Connected Currents: How It's Going [Session 2]

Between January and May 2025, PACT will host four Connected Currents gatherings centered around a series of guest speakers. Each gathering will offer emerging and mid-career IBPOC arts administrators food for thought on current hot topics in the theatre sector, as well as opportunities to foster national connections.

To find out more about Connected Currents 2025, its sessions and more details about the program please click here. 

CONNECTED CURRENTS: HOW IT'S GOING [Session 2]

Following up on the first session Connected Currents: How It Started is Connected Currents: How It's Going, which will take place Monday, February 10, 2025, from 3 – 5 pm ET.

The session will feature a Q&A with guest speakers Michelle Yagi and Bianca Guimarães de Manuel, who will discuss navigating sectoral change and working within inherited structures.

In a field that often uses the language of radical change, what does the day-to-day process of altering ways of working look like? And how can the people making the change take care of themselves in the process?

The Q&A will be followed by a group discussion around the prompt: What’s a project, a victory, or a learning that you feel proud of from the past year?

The initiative will also continue a pen pal program, established in the first session, for IBPOC administrators who are interested in connecting and collaborating across geographic distance. New attendees can sign up to be paired with another arts administrator in a different province, with the hope of sparking ongoing discussion, community-building, and collaboration.

New IBPOC attendees and participants are welcome and encouraged!

ABOUT MICHELLE YAGI

Michelle Yagi (she/her) is a settler with mixed Japanese, French Canadian and Scottish heritage, born and raised in Treaty 13 Territory in Toronto/Tkaronto. She is an international producer and arts leader with diverse experience working for theatres, festivals, dance companies and entertainment agencies both at home and abroad. As a general manager and producer, she has also toured work across Canada, China, the U.A.E, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with venues ranging from children's hospitals, community centres and abandoned buildings, to the Barbican Centre and the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts.  Michelle is passionate about mentorship, values-based producing, accessibility, and community building, and she is always excited by international collaborations and big-picture planning. She holds a Masters in Arts Administration from Indiana University, a postgrad in digital marketing from the University of Arts London, and a B.A. in Theatre and English Literature from Queen’s University. Michelle is currently a Producer for the National Arts Centre’s Indigenous Theatre team, and is also a proud Board Member of Toronto's Paprika Festival