# Montreal, arts interculturels

Montréal, arts interculturels (MAI) is a multidisciplinary cultural organization of Montreal created in 1999. It is located on Jeanne-Mance Street. It opened in 1999, and exhibits contemporary art, dance, music, theatre, painting, sculpture, and video. The mission of MAI is to facilitate and initiate intercultural relations.

## Description

The MAI is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote intercultural artistic practices in order to enable a dialogue between cultures in Montreal. MAI subsidizes and presents projects in dance, theatre, visual and media arts, spoken word, etc. It accompanies emerging or established artists and particularly supports artists from culturally diverse backgrounds. The organization has a theatre, a gallery, a café and two rehearsal rooms.

## History

In 1990, the Regroupement pour le développement des pratiques artistiques interculturelles was created. In 1989, the group decided to work on the creation of a new cultural space in Montreal, and it was in Milton Park, on Jeanne-Mance Street, that the MAI was established in 1999. The organization then had a café, a gallery and two rehearsal rooms. In 2005, the MAI inaugurated its artist accompaniment program, which will be renamed "Complices" in 2018. Initially, the program was primarily aimed at Indigenous and culturally diverse artists, but the program has gradually expanded to include artists with disabilities, from linguistic minorities or LGBTQAAI communities.

## Missions

The MAI's main mission is to encourage dialogue by presenting intercultural artistic approaches to issues of identity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Thus, the organization has two main missions. The first is to accompany artists in their development and/or promotion in order to stimulate hybrid productions and transversal, multidisciplinary and intercultural approaches. The second mission aims to address a varied audience and to propose a programming as well as inclusive workshops for both connoisseurs and neophytes. To do so, the MAI proposes accompanying programmes as well as an annual programme. Faced with the lack of cultural diversity in the contemporary arts in Quebec, the MAI has also put forward the contemporary arts of the Black communities.

### Programmation

Each year the MAI proposes a season programmation, featuring some twenty artists. The program includes exhibitions (an average of four per year), dance, music and other performances in the MAI theatre and shows presented outside the walls in partnership with other cultural spaces in Montreal. Several artists who have gained notoriety in Quebec, Canada and sometimes internationally have been part of the programming in previous years, such as Manuel Mathieu, Hannah Claus, Jean-Daniel Rohrer, Dana Michel, Su-Feh Lee, Daina Ashbee, The Dancers of Damelahamid, etc. In recent years, the difficulties for foreign artists to enter Canada have caused some problems for the organization.
The MAI 2018-2019 season is entitled How Deep is Your Love ? and presents nearly thirty events in dance, music, theatre, interdisciplinary arts, spoken word and five exhibitions in visual arts.
Programming by year :
| Season poster | Event name | Artist(s) | Artistic Category | Artist's city |
| 2019-20 Season Artistic director : Michael Toppings. Theme : Reflect |||||
| | Camille: un rendez-vous au delà du visuel | Audrey-Anne Bouchard | Theatre | Montreal |
| | Fragments d'Ana | Ligia Borges | Theatre | Montreal |
| | L'exhumée | Julie Robinson | Visual arts | Montreal |
| | Borderlines | Taoufiq Izeddiou | Dance | Marrakech |
| | Fa'addebhou li (dresse-le pour moi) | Nancy Naous | Dance | Beirut, Paris |
| | Jogging | Hanane Hajj Ali | Theatre | Beirut |
| | Carrion | Justin Shoulder | Interdisciplinary | Sydney |
| | Faith Hole | Nate Yaffe | Dance | Montreal |
| | Colonial Body-Islands | Payam Mofidi | Visual arts | Montreal |
| | real's fiction \ dissonant_pleasures | Benjamin Kamino | Danse, Interdisciplinary | Montreal |
| | MAD | Motions and Dynamics | 100LUX + Forward Movements | Dance | Montreal |
| | One Kind Favor | George Stamos + Karla Etienne + Radwan Ghazi Moumneh | Dance | Montreal |
| | The Novels of Elsgüer (Episode 5); if I saw you, I don't Remember | Santiago Tavera + Laura Acosta | Visual arts | Montreal |
| | White [Ariane] | Ariah Lester | Theatre, Music | Amsterdam, Caracas |
| | Dreamweaver | Anachnid | Music | Montreal |
| | Take d milk, nah? $^{(cancelledCOVID-19)}$ | Jivesh Parasram | Theatre | Toronto, Vancouver |
| | De l'horizontal au vertical $^{(cancelledCOVID-19)}$ | José Luis Torres | Visual arts | Montreal |
| | Sur ce chemin, tu es sûre de te perdre $^{(cancelledCOVID-19)}$ | Diana León | Dance | Montreal |
| | Zom-Fam $^{(cancelledCOVID-19)}$ | Kama La Mackerel | Performance, Theatre | Mauritius, Montreal |
| | Walking at night by myself | Nancy Tam | Interdisciplinary | Vancouver |
| | Pomegranate | Heather Mah | Dance | Montreal |
| | Strike/thru | Nadia Myre + Johanna Nutter | Interdisciplinary | Montreal |
| 2018-19 Season Artistic director : Michael Toppings. Theme : How Deep is Your Love ? |||||
| | Birds Crossing Borders | Khadija Baker | Visual Arts | Montreal |
| | Sound of the Beast | Donna-Michelle St. Bernard Black Theatre Workshop | Theatre | Toronto |
| | Birthmark | Teesri Duniya Theatre | Theatre | Montreal |
| | To live as an organ within oneself | Naghmeh Sharifi | Visual arts | Montreal |
| | Wamunzo | Zab Magoungou Compagnie Danse Nyata Nyata | Dance | Montreal |
| | Lévriers | Sophie Gee / Nervous Hunter | Theatre | Montreal |
| | Cain & Abel | Arash and Aryo Khakpour / The Biting School | Dance / Theatre | Vancouver |
| | In-Ward | Alexandra 'Spicey' Landé / Compagnie EBNFLŌH | Dance | Montreal |
| | Wàsakozi | Mich Cota | Music | Montreal |
| | Le je et le nous / The I and The We, présenté avec Vidéographe | Zoë Chan avec Arnait Video Productions, Shirley Bruno, Tonia Di Risio, Kirsten Leenars, Caroline Monnet, Anala Riley and Karen Tam | Visual arts | Multiples |
| | Creatures | Luca Lazylegz Patuelli + Roya the Destroya / Royalazyness | Dance | Montreal, Melbourne |
| | Taking Breath | Naishi Wang | Dance | Toronto |
| | Numbers increase as we count... | Ülfet Sevdi | Theatre | Montreal |
| | Yev | Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre | Theatre | Montreal |
| | Malaginto | Marigold Santos | Visual Arts | Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton |
| | Own Your Voice | Madame Gandhi | Music | Los Angeles |
| | The Mixolos Mitchtape Live In Montréal (#MMLinMTL) | Mitcholos Touchie and guests | Spoken word | Vancouver |
| | Séancers | Jaamil Olawale Kosoko | Black.art.empowerment Series | New York |
| | $elfie$ | Marikiscrycrycry | Black.art.empowerment Series | London |
| | Afrogalactica, a brief history of the future | Kapwani Kiwanga | Black.art.empowerment Series | Paris |
| | terrestrial | jumatatu m. poe | Black.art.empowerment Series | Philadelphia, New York |
| | Seeds Cast Afar From Our Roots | Angie Cheng, Winnie Ho and Chi Long | Dance and Interdisciplinary | Montreal |
| | Exilium | Santiago Tamayo Soler | Taking Place Performance Series | Montreal |
| | Neuter Ality | Yunuen Rhi | Taking Place Performance Series | Los Angeles |
| | Undress/Re-Dress | Noëmi Lakmaier | Taking Place Performance Series | London |
| | My Last American Dollar | Keijaun Thomas | Taking Place Performance Series | New York |
| | Marvelous | Bryan Campbell | Taking Place Performance Series | Paris |
| | Muy Serio | Carlos Maria Romero | Taking Place Performance Series | Baranquilla |
| | Vomiting Flowers | Hea R. Kim | Visual arts | Montreal |
| | Radio III | Elisa Harkins, Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Zoë Poluch | Dance and interdisciplinary | Montreal, Stockholm and Oklahoma |
| 2016-17 Season Artistic director : Michael Toppings. Theme : Follow Our Exemple |||||
| | L'envers des îles blanches | Claudia Bernal | Interdisciplinary | Montreal |
| | Leila's Death | Ali Chahrour | Dance, performance | Beirut |
| | The Demonstration | Coco Guzmán | Installation | Toronto |
| | Made in China | Wen Wei Dance | Dance | Vancouver |
| | Islam Chipsy & Eek | Islam Chipsy & Eek | Music | Cairo |
| | Traversée | Voyageurs immobiles | Theatre | Montreal |
| | Sonido Pesao | Sonido Pesao | Music | Montreal |
| | Moi, petite malgache-chinoise | Claudia Chan Tak | Dance | Montreal |
| | Accordéon | Kaie Kellough | Interdisciplinary | Montreal |
| | Love is a whole other creature | Maia Iotzova | Installation multimédia | Montreal |
| | La ruée vers l'autre | Mafane | Conte | Montreal |
| | La femme comme champ de bataille (ou du sexe de la femme comme champ de bataille dans la guerre en Bosnie) | Hashtpa Productions | Theatre | Montreal |
| | The Sign | Chun Hua Catherine Dong | Taking Place Performance Series | Montreal |
| | I Stand In | Julie Valcan | Taking Place Performance Series | Sydney |
| | It's not a thing | Keyon Gaskin | Taking Place Performance Series | Portland |
| | Make A Line | Francisco-Fernando Granados | Taking Place Performance Series | Toronto |
| | 50 Bulbs | Hee Ran Lee | Taking Place Performance Series | New York, Seoul |
| | Lectures on flesh and death (L.O.FAD) | Francis Marion Moseley Wilson | Taking Place Performance Series | Oberlin, Glasgow |
| | If I were the Apocalypse | Martin O'Brien | Taking Place Performance Series | London |
| | Uroborus | La Pocha Nostra (Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Saul Garcia-Lopez et Bailtronica Gomez) | Taking Place Performance Series | San Francisco |
| | Make Banana Cry | Andrey Tay, Stephen Thompson | Agglomérat Interdisciplinary Series | Montreal, Paris, Calgary |
| | Ravemachine | Doris Uhlich, Michael Turinsky | Agglomérat Interdisciplinary Series | Vienne |
| | AL13B<3 | Fernando Belfiore | Agglomérat Interdisciplinary Series | Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam |
| | Aattille | Simon Portigal | Agglomérat Interdisciplinary Series | Montreal |

### Public outreach Public+

The Public+ programme was inaugurated in 2009. It aims to propose activities in parallel with the exhibitions and the official MAI programme in order to raise questions and debates or simply to allow interaction.
The MAI's location in Milton Parc, between the Plateau Mont-Royal and downtown, allows it to address a variety of audiences. It is a central district of Montreal where several languages are spoken as well as several communities: academic, residential and professional. The site reflects the MAI's desire to offer inclusive programming and support that brings together various audiences and communities in an ongoing search for exchange.

### Artist support program : Complices

Each year, the MAI offers to accompany artists by providing financial support or assistance in their professional development or visibility in Montreal. Through its studios, the organization also offers work spaces and residencies to support promising projects and productions. The MAI offers, among other things, support programs twinned with the Conseil des Arts de Montréal. The MAI is also a meeting place for artists who can find contact both with the public and with other artists, offering the prospect of collaborative projects.
In 2005, MAI launched its mentorship program (now called "Alliance") for racialized and newly immigrated artists in Canada. Since then, MAI has expanded the scope of this program to include artists of First Nations, Inuit and Métis descent, artists who are deaf or disabled, members of the LGBTQQIP2SAA community, and senior artists.
Alliance is a unique mentoring model in Canada. Through grants, Alliance provides support for the professional and creative development of artists (hybrid artistic practices) within a solid and flexible structure. The support grants are designed for and by artists, defined and managed with the artists and/or collectives, who determine the services they need, in a short or long term format (3 to 18 months). Since 2005, more than 317 artists, companies and/or collectives have been supported by the Alliance program: accomplice, associate, collaborator, co-conspirator, and ultimately development centre - providing a safe and secure space for professional and creative development within a solid, yet flexible structure (recipients are selected annually by a committee following a public call for proposals).
It was within this support structure, in 2018, that MAI also began to position itself as a producer (through La Ruche, a platform through which funds are injected into research, creation and/or production of artist residencies, with funds placed directly in the hands of the artists). This role as a production partner, relatively new for MAI, focuses on facilitation, navigating between the artist's vision and his or her capacities, valuing the relationship while rethinking the binarities. Since September 2018, MAI has co-produced the following Canadian shows: Lévriers by Sophie Gee, Numbers increase as you count by Ülfet Sevdi, Seeds Cast Afar From Our Roots by Angie Cheng, Winnie Ho, & Chi Long, Radio III by Elisa Harkins, Zoë Poluch & Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Real's Fiction by Benjamin Kamino, and the international co-production terrestrial with jumatatu m. poe.