Who We Are

The WOOMcollaborative is a Waterloo Region multidisciplinary arts incubator, serving as a research and development hub for the Kitchener-Waterloo cultural sector by providing space, subsidy, and mentorship to new generations of performance creators. The WOOMcollaborative’s mission is to nurture artists, invest in ideas, and support new work and new ways of working. The collaborative fosters a culture of innovation by embracing risk and questioning traditional notions of artistic practice, disciplinary boundaries, and ideas of what constitutes growth and success. By making our understanding of things impactful through theatre and performance, we illuminate - animate - manifest - represent - embody scholarly and artistic work.

What We Do

The WOOMcollaborative pursues a mandate of creating a bi-directional relationship between arts practitioners and scholars to manifest a material representation of otherwise abstract scholarly work. We aim to illuminate, animate, and embody the intellectual through experimental and alternative performance creation. The collaborative supports artists by providing space, mentorship, research resources, exposure, and a sense of community through carefully conceived projects. Each project facilitates a highly collaborative artistic process that challenges the definition of theatrical performance by embracing music, dance, visual art and new media in addition to scholarship.

Why ‘WOOMcollaborative’?

‘WOOM’ and ‘collaborative’, intentionally brought together, offers a continuous flow between the propelling sound of WOOM (shout it out loud!) and the loving labour of collaboration. 

WOOMcollaborative interlinks creative, open-ended ideas and fosters an environment wherein co-reliance, trust, and respect can live among collaborative artists and the broader community. Within this shared space, we explore the ramifications of shared/multiple authorship to tailor each collaboration in a way that sustains engagement and creative development. 

We embrace risk, create thought-provoking work to invest in contemporary ideas, and foster a space of inquiry within the Kitchener-Waterloo Region and beyond.

Our Sponsors

The WOOMcollaborative is made possible by the Waterloo Region Arts Fund, the University of Waterloo, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.