Connecting Virtually and in Real Life

This year got off to an eventful start with a spot of transatlantic travel for ELIA Executive Director, Maria Hansen. Weathering pandemic waves and historic snowstorms, she managed to meet with several ELIA members and prospects across the US and Canada to discuss exciting plans for future collaboration.

For me, 2022 began with a small tour of Eastern Canada and the US, exploring  possible collaborations with current members and the unrealised potential of ELIA engagement with (hopefully) future members. It was a trip that pre-2020 would have been a fairly normal undertaking but in unpredictable times felt ‘against all odds. 

In the end, it was possible to travel and so wonderful to actually visit MICA in Baltimore, as well as Concordia University and our two new members, l’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal and the École supérieur de ballet du Québec in Montreal. 

Later I will proclaim that hybrid is here to stay, but boy was I happy to experience actual physical meetings, many of which I shared with ELIA’s Representative Board member, Rebecca Duclos of Concordia University. Being extremely careful was the unwritten rule for this trip, and I am delighted to say that my hosts and I managed to meet under safe conditions. I should say ‘almost’ – on my second-last day, two physical meetings switched to Zoom conversations for an entirely different reason. Toronto had been hit by a snowstorm of truly historic proportions, and both colleagues simply could not get out of their driveways! Never a dull moment.

Back in Europe in the coming days, the team and I will embark on final preparations for the ELIA Academy 2021/22, which is going ‘hybrid’. The steering group recently decided that a hybrid format would be the best way to stay safe and, at the same time, would acknowledge the contributions of our speakers and facilitators, many of whom preferring to present in a physical space. I look forward to witnessing how our physical and online audiences interact and connect in new and innovative ways together. And yes, I think hybrid is here to stay. I am very proud of the ELIA team and our wonderful hosts at LUCA School of Arts and KU Leuven, who are working so hard to make the Academy hybrid experience a meaningful one. If you haven’t yet registered, please consider joining us. See you there (in Brussels or the digital space)!

Before the Academy , the final weeks of January present a rich programme of online events prepared by ELIA’s tireless Working Groups and Platforms. There is still time to sign up for the second Arts in Education Spotlight Session: ‘A Borderless Future for Teachers of the Arts’ on 20 January, welcoming speakers from the EU Commission, the German Hochschulrektorenkonferenz, along with teachers and students from all over Europe. 

On 26 January, our technical community, ETHO, will demonstrate how to create a bio lab which is a fascinating learning proposition (and incidentally has nothing to do with the contents of the fridge at my son’s student residence!). Join us for both sessions, and please share with colleagues you know would benefit.

In the photos:

(Top) Anik Bissonnette, Artistic Director and Alix Laurent, Executive Director, L’École supérieure de ballet du Québec.

(Middle) Exterior l’École de danse contemporaine de Montréal

(Bottom) Rebecca Duclos, Professor of Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University