This pilot reinforced that parent artists do not need to choose between their artistry and their caregiving responsibilities. Care is not separate from the work – it is the work. By shifting toward an Afro/Indigenous framework that values intergenerational participation, we move away from colonial productivity models and toward holistic, sustainable artistry.
DiverseWorks Co.
DiverseWorks Co.
Creation & Care Pilot
Pilot Project: Piloting a care-inclusive artistic residency model where caretaking is viewed as an asset rather than a barrier, integrating parent artists, their children, and support staff into the creative process.
Project Duration: November 2024 – February 2025
Continuing to Implement: Yes. This model has proven essential for sustainable creative practices and will be expanded upon with the addition of dedicated artist-support caretakers to hold space for both children and artists.
Resources Shared: Project Field Notes, Residency Schedule
About DiverseWorks Co.
Location: Ontario
Artistic Discipline: Dance
Operating Budget: $100,000 to $1,000,000
Founded by Raechele Lovell, DiverseWorks operates at the intersections of art, activism, and community, through a distinctly Canadian, intersectional diasporic, contemporary, and Afro-futurist lens. The company’s work is deeply informed by:
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- Afro-Caribbean oral traditions
- Polyrhythms and embodied storytelling
- Somatic movement and ancestral knowledge
- Black feminist thought and radical care as creative resistance—prioritizing communal care, intergenerational knowledge-sharing, and artistic practices rooted in healing justice
- Contemporary performance practices that expand Black presence, liberation, and innovation beyond colonial frameworks—where movement, sound, and digital landscapes merge to imagine speculative Black futures, rejecting erasure while crafting radical new possibilities for Black performance
Level UP! Project Details
As a partner in Balancing Act’s Level UP! program, DiverseWorks developed and piloted a care-inclusive residency model. Rooted in Afro-diasporic and Indigenous knowledge systems, the pilot brought parent artists and their children into a collaborative creative process. The residency took place over four days in Montréal in February 2025, and featured a communal living and caregiving space that enabled parent artists to move fluidly between caregiving and creative work. This project offers a working model where care and creation coexist—challenging dominant Western frameworks that prioritize productivity and often exclude artists with caregiving responsibilities.
Project Highlights:
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- Children were welcomed to be part of creative processes throughout the residency.
- Flexibility, care, and accessibility were woven into the residency schedule. There were no set meal times or start/stop times for activities and participants could come and go as they needed.
Resources
DiverseWorks Co. | Project Field Notes
About This Resource DiverseWorks Co. created these Project Field Notes in 2025 to share details about their Level UP! Pilot Project. Their project focused on piloting a care-inclusive artistic residency model inwhich caretaking is viewed as an asset rather than a...
DiverseWorks Co. | Residency Schedule
About This Resource DiverseWorks Co. created this Residency Schedule for a care-inclusive artistic residency, piloted as part of their Level UP! Pilot Project. The residency took place over four days in February 2025 in Montréal, and welcomed parent artists and...
More Information
For more information about DiverseWorks, visit thediverse.ca.
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