land on which we live and work is part of the unceded territories of the Kanien’keha:ka nation.

Type of contract: contract, on call.

MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) is looking to fill several positions on its front-of-house team, including counter clerk and usher for the year 2024-2025.

MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) is a pluridisciplinary presenter of professional contemporary art, presenting original creations in dance, music, theatre, interdisciplinary arts, visual arts and media arts. MAI stimulates collaboration with a variety of partners and welcomes artists for local, national and international projects, supporting above all artists with an intercultural approach.

counter clerk job description
Reporting to the Activities and Rentals Coordinator, the Counter Clerk will ensure courteous and friendly service in the MAI café-bar before and after performances and during events. The Counter Clerk will be responsible for preparing and serving food and beverages, maintaining the cleanliness and organization of the café-bar, and managing transactions and the cash register. Excellent communication skills in French and English, and the ability to work under pressure are essential for this role.

main responsibilities:

• Take and prepare food and beverage orders;
• Maintain the cleanliness and organization of the café-bar, manage transactions and the cash register;
• Close the café-bar at the end of the evening.

job description – usher
Reporting to the Activities and Rentals Coordinator, the usher provides a presence and ongoing support for the reception, box office and bar teams during events. He/she orchestrates, in collaboration with the box office, bar staff, technicians and backstage artists, a safe, punctual and accessible entrance to the theatre for members of the public. In addition, the usher accompanies the crowd throughout their experience, ensuring their safety.

main responsibilities:

• Provide ongoing support to the teams on the floor according to the activity schedule;
• Prepare the venue for guests and the public: comfort, atmosphere, cleanliness, etc;
• Welcome the public and ensure a smooth entrance to the venue.

desired profile

• Demonstrate an interest in today’s arts scene and cross-cultural issues;
• Experience in customer service or in a similar position;
• Fluency in French English;
• Organizational skills, punctuality, interpersonal skills, autonomy and initiative.

conditions of employment
Location: 3680 rue Jeanne-Mance, Suite 103, Montreal, Quebec;
Position: part-time, on-call with at least one week’s notice;
Schedule: variable according to activities, but for the most part Thursday to Saturday evenings;
Salary: $17.75/hr (cashier) and $17.25 + tip (counter clerk)

To apply, please send your resume to the attention of Marie Figuereo, Activities and Rentals Coordinator, at [email protected] by July 14, 2024.

MAI is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible work environment for all employees and applicants. As such, we encourage applicants to voluntarily declare whether they are members of the following designated groups: women, visible minorities, Indigenous, members of the LGBTQ+ community and persons with disabilities.

MAI recognizes that the lands on which we work are part of the unceded traditional territory of the Kanien’keha:ka.

We thank all applicants in advance for their interest in this position. An acknowledgement of receipt will be sent to you, but only successful applicants will be contacted for an interview.

Deadline to apply: July 29, 2024 at 11:59pm EST

Timeline: September 2024-May 2025

Number of participants: 10 participants

About the call —

MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) is looking for writers interested in experimental writing that will accompany the MAI’s 25th anniversary programming (season 24.25). This call is for people from various artistic practices who are interested in exploring a writing practice in response and reflection to performance art and dance. 

The co-curators of the MAI’s 25th anniversary, Angie Cheng, Lara Kramer, and Alexandra “Spicey” Landé, are recognizing a desire and a need to investigate and expand the relationship and approaches to writing about performing and live arts. Their motivation stems from a recognized desire and imperative to explore the dynamic interplay between writing and the performing arts, the representation of diverse writing styles, and the inclusion of BIPOC writers that presents exciting possibilities to magic making. 

The objective of this writing cohort is to generate and foster a thriving ecology of writers with the possibilities of finding new and deepening methods and ways to communicate about performance arts and dance. We want to challenge the current status quo in writing about performance. What are the possibilities to express through words? Who can the different styles of writing speak to? How can we take in, relate to performance and live arts differently?  

Each participant will be matched with a mentor of the writing genre and style that they are interested in. The participants will attend at least 6 pluridisciplinary and intercultural projects presented during the MAI’s 24.25 season (dance, performance, music) and will present their work at a public sharing performance at the MAI’s Gallery during the 25th anniversary celebration on May 7, 2025. 

Who is this for?

For individuals who have the desire to write about the performing arts and dance and don’t have an extensive professional writing practice. 

Timeline

-Four days in Fall 2024. Introduction and group activities. (mandatory)
– Attendance of shows at the MAI between September 2024-April 2025
– 2 days cohort check-in in Winter 2025
– 2 days cohort check-in in Spring 2025
– 3-4 social gatherings post shows
– 10 hours with the selected mentor
– Public sharing of the writing pieces on May 7, 2025 a the MAI’s Gallery

Honoraria
-Tickets offered for shows in MAI’s 24.25 season
-Honorarium for the first week in Fall 2024 for attending the activities
-Honorarium for the four days of group check-in in Winter and Spring 2025
-Honorarium for the public sharing in May 2025

To send your application, please fill out the google form here before July 29, 2024. Only the successful applicants will be contacted. If you have any questions, please send an email to: [email protected]

Welcome to Dominique Ireland!

In 2024, MAI welcomes Dominique Ireland, Deaf artist and cultural worker, to the Public Engagement Department. Dominique is from Oneida Nation of the Thames Settlement, a member of the Turtle Clan. She participated in her high school’s art program and visual merchandising arts program. She is passionate about promoting accessibility to the arts, which everyone should have access to. Arts and artists have always inspired her to keep working on her own projects for the accessible performances and arts. For her hobbies, Dominique enjoys doing woodburning art and learning her language. Her favorite artist is Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.

Through paid internships, the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s CultivART program offers established arts and culture organizations an opportunity to host emerging Indigenous artists and cultural workers. The program objectives are to provide Indigenous people with a stimulating professional environment to learn about the real-world working conditions of a career in arts or culture, to provide the personal and professional guidance of an Indigenous or racialized mentor to ensure that the intern’s professional objectives are fully achieved in their host environment and to recognize the intern’s contribution to their host environment.

The MAI Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Camille Larivée as Executive and Artistic Director.

The MAI Board of Directors is pleased to welcome Camille Larivée as the new General and Artistic Director of MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels). They will bring their expertise and passion for intercultural arts to continue to carry out MAI’s mission. Through the success of their own creations and their support of significant interdisciplinary projects, Camille demonstrates a refreshing artistic vision. Their experience as a curator and artist, as well as their commitment to inclusion, their empathetic approach, and their caring nature, are valuable assets to our organization.

Camille Larivée 

“I’m very happy and excited to be joining the amazing team at MAI, a unique place in the Montreal cultural universe that I have admired and frequented for many years. MAI’s vision and values around intersectionality, accessibility and mentorship are central to my practice as a cultural worker, artist, and curator. I look forward to offering my strengths and talents to a bold and dynamic space, and to continuing the innovative work cultivated by MAI.”
-Camille Larivée

The selection committee, composed of MAI’s three guest curators, Angie Cheng, Lara Kramer and Alexandra Spicey Landé, as well as Manuel Mathieu, President of the Board of Directors, and Mabel Gonzalez, member of the Board of Directors, are confident that Camille will brilliantly succeed in carrying out MAI’s mission and mandate.

We are delighted to mark the beginning of a new chapter in the history of MAI. Welcome Camille!

Bio
Camille Larivée is an artist, independent curator, writer, and art worker based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. They hold a bachelor’s degree in art history and a certificate in feminist studies from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). They have held several coordination and programming positions with Canadian cultural organizations, including the Independent Media Arts Alliance and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective. For the past 12 years, Camille has created and curated many public art projects, exhibitions, and publications with amazing collaborators that have been presented in Canada, USA, and Sweden. Their artistic and curatorial practice is rooted in collective emotional memories in urban public spaces and radical love for biodiversity.

A few months ago, I proudly accepted the role of president at MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels). Having benefited from MAI’s mentorship program earlier in my career, I sincerely believe in its role as an essential contributor to the lives of artists and to the cultural life of Montreal. MAI has been hit hard by the multiple closures of the past two years. But there is no need to despair because we know that our community is closely knit and that is why we are launching MAI’s first annual fundraising campaign!

MAI has been hit hard by the multiple closures of the past two years. But there is no need to despair because we know that our community is closely knit and that is why we are launching MAI’s first annual fundraising campaign!

In 2021, despite 72 weeks of closure, we provided more than 100 artists, companies and partners the opportunity to create and enrich our imaginations and worldviews. Thanks to your donations, we will be able to continue to host 66 artists in residency, present 26 new productions and exhibitions, and ensure continued community partnerships through our Alliance program. By giving to MAI, you are making it possible for artists to contribute to the collective imagination while playing an important social role.

Help us reach our goal of $10,000!
I support he MAI 

To kick off this first annual campaign, I am committed to matching the first $2,000 in donations. It is an honour to be involved with this significant organization in the cultural ecosystem, and I hope this gesture will encourage you to support it as well. Thank you very much, dear friends, for your commitment to artists and creation, and to the community.

Sincerely,
Manuel Mathieu
President of the Board of Directors – MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) Multidisciplinary artist

Picture: Talkback following Bijuriya‘s performance by drag artist and musician Gabriel Dharmoo. Kama La Mackerel (host) and Gabriel Dharmoo sit side by side and chat after the performance.

The pandemic coerced reflection for many.  Made to look consider yesterday, the present and more than likely tomorrow. What is the next Act?  Meaning by what road to we move ahead. How and in what do we invest in the future, whose future will it be?

With this in mind, MAI is honoured to announce that accompanying the organization over the next three seasons + as both associate artists and programming curators for the MAI’s 25^th anniversary season are Angie Cheng, Lara Kramer, Alexandra Spicey Landé.  Each of the three artists has an extensive history with MAI through innumerable collaborations whether through creation and presentation, and/or public engagement activities.

Angie, Lara and Alexandra are partners in fulfilling MAI’s mandate and vision as the organization steps forward, and will examine the practices and policies of the MAI and make recommendations on changes to ensure the organization is accessible, welcoming, and safe for all, with anti-racism at the heart of their investigation.

MAI is committed to developing a true, balanced partnership with each of the 3 artists, the intent being to collaborate with and invest in members of the artistic community who are committed about facing and problem-solving a changed industry/community during and post-COVID, together. These three artists represent a diverse set of artistic practices ranging from installation, performance, and dance. They have all have exhibited widely whilst receiving recognition for their exceptional work as recipients of numerous grants and awards. We look forward to working with them over the next several years and it goes without saying that they will have much to add to shaping the MAI and sharing with audiences the unique contributions they make in their new roles.

© Angie Cheng

Angie Cheng: Artist in dance based in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal. Collaborative creation processes ground her ongoing research in performance; investigating the liminal space between creative process and performance event, between spectator and performer. The embodied and specific understandings that arise from these investigations shape her current questions and engagements both in her own work and with others. She has also been actively engaged in the contemporary dance community in the conversations of inclusivity, diversity and accessibility. It’s not just what we make as artists but how. She is  committed to practicing consent, respect and accessibility: care in how we are together in all that she is engaged in.

As artist and activist, Angie has been pivotal in addressing issues of cultural appropriation, and in particular in participating at critical panel discussion on cultural appropriation and systemic racism organised by the MAI in November 2017 which to date has been viewed more than 10,000 times via Facebook. In addition, she along with collaborators Winnie Ho and Chi Long, presented Seeds cast afar from our roots, a confluence of Asian diasporic experiences as part of MAI’s 2018/2019 season.

© Stefan Petersen

Lara Kramer is a performer, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist of mixed Oji-cree and settler heritage based in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. Her choreographic work, research and field work over the last thirteen years has been grounded in intergenerational relations, intergenerational knowledge and the impacts of the Indian Residential Schools of Canada. Her creations in the form of dance, performance and installation have been presented across Canada and Australia, New Zealand, Martinique, the US and the UK. Lara Kramer was appointed a Human Rights Advocate through the Holocaust Memorial Centre of Montreal (2012) following the national tour of her work Fragments, informed by her mother’s stories and lived experience as a survivor of the Indian Residential Schools of Canada. She has participated in several residencies including the Indian Residential School Museum of Canada in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. Lara Kramer is a Center de Création O Vertigo – CCOV Associate Artist since 2021.

Lara was first presented at MAI in 2011. Of Good Moral Character, an articulation of sensuality, vulnerability and rage, performed alongside Lael Stellack, was part of MAI’s 2011/2012 season, and was supported in part by Alliance, MAI’s mentorship program. In 2017 Lara curated Welcome to Indian Country for MAI as part of Eclectik where she premiered This Time Will Be Different, created with Emilie Monnet, and again in 2018 with the exhibition and performances entitled Phantom Still & Vibrations presented in association with the FTA. Lastly, MAI has partnered with Lara and Dazibao in presenting the satellite project In Blankets, Herds and Ghosts (2021).

© Shaleen Ladha

Alexandra ‘Spicey’ Landé is a Montréal choreographer and a major player on Quebec’s hip-hop dance scene. She launched her choreographic career in 2005, drawing her raw material from hip-hop culture, whose field of exploration she continues to expand.  As an independent choreographer, Spicey presented three works in Quebec between 2008 and 2015, including Retrospek, a remarkable piece that influenced a whole generation of Montréal street dancers. At the same time, the Bust A Move Festival, which she founded in 2005 (active until 2015), became the largest street dance competition in Canada and was co-presented by TOHU. In 2015, wishing to further her artistic aspirations and bring street dance creation to the contemporary dance scene, Spicey founded her own company, Ebnflōh. With the company, she approached hip-hop language from a new choreographic angle, at once exploratory, original and authentic, working with colleagues and peers who fuels her creative process. Ebnflōh imagines new creative processes and new ways to share its ideas about social, political and artistic issues. Spicey premiered Complexe R, a work inspired by our human obsessions, at the 2015 MAI; the show later toured to New York and Amsterdam. In 2019, she presented In-Ward, featuring six performers, co-produced with the CCOV. Her last creation La Probabilité du Néant presented by Danse Danse last oct 2021, opened their dance season.

Four times since 2008 has Alexandra Spicey Landé graced the stage at MAI with one of her works. In 2008 she presented Retrospek while in 2011, as part of Eclectik’ she created Renézance. This was followed in 2015 with Complexe R, a work that emphasized her ongoing quest to de-compartmentalize and reorder dance hierarchies. In-Ward came in 2019, and with that tremdous work came the the Prix de la Danse de Montréal, category Découverte, and In-Ward was also a finalist of the Grand Prix of the Conseil des arts de Montréal in 2020.