RCAAQ – Knowledge Transfer in Small Cultural Organizations

Don’t wait until a key person leaves to discover everything they were the only one who knew. Anticipate transitions and safeguard your organization’s essential knowledge.

Registration deadline

October 2, 2026

Who is this training for?

This training is intended for dance companies and organizations that want to better prepare for the departure or replacement of a key person and ensure continuity in their operations, particularly when essential knowledge rests with a single individual.

It is particularly intended for:

• artistic and executive directors;
• people responsible for administration or other strategic functions;
• board members called upon to support a leadership transition.

This training may be particularly relevant if your organization is anticipating a transition, experiencing staff turnover, or simply wants to document its roles, responsibilities, procedures and essential knowledge now, rather than waiting until a key person leaves to do so.

Description

To ensure that the experience gained within organizations can benefit those who take over, it is essential to document and transfer practices—a process that requires specific skills. This issue is all the more important in a context where the cultural sector is experiencing high staff turnover.

This training offers a structured approach to preparing for and supporting staff transitions within cultural organizations, whether involving an executive director, someone in a strategic position, or another team member.

Participants will explore the human, organizational, financial and governance issues involved in succession, learn how to plan a transition process suited to their organization’s reality, and discover practical tools for ensuring knowledge transfer.

The training also addresses defining the profiles being sought, organizing the recruitment process, the role of the board of directors, and creating a reference document that records the responsibilities and procedures essential to the organization’s continuity.

Objectives

• Understand and identify the various issues involved in staff transitions;
• Better equip the people involved in a transition and succession process;
• Clarify internal roles, responsibilities and procedures;
• Reduce the risks associated with departures and strengthen the organization’s long-term sustainability.

Instructor

Pierre Beaudoin has been active in the visual and media arts for more than 35 years as a cultural worker, consultant, artist and curator. He worked in the artist-run centre community for 15 years.

He has also carried out numerous mandates as a project manager, coordinator, facilitator/mediator, instructor, coach, event and conference designer, and researcher for organizations including the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ville de Montréal, Cirque Éloize, Concordia University, the National Film Board of Canada, the Conseil des métiers d’art du Québec, the Quartier des spectacles and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. He also served as Communications Manager at Compétence Culture for five years.

In March 2019, he completed a three-year mandate as a visual arts specialist for the Québec government’s Politique d’intégration des arts à l’architecture et à l’environnement. He also worked as a consultant and cultural facilitator/mediator on a public art pilot project for the Bureau d’art public of the Ville de Montréal’s Service de la culture.

He also contributed to the development of a temporary public art program and the updating of the Ville de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu’s public art policy. In fall 2022, he was invited by the Office de consultation publique de Montréal to design and facilitate a public art tour as part of a public consultation by the Ville de Montréal.

For several years, he has offered continuing education workshops on topics including artists’ portfolios, funding for artistic projects, artistic practice and human resources management. He also provides coaching in organizational development, human resources management, organizational restructuring, strategic planning, governance, cultural mediation, public art, and group facilitation/mediation.

Questions?

Amélie Brisson-Darveau
Professional Training Manager
formation@rcaaq.org

This training, offered by the Regroupement des centres d’artistes autogérés du Québec (RCAAQ) in collaboration with the Regroupement québécois de la danse (RQD), is funded by the Gouvernement du Québec through the Intervention-Compétences program administered by Compétence Culture.