Jewish Futures: An Arts and Culture Salon

Overview

A conference for Toronto’s Jewish artists and cultural workers exploring the future of Jewish cultural and artistic life.

What future do we want to create together? How can the past and presentation of memory help to inform our present? How do we share our stories to guide our futures?

The program will emphasize networking, communal learning, and the exploration of Jewish and artistic identity and practices, providing the foundation for building resilience and leadership for Toronto’s Jewish cultural community. The day will include conversations with specialists and local artists, community-building workshops and activities, a showcase of Toronto’s Jewish arts organizations, and facilitated conversations about artistic and Jewish identity.

Click here to learn more about the day, speakers and program!

Participants

Participants will represent the spectrum of Toronto’s cultural scene, including visual arts, theatre, film, music, dance, writing, curatorial, arts administration, museums, and heritage.

Please note: This event is for Jewish artists, creatives, and cultural workers, or those who produce cultural content with Jewish spaces. Not sure if this event is for you? Please get in touch with us at info@kulturacollective.com

Event Details

Registration includes access to all conversations and workshops, admission to the Toronto Holocaust Museum for a self-guided tour, as well as refreshments and lunch (Kosher, vegetarian). Click here for more information.

Registration required. Register here. 

If you require a subsidy to join the event, please email us.

Keynote Speaker

Kendell Pinkney is a Brooklyn based theatre-artist, producer, and rabbi.

He makes work that probes the intersections of race, narrative, collective memory, and sacred mythos. His writing is rooted in a commitment to foreground themes of “uncertainty, mystery, and doubt” in the modern world as a means of exploring how these tenuous realities orient us to our humanity.

His creative work has been presented or developed at venues such as Feinstein’s 54 Below, Joe’s Pub, The National Opera Center of America, Musical Theatre Factory, Two River Theater, and Goodspeed Opera House to name a few. Kendell was featured in the acclaimed docuseries “The New Jew,” with actor-comedian Guri Alfi, BuzzFeed’s Tasty channel broadcast of “Saturday Night Seder,” and Crooked Media’s religion and society podcast, “Unholier than Thou.” A frequent keynote speaker he has presented at numerous conferences across the US and Canada, and was among the first rabbis honored to offer a multi-faith invocation for the 110th First Lady’s Luncheon, honoring Dr. Jill Biden. He continues to consult with a variety of media outlets, as well as arts and civic institutions on Jewish and Jew of Color representation. He is the recipient of a 2023 IDEA Residency at Opera America, as well as Theater J’s “Expanding the Canon” commission program in Washington DC.

Kendell serves as the Rabbinic Educator for Reboot, and is the founding Executive Artistic Director of The Workshop (theworkshopny.com / @theworkshopartist), a New York based arts and culture fellowship that supports and foregrounds the work of professional artists of BIPOC-Jewish heritage. NYU-Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing, MFA. kendellpinkney.com /@kendellrpinkney

Presented in partnership with Kultura Collective, Prosserman JCC, Toronto Holocaust Museum, and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Promotional partners: Niv Magazine and The CJN’s Culturally Jewish podcast.

Supported by: CANVAS