Adaptive Arts
The Adaptive Arts Program offers an introduction to the performing arts through workshops that have been custom designed for individuals with functional limitations. They promote their social and cultural inclusion through increased contact with the performing arts, enabling them to reveal their full creative potential.
The program targets adults with functional limitations (mental health issues; physical, sensory, or intellectual limitations) or who are experiencing social and cultural exclusion (francisation, literacy, new arrivals).
Participants must be affiliated with a socio-community, cultural, or health-care organization.
Through the Youth Adaptive Arts Program, workshops are also available for young people with functional limitations. Learn more.
Current Projets
The program offers cultural mediation projects based on various disciplines, such as dance, singing, music, theater and writing.
Each project includes:
- Four 2-hour workshops in the chosen discipline, led by professional artist-mediators trained to interact with people with functional limitations;
- A public performance, scheduled at the end of the last workshop of the series, allowing participants to present the collective creation they have built up over the weeks.
Workshops will take place in the Salon urbain of Place des Arts, which has been designed to suit the needs of the participants’ specific situations, allowing them to take part comfortably, securely, and confidently.
At the conclusion of each series of workshops, the public performance will take place in the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme of Place des Arts, where friends and family of the participants and the general public can attend.
Projects for the 2023-2024 season:
Chant choral
This series of workshops invites participants to explore the pleasure of various forms of choral singing. Participants are guided through the creative process with a multitude of exercises that require both creativity and collaboration—spoken and sung voice work, controlled improvisation, body and voice warmups, rhythm, projection, and canonical exercises.
Learn more about the project
Danse créative
Photo credit: Mikaël Theimer
This series of workshops invites participants to explore dance as a means of expression through the creation of choreographies and collaborative experimentation involving movement, rhythm, spacing, and improvisation.
Learn more about the project
Musique percussive et voix
Photo credit: Mikaël Theimer
This series of workshops introduces participants to group musical performance through the rhythm of words, sounds, and emotions. Guided through various rhythm and vocal exercises, participants learn to improvise and work together to create original musical atmospheres using percussion and their voices. Group creation and exploration are the focus of these workshops.
Learn more about the project
Theatrical Expression
Photo credit: Mikaël Theimer
This series of workshops explores the physical aspects of theatre, inspired by visual and sound elements. Participants are encouraged to construct a space in which they can socialize, express themselves, create, and flourish by practicing the theatrical arts.
Learn more about the project
Jeux de mots
Photo credit: Mikaël Theimer
This series of writing workshops explores poetry and spoken word performance with stimulating sources of inspiration provided throughout the activity.
Learn more about the project
Registration
All projects are free of charge.
- The organization must form a group of 5 to 25 participants. The maximum number of participants will be discussed upon reservation.
- Once the group has been formed, the organization can register and reserve its timeslot. Participants cannot register individually.
- The attendance of at least one social worker or accompanying person per group is required. The ratio will be discussed upon reservation and may be revised after the first workshop.
To register, please contact the community team at artadapte@placedesarts.com or by telephone at 514 285-4275.
Registration period: June to September 2023
Monique-Lefebvre Prize, awarded by the AlterGo organization
In 2020, Place des Arts’ Adaptive Arts Program won the very first Monique-Lefebvre Prize, awarded by the AlterGo organization. To date, the program has allowed hundreds of participants and dozens of organizations to explore the performing arts through workshops.
The Adaptive Arts Program is made possible through the financial support of the Fondation de la Place des Arts and its partners, the Sandra and Alain Bouchard Foundation and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
From the very start, the program has also benefitted from the support of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications.