Edmonton

Summer Education Assistant

Overview

Grindstone Theatre is seeking an Education Assistant for 20 hours per week. We are looking for someone with administration and education experience to help the Education Manager facilitate the summer camps and workshops at The Grindstone Theatre School. This job will include assisting the Education Manager in supervising the summer camps, classes, workshops and festivals. It also involves communicating with parents, students and instructors, reviewing administrative documents and completing outreach at each of our summer festivals and other summer events. Applicants must be self-starters and able to self manage their time, workload and other responsibilities. 
If you are passionate about theatre arts, have a background in Theatrical Education or social media and are able to manage and solve problems on the fly - we think you would be a great fit!

Responsibilities and qualifications

Responsibilities:

• Be knowledgeable and informed about all programs offered through Grindstone Theatre School
• Communicate with instructors, students and Education Team regularly
• Give daily updates of tasks completed to the Education Manager and team
• Assist in producing showcases and communicate with instructors for tech and showcase needs
• Follow and uphold Theatre School Policies
• Complete outreach at any summer festivals or events
  • Be able to sell or promote our ongoing and upcoming programs to any interested parties
• Assist with set up, tear down and front of house for Grindstone Festivals (Comedy Fest & Fringe)
• Help the Education Manager in creating content and managing the social media for The Grindstone Theatre School
• Administrative duties such as reviewing any documents created by the Education Team, keeping up with correspondence, any additional duties as assigned
• Be available and present for the run of camps, classes, workshops, and festivals
• Be the site contact while programs are in session (to be split between the Education Team)
• Assist the Education Manager with scheduling and contracting Studio Rental inquiries
• Assist the Education Manager with Marketing campaigns
• Help create and send education newsletters and e-blasts
• Assist the Education Manager with website updates and student registrations
• Respond to student inquiries
• Other duties as required

Qualifications:

• High School Diploma
• 1 year of admin experience (experience in Fine Arts Education Administration is an asset)
• General knowledge of theatre practice
• Experience with Wix is an asset
• Experience in fundraising is an asset
• Strong interpersonal and customer relations skills. Ability to create and sustain positive working relationships with theatre companies and staff
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Demonstrates attention to detail with the ability to manage competing priorities at work
• Self-directed with the ability to take initiative
• The Summer Assistant MUST be available for the following dates:
  • Start Date: Tuesday June 18, 2024
  • Classes: Tuesday June 25, 2024
  • Classes: Wednesday June 26, 2024
  • Classes: Thursday June 27, 2024
  • Comedy Fest: July 3 - 7, 2024
  • Tentative Workshops (TBD): 
    • July 13 or 14
    • July 20 or 21
    • July 27 or 28
  • Camps: July 8-12, July 15-19, July 22-26 and July 22 - August 2, 2024 (please see the attached schedule for more information)
  • Showcases: August 6th and August 8th, 2024
  • Edmonton Fringe Festival: August 15 - 25, 2024
  • Final Day: TBD based on hours left 

Position details

Schedule/Wage:

• Wage is $18.50/hour based on Canada Summer Jobs Grant
  • Must be under 30 years old
• 20 hours per week
• Mixed availability - partial day times and partial evening and weekends

To apply, please send a Cover letter & Resume to Jules Pepin at jpepin@grindstonetheatre.ca.

Please note “Summer Education Assistant” in the subject line. No phone calls please. 

July 3 - 7, 2024

A Message from the Artistic Director:

Welcome to the 5th Annual Grindstone Comedy Festival! This year, we are extremely proud to present five days of Stand-up, Improv, and Sketch Comedy. We have gathered over 50 of the best local, national, and international talents to share their humor with you across two stages. This festival is packed with laughter, so I encourage you to check out the schedule and attend multiple shows.

I guarantee you'll discover your new favorite comedian, improvisor, or sketch performer. ​While you're at it, take a look at some of our fantastic workshops organized by our education department.

Putting together a festival of this magnitude is no small feat. A huge thanks to our dedicated team at Grindstone, our hard-working staff, volunteers, sponsors, and the artists who have joined us to make it all possible. ​
Get ready for an unforgettable comedy experience!

Tickets are available at www.grindstonecomedyfest.com.

- Byron Martin
 

May 25 - July 20, 2024

Prairie Star Deck is AJA Louden’s first public exhibition of his large-scale tapestries. These large-scale textile works are grounded in ideas of Afrofuturism, a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the Black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry. An artist known largely for his street-based work in spray paint, over the past 3 years, Louden has been focused on building his own artistic language working in craft. 

In 2022, Louden was invited by Fern Facette to spend 3 months as part of the inaugural Artist in Residence program at Fern’s School of Craft in Edmonton, AB. It was here that Louden learned how to use cut and loop pile tufting guns and was struck by the similarities between how one handles a tufting gun and a can of spray paint. From here, Louden began thinking more deeply about the role of craft in Black communities, and the use of textiles to consider the history of craft in rural Alberta in particular. 

Growing up in Southern Alberta, Louden’s mother had a sewing room where she would produce work for herself and for others. For Louden, this interest in using craft as a medium is a reconnection with his personal history, and building upon his familial memories of domestic craft, Louden was able to incorporate his mother’s crocheted work into one of the tapestries in the show.  

Prairie Star Deck introduces us to the matriarchal society Louden has built. Here, two of the main characters are established as time travelling spacewomen through their life sized portraits Mother and Daughter. These characters will be familiar faces to those who have seen Louden’s recent mural works in Lethbridge and Edmonton. Delving deeper into the story, the tarot inspired work Shame  shows the two figures in a vignette from the larger cyclical narrative about a moment after a balance of power has shifted and a moral crisis begins to create a rupture in their relationship. 

Using craft, a medium historically grounded in Black Prairie communities, Louden considers how the nature of power can hold us in cycles and invites us to think about disparate possibilities where we create room for new futures.

About the artist

AJA Louden is a Jamaican-Canadian artist living and working in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).  Through rigorous mark making, constructions and installations, Louden builds stories and worlds that are firmly rooted in both galleries and public spaces, infused by his experience of growing up Black in the prairies. His current work focuses on the cyclical nature of power, inspired by science-fiction and historical paintings. Known largely for his street-based work in contemporary urban muralism, Louden challenges perceptions of the history and culture of unsanctioned public art. 

Louden’s work has been shown in public spaces and institutions across Alberta, including the 2022 retrospective exhibition Black Every Day at the Art Gallery of Alberta that featured his large-scale, site specific installation Constellation. In 2022, he was awarded the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund, and he was selected by Faye HeavyShield, Lieutenant Governor 2021 Distinguished Artist, for a unique award from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation.

Louden’s work is in the collections of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Misericordia Community Hospital.

The artist would like to recognize the Edmonton Arts Council and City of Edmonton, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, for support of production of the works in Prairie Star Deck. 

www.albertacraft.ab.ca/discovery-gallery-exhibitions/prairie-star-deck

The Edmonton Short Film Festival (ESFF) is looking for a young adult to join our festival team as the Videographer/Editor responsible for shooting and editing video from our various events as well as creating content for our social media platforms and web site. Ideally the youth will have an understanding and appreciation of film festivals and the importance of these festivals to both film artists and the community. The majority of their time will be creating and editing engaging videos for our social media platforms.

Our Videographer/Editor will also receive mentorship from and work collaboratively with the festival directors - both award winning filmmakers.

The ideal candidate is a student who is entering their final year of studies or is a recent graduate of a media, film or video production program.

This position is funded through Canada Summer Jobs.

Start date June 1

Application Deadline May 17

Responsibilities & Duties:

• Create high quality videos and still photographs that convey our message, culture, feeling, and story to the community and potential audience participants
• Create and deliver video content designed for websites, social media, advertising, etc.
• Shoot event footage, and work with other videographers to shoot additional footage at events
• Edit all footage using Final Cut, Premiere Pro or other professional-grade software
• Be able and willing to travel to various film screening events and workshop locations
• Embrace and support the ESFF mission and adhere to safe practices in the workplace
• Must be organized, able to take direction, and be a team-player
• Open to working evenings and weekends

Skills:

• Collecting, organizing and creating video content
• Develop workflows and processes to meet deadlines
• Be independently creative
• Have a passion for videography and editing
• Be proficient in editing software
• Have a good understanding of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TicTok) and how to create content for each platform
• Be versatile to be able to quickly adapt as required
• Basic understanding of how to operate cameras, microphones, lighting and all related equipment in the production and editing of video
• Strong attention to detail and time managements skills
• Photography experience is a big plus

Please send a cover letter and resume to filmfest@esff.ca by May 20, 2024.

website: esff.ca