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2025 Mentorship Program
2025May 05–June 15, 2025
Taking place this year from May 5-June 15, 2025, the Venus Fest Mentorship Program is a Toronto-based program for early-career musicians and arts workers who have faced barriers in the music industry.
Apply by April 19 @ 11:59pm EST
Participants Receive:
- 6 hours of one-on-one mentorship sessions
- 5 in-person workshops with guest artists in Toronto
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2 peer-to-peer sharing sessions (online or IRL depending on participants’ needs)
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an honorarium of $500 for their full participation
This program prioritizes artists and arts workers of underrepresented identities/genders. Within this, we especially encourage applications from artists/arts workers who are QT/BIPOC, otherwise equity-seeking, or have lacked previous institutional support for their current goals. However, we encourage all artists/arts workers who have faced barriers to access in their practices to apply.
Within our participant cohort, we reserve places for trans femme artists/arts workers, as well as for artists/arts workers who are Black and Indigenous.
We welcome applications from across ‘Canada’, but particularly encourage applications from people who are able to attend some or all of the in-person sessions in Toronto.
If you have any questions or would like to arrange a video/audio application to meet your access needs, please email us: beau@venusfest.net
Mentors
alaska B | she/her | Artist Mentor (production and engineering specialties)Backxwash | she/her | Artist Mentor
Lido Pimienta | she/her | Artist Mentor
Marie-Laure Saidani | elle/she/her | Industry Mentor - Mutek
Suzi Analogue | she/her | Artist Mentor
Workshops
Charise Aragoza
Touring For Musicians
Date TBA, Its OK Studios, 468 Queen St. W
Maggie Flynn
Money Models For Musicians (And Other Tired People)
June 01, 6:00-8:00 PM, Its OK Studios, 468 Queen St. W
Beau Cassidy
Vocal Production Mixing for Artists (& Curious Creatives)
May 26, 6:00 - 9:00 PM, Union Sound, 89 Sackville
Maria Pettler, ACTRA RACS
Navigating Neighbouring Rights: Let’s Get You Paid
Date TBA, OCAD 100 McCaul St, Toronto
apè Aliermo & Sara Constant, Venus Fest Team
Grants, Grants, Grants
May 08, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
, Interaccess, 32 Lisgar St.
Application Deadline: April 19 @ 11:59 pm EST
View the 2025 Mentors & Workshop Facilitators:
Lido Pimienta
(she/her)Artist
LIDO PIMIENTA is an Afro Wayuu Colombian born multidisciplinary artist and curator with a focus on ceramics, textiles, music and performance. Pimienta’s work explores and considers the politics of gender, race, motherhood, and the construct of the Canadian Landscape through a Caribbean diaspora and vernacular lens. Her practice revolves around community, collaboration and the sharing of ancestral art techniques, stories and knowledge.
Click here to apply
alaska b
(she/her)Audio Designer & Engineer
alaska B (born in Edmonton, Canada; lives in Toronto, Canada) is interested in visual cultures from Asia and their reinterpretation, examining at the same time her own identity as a second generation Chinese-Canadian. Inflected with a queer sensibility and a real desire to break away from systems of categorization, her practice blurs boundaries among disciplines, races, genders, and sexualities. Her work extends to various creative spheres-including multimedia installation, electronic arts, performance, illustration, and music, as she co-founded the experimental art and music collective YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN
Click here to apply
BACKXWASH
(she/her)Producer
BACKXWASH aka Ashanti Mutinta is a Zambian-Canadian rapper & producer based in Montreal, Quebec. She is most noted for her 2020 Polaris Music Prize-winning album God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It. Backxwash's trilogy (2020—2022) reflects different points in her life and delves into themes of identity, spirituality, and personal struggle, blending haunting beats with unfiltered, introspective lyricism. Backxwash emerges from the shadows of her trilogy with Only Dust Remains March 28th, 2025. The album takes a new direction that showcases her evolution into a broader sonic landscape.
Click here to apply
Marie-Laure Saidani
(elle/she/her)Music Festival Curator & Event Manager
Marie-Laure Saidani is a music programmer, electronic music aficionado, and event architect with nearly two decades in the industry. Since 2020, she has been shaping the sound of MUTEK as a co-programmer, helping to craft the festival’s globally recognized lineup.
From 2007 to 2018, she curated the pulse of Piknic Électronik and Igloofest, setting the stage for some of the most electrifying outdoor events. She also orchestrated "24 Hours of Vinyl" for five years with Music Is My Sanctuary, reinforcing her deep roots in artistic coordination. Her expertise has left a mark on Red Bull Music Academy, Red Bull Music Festival, SXM Festival, and beyond.
In 2018, she co-founded La puce à l'oreille, a podcast production studio bringing dynamic, imaginative content to children and families. As Director of Operations, she ensures the studio thrives, blending management, creativity, and innovation to push storytelling forward.
Click here to apply
suzi analogue
(she/her)Artist
Suzi Analogue is a producer, songwriter, composer, and music professor at UNC, as well as a member of the Recording Academy. Based in Miami, she is the founder of Never Normal Records, a label dedicated to boundary-pushing sounds. Her genre-fluid style fuses soul, footwork, hip-hop, techno, and diasporic rhythms, creating a signature sound rooted in electronic experimentation and liberation.
Suzi’s work has been featured on Billboard, BBC Radio, Boiler Room, and major networks like Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Her music has powered campaigns for Calvin Klein, with artists like Burna Boy, BLACKPINK, and Solange, in collaboration with Grammy-winning director Melina Matsoukas. She also composes for RAEDIO, Issa Rae’s audio platform, via the Google x Raedio Creator Program.
Click here to apply
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is a Tkaronto/Toronto not-for-profit music festival, mentorship program, and concert series.
Website by Natasha Whyte-Gray, 2024.