Francine Cunningham
Creative Facilitation
About
I am available as a workshop facilitator for poetry workshops, fiction workshops, zine making workshops, visual art poetry painting posters, puppet making and storytelling, watercolour painting, and so much more. I can come for half day, full day, or fly out to a location for a week long, weekend etc. I am always brainstorming and coming up with fun new workshop ideas so if you have an idea that you need a facilitator for please contact me so we can discuss.
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Offerings
Virtual
Perfect for schools
Book clubs
Writing groups
All types of organizations, creative or not
Rates vary by size of the group and type of workshop or reading/conversation.
One on one mentorship
Currently not accepting clients
Manuscript evaluation
Currently not accepting clients
In person
Examples of past facilitation
Artist in Residence
Mikw Chiyam
I've been working with the Mikw Chiyam Arts Concentration program which is: 'The Quebec Cree School Board Arts Education Concentration Program is an interdisciplinary enrichment program that aims to increase student retention by reinforcing Cree identity through artistic expression. The aspiration for the program is to inspire youth by introducing them to various contemporary Indigenous artists and to create contexts for students to collaborate with professional Canadian artists through four intensive in-school, six-week artist residencies.' Find out more here.
Some of the projects that I have worked on during my residencies have been zine making, magazine making, and podcasting.
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Artist in Residence
Nwe Jinan
I've also been working with N'we Jinan which is an 'Integrative arts program that offers two – 5 week creative residencies per school which take place in an after school or extracurricular setting. Our program invites artists into schools and communities chosen from a list of applicants that include visual artists, printmakers, photographers, filmmakers, spoken word poets, musicians, actors, authors, dancers, etc.'
Some of the projects that I have worked on during my residencies have been zine making, magazine making, podcasting, and short film writing/filming.
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Program Manager
Native Youth Program
For five years I worked with Pam Brown at The Museum of Anthropology working with students in the Native Youth Program (NYP). During her time with the NYP I helped to develop curriculum, did research, and ran creative projects and workshops including short film making, visual arts, writing, zine making, fashion design and more.
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Other Noteable
Vancouver Public Library: Teen Summer Writing Camp
Weeklong fiction workshop on writing basics to middle school aged kids. With a zine making element for their stories.
Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre, Whitehorse Yukon Poetry creation workshop for adults
This is a half day workshop that I run that gets people who have. never written a poem, or consider themselves beginners, to write a poem. If you add a full day experience it would include an afternoon of painting an image to go with out poems.
Creative Writing Children’s Society Faculty
I taught a seven week workshop that blended fiction and non-fiction in a way that encouraged the students to look at their own diverse and unique cultural heritages and find ways of bringing those elements into their fiction work.
The Museum of Anthropology: Lawrence Paul exhibition Poetry Reaction Workshop
During the Vancouver School Board First Peoples Festival I ran tours and writing/visual art workshops in the Lawrence Paul exhibition. I got the students to explore idea’s surrounding what Indigenous art is and how you can push those boundaries. The high school students wrote poems and drew postcards about their experience in the space
The University of British Columbia Creative Writing Program: New Shoots Workshop Facilitator
New Shoots is a program run by both The University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing program and The Vancouver School Board. It pairs creative writing graduate students with local high school students.
