35//50 Initiative

In 2020, the 35//50 initiative invited Tiny Bear Jaws, along with other professional theatre companies across Alberta to represent Amiskwacîwâskahikan (colonially known as Edmonton) and Moh’kins’tis’ (colonially known as Calgary) civic landscapes by hiring a minimum of 35% IBPOC and 50% women, non binary, trans, and gender non-conforming people in paid professional positions by 2025. This initiative asks that companies begin to track and publicly report the number of Black, Indigenous, and Artists of Color, as well as women, non-binary, trans, and gender non-conforming artists employed on each project. Read their call to action here: http://tiny.cc/7h6ysz

We (Elena and Tori) publicly commit to doing our part to support this important initiative by collecting these numbers, as well as by learning more and trying to actively integrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive ways of working into our theatre and administrative practices. Moving forward, all of the artistic teams hired for our workshops, productions, and presentations will be offered the chance to disclose their race and gender (in their own words) as part of a voluntary anonymous survey which will be published at the beginning of each new year (January). This data will be shared on this page as well as through our social media. (See below).

We’ve also developed an Anti-Racism + Anti-Oppression Policy, which we will continue updating each year, which will serve as a record of some of the activities we’re pursuing in order to make our organization safer and more welcoming for historically under-served and under-represented artists and audiences. You can read it here.

We acknowledge this is one step of many. We’re a small team who have misstepped before and will inevitably do it again. We are committed to paying Indigenous, Black, People of Color, fat, d/deaf, disabled, 2SLGBTQAI+, and neurodivergent consultants to help us better our processes, outreach and audience engagement, and enthusiastically welcome any feedback on how we can make our rehearsal halls and performance spaces more accessible and comfortable for everyone who enters them.

Thank you to the 35//50 Initiative for their ongoing work, and for inviting us and our company to be a part of this important shift in our industry. We encourage all professional and independent theatre companies across Alberta to examine the 35//50’s Calls to Action and engage in ongoing open conversations about systemic racism in our artistic community.