Job Posting – Provocation Ideas Festival Assistant



The Provocation Ideas Festival is looking for a creative, innovative, self-motivated, and dedicated person to assist with the planning, promotion, and production of events for the 2022 Festival, and Festival initiatives for 2023. This is a great opportunity to learn about the operation of community-engaged ideas festivals.

Areas of responsibility:

• Helping the Festival communications director to manage social media and develop new audiences. 
• Advising on developing youth- focused programming for future years.
• Job filling as needed in hands-on event production.
• Assisting in planning and outreach initiatives to current and potential future Festival partners. 

Please note that most of this work will be done remotely, and meetings will take place online.  Assisting with in-person Festival events in May and June will be in-person, with proper health precautions taken, including masking and rapid antigen testing. 

Requirements and Skills:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Well organized, with an ability to work collaboratively and independently.
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite; Adobe or similar graphic design programs and social media platforms.
• Pursuing a degree or diploma in areas relevant to the posted position would be an asset.
• Due to the Federal Government’s Canada Summer Jobs funding criteria, must be between 15-30 years old and legally allowed to work in Canada.

Contract duration:

This is a contract position, consisting of 30 hours/week for 9 weeks, starting approximately Monday, May 16, 2022 until Friday, July 15, 2022 – but can be flexible.   Payment is $15/hour.

The Provocation Ideas Festival is committed to the principle of employment equity, is an equal opportunity employer, and welcomes diversity in the workplace.

Contact:  For those interested, please send a resume and cover letter by May 13, 2022 to:

Mark Rosenfeld, Provocation Ideas Festival Founding Director at contact@provocation.ca

About the Provocation Ideas Festival:

The Provocation Ideas Festival aims to promote civic and community involvement in public concerns, leading to new perspectives and directions, beyond what currently exists.

The festival focusses on issues that people want to speak about, but also in a way that allows them to have difficult conversations and confront difficult truths, and new ways of thinking about a range of issues that concern them – be it social and economic inequality and systemic racism in our communities, the future of health care, climate change,the state of democracy and tolerance in Canada, truth and reconciliation,  among other topics.  There will be spirited debates, readings, storytelling, interactive art installations, film screenings, theatre performances, interviews with leading thinkers, and casuals, among other events. 

May/June 2022 will pilot a limited number of Provocation Ideas Festival events intended to generate interest in and exposure for the festival, build organizational capacity and financial support, and form the basis for a larger, national festival in the spring of 2023. For practical purposes, in the pilot year these events are taking place in different locations in Toronto.  These events showcase some of the main themes of the festival, and different media of communication in exploring these themes.  The intention is that these marquee events be provocative (in the best sense of the term), innovative, and accessible.  Individual events are being  produced  with Provocation Ideas Festival partners – drawing on available resources, and with other organizations who are participating in planning, development, and hosting.  A premium is being  placed on public participation and civic engagement in different neighbourhoods, and on different ways of engaging.

Current partners include CBC IDEAS, the Canadian Urban Institute, The Conversation Canada, the Samara Centre for Democracy, and Why Not theatre.  Provocation 2022 is collaborating with the above partners and other organizations to host events, including the Toronto International Festival of Authors, Jackman Foundation for the Humanities, Toronto Community Benefits Network, Mosaic Institute, Jane’s Walk Toronto, Theatre Direct, and the Toronto Arab Film Festival.