Mandate
Lula Music and Arts Centre is a non-profit organization with the mandate to support Canadian world music through presentations, festivals, education, artist support and audience development.
Presentations
Throughout the year, Lula Music and Arts centre presents world music concerts, often in conjunction with other presenting organizations such as Small World Music, Batuki Music Society and Havanarte. Our weekly Saturday salsa series has become a pivotal force in developing local salsa bands as well as audiences for this music. Although our programming has a strong focus on music and dance with roots in South America and The Caribbean, our presentations often include music from Africa, India, Italy and around the globe.
LULAWORLD Festival
Each May since 2004, Lula Music and Arts Centre has presented the LULAWORLD festival to showcase and celebrate the flourishing Toronto world music scene and the many partnerships that have developed between Lula, artists, presenters and community media. The festival takes place in May to mark the anniversary of Lula Lounge – the physical space that has housed most of LMAC’s programming activity. Artists presented at previous festivals have included Odessa Havana, Luanda Jones, Roberto Linares Brown, Ricardo Lemvo, Ralph Irizarry, Samba Squad, Aline Morales to name a few. The festival has received support from the Ontario Arts Council and Celebrate Ontario as well as media partners such as CBC Radio and Telelatino.
Education
Lula Music and Arts Centre seeks to enhance the public understanding and appreciation for world music through several educational projects. Throughout the year, many workshops are hosted on topics such as Mexican Son Jarocho and Cuban percussion. The weekly dance classes that are offered as part of our Saturday Salsa series help audiences learn about musical forms that are inherently participatory.
LMAC has developed a series of educational workshops celebrating French and Spanish culture to enhance the experience of secondary school language and music students and to foster an interest in culturally diverse music and dance. Since we began offering our French World Café and Spanish World Café outings, more than 2000 students have participated in these workshops and performances which celebrate diverse musical traditions from around the globe.
Artist support
Lula Music and Arts Centre aims to provide support for the artistic and career development of professional musicians working within our area of focus. We have worked with Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council music officers to coordinate and publicize grant information sessions tailored to world music artists and presented
In 2012, as part of a project spearheaded by Derek Andrews and the Toronto Blues society, Lula will work with OCFF and Batuki Music society to host a professional development series entitled Digital Dollars focussed on how artists can better navigate the emerging digital landscape.
With Tridha Arts Association, we co-founded canadianworldmusic.com, a curated web-based catalogue of Canadian world musicians. The site aims to increase the artistic opportunities for market-ready Canadian world music artists and groups. This project has provided a much needed, professional tool that we intend to promote at international markets, conferences, fairs and festivals. The catalogue is initially a pilot project for the province of Ontario to be extended, in 2012, to all of Canada.
Audience Development
Lula Music and Arts Centre aims to foster and expand audiences for world music locally, nationally and internationally. Our promotions through our newsletter and social media as well as our partnerships with media sponsors such as CBC radio and Telelatino, LMAC is contributing to the development of a growing community of world music listeners. Through our educational initiatives we, strive to enhance the understanding and enrich the aesthetic experience of this growing audience.
Who we are
Tracy Jenkins, Executive Director
Jose Ortega, Artistic Director
Alec Dempster, Student Program Director
Board of Directors
Sylvia Draper Fernandez
Michael Sobreira Jones
Heike Raschl
Fernando de Sousa
Lula Music and Arts Centre is dedicated to maintaining diversity at the board, committee and programming levels. We strive to make programming inclusive and accessible to diverse cultural communities and to foster an environment of mutual respect in all partnerships.
Contact us at
Lula Music and Arts Centre
1585 Dundas West, Toronto, ON M6K 1T9
416 588 0651 info@lula.ca