Slow Touring Project

Reimagining Sustainable, Equitable Arts on the Road

The Slow Touring Project takes inspiration from the wider Slow Movement (such as Slow Food and Slow Tourism) and aims to transform the touring sector, seeking to increase the engagement between visiting artists and the local community, increase artists’ and presenters’ capacity to take creative risks, improve artists’ wellbeing and financial stability, and reduce the climate impact of touring.

The 5 Principles of Slow Touring

This project began with a research phase in 2023-2023, which helped us establish the following principles:

1. Equity (including for Indigenous, people of colour, women, deaf and disabled, queer, trans and non-binary, elder, emerging, and caregiver artists and art-workers)

2. Ensuring meaningful connections between artists and the communities they visit

3. Addressing the power imbalance between artists and presenters

4. Climate justice and sustainability

5. Mental and physical wellness of artists and arts workers

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Slow Touring Gathering, February 2024.

Slow Touring Projects

We now have several underway, including:

• pilot projects

• a learning series

• a touring project phase

Pilot Project Phase

Thanks to support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Presents has partnered with Réseau SPARC Network, Debajehmujig Theatre Group, and Folk Music Ontario to provide professional development and support for pilot projects, with the goal of establishing norms and good practices around Slow Touring.

We have selected a cohort of both artists and presenters who meet regularly as a group to learn and share ideas about slow touring, receive funding to carry out pilot initiatives throughout 2024-2025, and report back on how they went. This project supports participants in “slowing” some of their existing touring and presenting activities through initiatives that address at least one of the 5 Slow Touring Principles.

Check out our video series highlighting some of these projects here, and the first one below.

Transforming the Touring Sector: A Learning Series

This winter, we are hosting a virtual workshop series that breaks down the basics of Slow Touring and shares how you and your organization can transform your work to incorporate the values of sustainability, equity and empathy in the face of our ‘new normal’. All presenters, artists, and industry members are invited to join us as we look for new working models that are sustainable, not only in terms of the environment, but also with regards to people (keeping artsworkers in the industry and avoiding burnout) and organizational sustainability.

Transforming the Touring Sector: A Learning Series is taking place on zoom, once a month from October - March. Registration is now open!
 

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Touring Phase

Following our pilot project phase, we have received support from the Department of Canadian Heritage to continue working with some Ontario Presents presenter members to deepen their work around Slow Touring. We will be working closely with 4 members to create full Slow Tours for 2 artists (selected/programmed by the presenters), taking place in 2025 and 2026. As usual, the project design will aim to serve the 5 slow touring principles we have identified.
 

Slow Touring Gathering, February 2024