Balancing Act Canada: Advocating for artist parents and caregivers

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“When I came to work with Balancing Act, I didn’t realize how much I had hidden about my experience as a mother. So, part of this journey of doing this work is also reclaiming the fullness of myself.”

These words belong to the Executive Director of Balancing Act Canada, Susie Burpee, who is also a dancer, creator, professor, mother, and now caregiver of her parents. According to a study commissioned by Balancing Act Canada in 2019, 71.9% of performing artists/arts worker respondents have turned down work because of caring responsibilities. However, Burpee’s work at Balancing Act Canada has contributed to filling this need within the field with The Level UP! Initiative. This program supports artists and arts organizations as they pilot strategies designed to forefront more inclusive and care-led workplace policies and practices for parents and caregivers. In this experience, Burpee highlights how working in the community to build caregiver policies or frameworks of care is vital to developing a culture of empathy and justice for artist parents and caregivers. To understand this better, Sesaya Arts Magazine sat down with Susie Burpee, together with the visual artist Sarah Cullen and theatre artist Alen Dominguez. Cullen is the founder of MOTHRA: Artist-Parent Project, one of the sector leads helping to guide the Level UP! Initiative. Dominguez is the Managing Director at Neworld Theatre and creator of the first pilot program—The Framework of Care Policy—with the support of Balancing Act Canada.

Burpee, Cullen, and Dominguez all emphasize that to understand the purpose of a framework of care in the art Industry, it is first essential to know the context in which it has been immersed. The practice of being an artist has long been embedded in an unfair system that has created significant barriers, particularly for women and caregivers. An example is the lack of access to full-time employment benefits, unfavourable rehearsal and touring schedules, low wages, outdated practices, and a lack of family-friendly policies. Additionally, according to the artists interviewed, the art system is rooted in colonial and patriarchal structures that have reshaped societal views on maternity, prioritizing efficiency over compassion, empathy, and mental health.

Promoting a change in the art sector for parents and caregivers within a culture of compassion, empathy, and care took up a call for action not long ago. Between 2015 and 2017, national parent-artist initiatives worldwide, such as the Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) in the US and Parents & Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA) in the UK, took on new possibilities. Then, according to Burpee, the pandemic (COVID-19) boosted this promulgation even more, with better accommodations and flexibility. In  2019, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage reported: “The impact of maternity must be considered within arts and culture.” So, little by little, advocacy for finding better solutions for artist parents and caregivers in the sector began to stand out in Canada, and Balancing Act appeared.

Balancing Act Canada, a national initiative, was founded in 2019 by Executive Artistic Director at Theatre Direct, Lisa Marie DiLiberto. The goal was to increase accessibility for parents and caregivers in the arts and create systemic change in the sector at large. “Caregivers are not the only ones who will benefit from this revolution. The art form itself will be richer by the creativity these artists will bring, most of whom are at the height of their careers as they become parents,” stated DiLiberto in Theatre Research in Canada, Volume 41, Issue 2, Fall 2020.

In 2021, Balancing Act Canada, in partnership with Neworld Theatre, created the first Care Framework Policy in a pilot project of Level Up! Pathways to Agreement strategy. The policy has been published on the Balancing Act Canada website as a resource to other small organizations that aim to adopt compassionate policies. For Dominguez, the success of this lead policy is the inspiration and the taking of action. For example, last year, MOTHRA supported the Indigenous Curatorial Collective in developing internal care policies through Balancing Act Canada’s Level Up! initiative. 

According to an Evaluation Report conducted during the three years of Level UP!’s activities (2021-2024) by Balancing Act Canada, The Level UP! Program has supported over 76 arts organizations across Canada to date. These have collectively developed over 140 actionable, care-centered resources and piloted innovative strategies, which have in turn reached over 2,000 individual artists, arts workers, and audience members. The Level UP! program offers financial support, consultation, and evaluation as partners explore the implementation of supportive measures for artists and cultural workers who are parents, caregivers and/or have specialized care needs. Four key strategic areas that have been carried out successfully are: 

• Care Solutions, 
• Compassion Funds, 
• Flexible Working Models, and 
• Pathways to Agreement 

This year, with the new WAGE funding, sector partners will develop further policies and practices specific to the needs of visual artists, musicians, and screen-based industry workers.

In this way, the Level UP! Program is creating a care framework community and participatory initiatives that contribute to a culture of empathy and justice for artist parents and caregivers in Canada. There are various examples of this.

Since the Level Up! Initiative began, Balancing Act Canada has hosted online affinity groups for parents and caregivers in the arts, building a community of exchange and peer support. These sessions allow new parent-artists to learn from more experienced ones, often featuring guest speakers and discussions. Burpee notes that hearing diverse perspectives helps shape the projects that Balancing Act chooses to pursue.

Through the Level Up! program, arts organizations have adopted more human-centered work practices, including on-site childcare initiatives. Burpee emphasizes that networking is essential in the arts, and caregiving responsibilities can prevent artists from participating, causing them to fall behind. In response, companies like Canadian Stage and Folk Music Canada have offered solutions such as babies-in-arms performances and on-site childcare at events and conferences.

On the other hand, MOTHRA-Artist-Parent Project fosters community by embracing the dual role of parent and artist through its art residencies. Cullen describes these spaces as judgment-free and collaborative environments where artists support each other and share childcare, studios, and meals, creating a village-like setting. This approach challenges the traditional notion of the isolated artist studio, showing that including children in a shared and active workspace can be deeply enriching and transformative for artistic practice. “I ask everyone, how does art change when we admit to these relationships and new roles in our lives as parents? So, that is something we are doing on the residency.” For Cullen, working alongside her kids has been joyful and inspiring. “Their ideas and opinions had value and informed our process and final outputs.” Even when not directly collaborating, having kids and parents working independently but side by side leads to a shared sense of fulfillment and productivity. She mentions that it is also enriching when kids engage with different studios and artists, learning through those experiences, like helping paint during a residency or assisting a singer with French pronunciation for a performance.

In conclusion, Burpee’s journey at Balancing Act Canada reflects a broader movement where artist parents and caregivers reclaim their full identities through the joy and acceptance of their roles. The focus is shifting from efficiency to compassion and empathy. Both artists and the arts industry should embrace inclusive and care-centered policies to benefit families, communities, and society. As Dominguez states, “artists are leading the way in reimagining how we work and envisioning a better world.”

Balancing Act Canada invites artists and organizations to apply to become a 2025-26 Level UP! Partner and pilot a project that centres care and caregivers. Find more information here.

© Alejandra Jimenez, Sesaya Arts Magazine, 2025