In Collaboration with Opera inReach
Our Singing Bodies has collaborated with Opera InReach and Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor to create a workshop for inclusion in professional development or DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) curricula in voice undergraduate and young artist programs beginning in Fall 2023. This workshop has been constructed to be presented in a number of ways, including digitally, in person, and hybrid offerings.
Through the workshop, facilitators will lead students through a series of exercises that help to envision a more equitable, exciting, and alive future of opera. Students will build skills surrounding the creation of healthy professional boundary-setting and to develop a better sense of artistic autonomy and agency. Using their creative skills and imagination, students will leave the workshop with a better understanding of the work that we can do together to create a wonderful, healthy, and exciting future in opera.
This workshop is a collaboration between Our Singing Bodies and Opera InReach.
Jardena Gertler-Jaffe and Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor, co-writers.
Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor
Gwenna Fairchild-Taylor is a soprano, teaching artist, curriculum consultant, and Our Singing Bodies contributor. Gwenna believes in the power of the arts as a catalyst for community building and social change and strives to make sure everyone has access to creative experiences, regardless of location or circumstance. Through her work as a teaching artist, she has created and facilitated programming for over 30 unique organisations, community partners, and nonprofits. Gwenna consults on arts curriculum and facilitates workshops and discussions about opera and civic practice for companies throughout Canada and the United States.
Opera inReach
Opera InReach is a collective of opera artists, administrators, and advocates that are dedicated to inspiring the next generation to see themselves in opera. Opera InReach develops educational programs that expand the civic impact of opera and that are instilled with values that support equity, inclusivity, diversity, accessibility, reconciliation, and justice.