MASC Newsletter Winter 2019-20 English 2019 Newsletter in single pages | Page 11

New Staff
Alejandro Salgado Cendales joins
MASC as English Program
Director/Diversity & Inclusion Officer. He
is an artist, an arts advocate, he has
been involved with CPAMO which led
him to establish MAC (Multicultural
Artists' Coalition) and he has worked on
contract for the City of Ottawa.
My
Experience
with MASC
Noelia
Oshiro
Intern
Noelia introduced the office
to her favourite traditional
tea: Maté.
Meagan Gilson Lockhart is MASC ‘s
Bilingual Booking Coordinator. She has a
background in Arts Administration and
Theory of Theatre, Family Life Education
and Dance. She has experience in
various arts organizations in Montreal
and Ottawa in both in English and
French communities.
“
Community arts...community engagement...
multicultural... those were the words I was
looking for when I learned about MASC.
Multicultural Arts for Schools and Communities
were the key words that would guide me to my
international internship. Back in Argentina I
work in the area of education, health
promotion and social work, so my real interest
was on the powerful impact that art can have
on communities. I was keen on learning how a
variety of artistic expressions improve people’s
well-being at both individual and social levels.
During September and October, I had the
opportunity to peek a little bit into the many
different projects that MASC is involved in. But I
was mainly focused on Awesome Arts. Through
this community engaged program, I got a
glimpse of the different levels needed to make
such a huge program be successful. I
discovered that the first level is the macro level
which involves writing a grant, meeting with
partners, arts management, and much more.
The secondary level involves learning about the
community partner (in this case the Sandy Hill
Community Health Centre), getting to know
Nathalie Racine has joined MASC as
the Office Manager & Event Assistant.
Nathalie worked previously at the
Ottawa School of Art, TFO and Canada
Council for the Arts. In her spare time
she runs her own small business:
Funkiroots Jewellery.
their procedures, institutional culture and their
connection to the neighbourhood. And finally,
there’s the micro level of the programs and the
unique finished products that the participants
created in collaboration with the professional
artists throughout these eight weeks of
sessions. It is really amazing! Sorry, I mean
AWESOME! I got to understand that these
three levels are essential and they must be in
constant dialogue. Always taking into account
the community that we are working with.
What I also discovered during this internship, is
a great team who gave me a really warm
welcome and made me feel part of the MASC
family right away. These individuals taught me a
wide range of knowledge such as arts, politics,
culture, Canadian lifestyle and of course, food!
Huge thanks to all the staff, artists and
volunteers I had the opportunity to meet
during these two months. And a special thanks
to Micheline Shoebridge who answered my
very first email to MASC and became my
mentor during my time with MASC.
”
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