We Support 35//50

Continually evolving our Safer Spaces Program, including:

• Reviewing and updating our year-round Safer Spaces program and reporting tools as we learn from and consult with our communities;
• Expanding our Safer Spaces committee during the Festival season to ensure more equitable and diverse representation and more robust capacity to better serve our community;
• Deepening our relationships with organizations like the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE) to improve our processes and broaden our resources; and
• Continuing to develop Fringe Learn, our online learning platform, in collaboration with Kick Point, the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE), and PowerED(TM) at Athabasca University to deliver Safer Spaces courses to Fringe Theatre Staff, Volunteers, Festival Artists, and other Fringe Festivals and arts organizations. This includes offering Fringe-developed courses like Creating a Consent Culture, Consent in Context, and Anti-Racism 101.

Continually evolving our Anti-Racism Commitment, including:

• Partnering with subject matter expert organizations within the local community to provide ongoing Anti-Oppression, bystander, and Safer Spaces training to Board, Staff, Artists, and Volunteers;
• Providing accessible administrative, human resources, mentorship, space, and platform to marginalized (including IBPoC and 2SLGBTQIA+) Artists and arts workers;
• Reviewing internal procedures and processes to ensure equitable hiring practices, including actively seeking out IBPoC people to fill available roles, particularly roles in positions of power, within our organization;
• Reviewing policies and procedures to ensure equitable recruitment, training, and retention processes in all areas of our organization; and
• Reviewing Festival and Season procedures to ensure IBPoC, women, and gender minority people are being actively engaged, subsidized, supported, and provided equitable opportunity.

Continually evolving our inclusion practices, including:

• Engaging with and learning from representatives with lived experience from the Deaf, disabled, and Mad communities;
• Expanding on our Inclusion Program (launched in 2018) to include a more holistic accessibility approach that ensures fringers – Staff, Artists, Volunteers, and Patrons – of all abilities are provided meaningful opportunity to engage with and enjoy Fringe;
• Providing designated sensory spaces and tool kits for Festival Staff, Volunteers, and Artists during Festival;
• Providing two gender inclusive washroom banks in our Studio Theatre and Backstage Theatre spaces;
• Providing free gender pins at all Box Office spaces in our building and during the Festival;
• Collaborating with community to develop a “Bring Your Own Venue” (BYoV) venue accessibility checklist to ensure producers are responsible for venue audits, and to help us better communicate BYoV accessibility information with patrons;
• Making Hearing Assist t-coil loop hearing systems available in all Fringe Theatre Arts Barns theatres;
• Expanding our Relaxed Performance offerings during season and Festival, and working closely with Artists to better deliver a Relaxed Performance experience;
• Reserving a minimum of 25% of the house for each Fringe Theatre Season performance for our Offer What You Will Program, where patrons may offer any dollar amount they’re able to contribute or offer other non-monetary ways of showing respect and mutual investment, such as tobacco, your own art, or a donation you feel the artist(s) will benefit from. No one will be turned away; and
• Provide at least two Sign Language Interpreted performances for all Fringe Theatre Season shows and encourage Sign Language Interpretation for Festival performances among our Festival Artists.

Continually evolving our Indigenous Theatre Program, including:

• Hiring Fringe’s inaugural Indigenous Director;
• Honouring and nurturing our relationships with Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and Leaders in the Indigenous community;
• Identifying opportunities to elevate Indigenous art and Artists, including nurturing the growth of pêhonân, Fringe’s performance incubator that provides Indigenous Artists of all disciplines the opportunity to create, experiment, produce, present, and tour;
• Continuing the ongoing and patient process of Indigenizing and decolonizing Fringe Theatre’s programming and processes while prioritizing community building and care;
• Continuing to address and where possible dismantle barriers to access and gaps in our organizational knowledge with the support of Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and Leaders;
• Hosting ongoing Staff training on Indigenous culture and history;
• Hosting Indigenous led ceremonies as part of our Festival and Season; and
• Bringing Indigenous-led conversation and models for cross-cultural collaboration into the centre of our work, and actively inviting all stakeholders to come together to listen and learn.

Expanding our existing Equity Festival Lottery Category, including:

• Nurturing the growth of pêhonân to expand artistic offerings across the Festival and Season experience beyond the limitations of colonial theatre traditions and embracing cultural diversity theatre models including de-standardized show times and show schedules, latecomers welcome, relaxed performance etc. We will consult with and compensate marginalized Artists in the continued creation of this practice.

Maintaining the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns as a Community Hub that invites local Artists to:

• Get comfy: hop on the wifi, grab a coffee, find a comfortable place to sit and work on your upcoming play/song/grant/proposal/pitch etc. until it’s done;
• Gather: invite collaborators around a table to jam;
• Host: hold board meetings, planning meetings, or take-over-the-world meetings;
• Create: book last minute rehearsal space and put ideas on their feet (or wheels or bums or noses or…);
• Work: get paperwork printed for free;
• Ask: pick the brains of any of our staff about best practices, next steps, wild ideas (almost all of us are active creators outside of our administrative roles, and every one of us loves to share ideas);
• Challenge the status quo: lead or facilitate or participate in brave conversations, especially the kind that challenge the status quo; and
• See a show: Offer What You Will tickets are available to any Fringe Theatre season performance.

Nurturing the ongoing development of our Community Care Program, including:

• Continuing to support the sustainable growth of this service-based program comprised of Staff and Volunteers using harm reduction approaches to community crisis response and community empowerment;
• Continuing to support unhoused and vulnerable community members who may access various community supports in the immediate vicinity of the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns and Fringe Theatre Festival grounds who are often displaces from their regular use of public spaces by Festival activity;
• Continuing to collaborate with and learn from community organizations who lead this important work, like 4B Harm Reduction, Boyle Street Community Services, Bissell Centre, The Mustard Seed, Youth Empowerment and Support Services, Old Strathcona Youth Society, and more; and
• Evolving how Fringe’s Safer Spaces, Accessibility, Inclusion, Community Care, Security, and First Aid teams collaborate and support a welcoming, safe artistic experience where everyone is welcome.

Collaborating with industry partners and sharing resources, including:

• Participating in, contributing to, and implementing actions from the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre and Theatre Alberta’s equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives; and
• Working with the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion across the North American Fringe circuit.