conVERGE is a new micro-residency and mentorship program that supports emerging and early-career Indigenous, Black, and artists of colour to develop work in 2021, offered through a partnership between Intrepid Theatre and Puente Theatre.

Due to systemic discrimination, IBPoC artists face all kinds of barriers working in the arts and in the theatre sector, and there is a gap in mentorship and support across the industry, including here in our community on Lekwungen and WSÁNEĆ territories (Victoria). The conVERGE residency will support up to three emerging or early-career local performance-based artists who identify as IBPoC to develop a new or in-progress work. Selected artists will have a four-week residency at the Intrepid Studio, advance their skills in a chosen focus area under the mentorship of an IBPoC professional, connect with other selected artists, receive an honorarium of $1,000, have opportunities to present their work, and receive additional support from program mentor Mercedes Bátiz-Benét, artistic director of Puente Theatre. conVERGE is produced by Mercedes and Holly Lam, associate producer at Intrepid Theatre.

To converge is to move toward one point or location, to unite in a common interest or focus, to come together. A verge is a brink, a threshold, an outer margin; as a verb, verge means to head in a certain direction; on the verge of means to be at the point where something is about to happen. As IBPoC, we know what it’s like to be on outer margins, but we also know what it is to come together and re-centre those margins. IBPoC artists have always created innovative and bold work, and we know that the arts can help push our culture into the equitable, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive future we are all striving to create. The work of IBPoC artists is vital to that movement, and conVERGE, as a program designed, produced by, and for IBPoC, aims to facilitate connections and amplify local IBPoC work and perspectives.