For 50 Years, Ed Video Has Helped Guelph Tell Its Stories. Now It Needs Us, says Ed Video Media Arts Centre’s Executive & Artistic Director Julie René de Cotret.

The following was submitted to Guelph Politico:

Fifty years ago, Ed Video Media Arts Centre was founded in Guelph by students and faculty from the School of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Guelph. Today, our mission remains to support the creation, presentation and appreciation of Media Arts and independent film for all and by all, across a vast territory reaching far beyond Wellington County. We are one of Canada’s oldest artist-run centres and are a charitable organization. As its Executive & Artistic Director, I believe more strongly than ever that Ed Video is not a luxury in this city. Ed Video is cultural infrastructure that has served so many individuals, and has created through its services; communities that continue to thrive 50 years into our beautiful story.

What makes Ed Video special is built right into our name. The “Ed” stands for education. Since 1976, the centre has offered skill-building workshops, curated exhibitions on and off site, and affordable access to production equipment for artists at many different experience and income levels. At Ed Video we support artists and diverse communities through equipment, training, skill-building programs, screening and exhibition opportunities. In a field where tools are expensive and technical knowledge is often a barrier to entry; that matters.

The centre holds $148,000 in production gear and another $40,000 in presentation and training equipment. Ed Video offers production grants, a value of $1,200 in equipment or resources accessible to successful applicants, and it is open to established and emerging media artists alike. Our staff of three support the operations and services, including in-person technical support and ongoing production assistance. Donations to Ed Video do not disappear into organizational abstraction. They become access. They become cameras, microphones, projectors, edit time, artist fees, workshops, and the skilled labour needed to  make those things available.

The numbers from the last several years tell a powerful story. Between 2020 and 2026, Ed Video delivered over 127 public activities, including 65 workshops, 38 exhibitions and screenings, and 18 member-engagement events. It hosted 14 artist residencies, provided 28 production assistance grants to our members, built 57 collaborations and partnerships, and supported the work of more than 1,600 media artists. Additionally we contribute $19,650 in in-kind equipment support each year to artists and local organizations, we maintain our average annual memberships, which are structured in affordable tiers, and engage thousands of monthly visitors on our website and social media.

The cycle reinforced the importance of media arts infrastructure and intergenerational exchange. As artists increasingly worked across analogue and digital technologies, we maintained access to equipment, technical expertise, and production resources while responding to changing artistic needs. A renewed interest in analogue video synthesis and historical media technologies brought emerging and established artists together, creating opportunities for experimentation, mentorship, and innovation. These encounters demonstrated that legacy is not simply about preservation, but about activating knowledge and inspiring future artistic practice.

Local infrastructure can still have global reach. In that same period, Ed Video also participated in six overseas exhibitions and art fairs. And none of this happened by accident: it was carried by employees and more than 100 volunteers, co-op students, and experiential learning students. That detail matters to me because it shows what Ed Video really is. It is not just a calendar of public events. It is a place where knowledge is passed on, where artists learn from peers and staff, and where one generation helps the next one.

The youth and learning side of Ed Video is especially important and our educational programming demonstrates it. Youth involvement is a vital element of the organization, spanning camps, co-op placements, internships, experiential learning, and broader participation in workshops and public programming. Ed Videos workshops have an educational range that includes video production, grant writing, advanced editing software, and artist-led workshops. This means Ed Video is not only a place where finished work is shown. It is a place where artistic and technical capacity is built.

Ed Video has never been static. The centre’s activity materials show an organization that responds to artists, festivals, partnerships, and new movements in media art itself. Screenings and collaborations with partners include Images Festival, Vtape, Inside Out, Inter Arts Matrix, the Art Gallery of Guelph, the Guelph Youth Music Centre, the Guelph Civic Museum, Club SAW, Near North Media Lab, Le Labo and GNO. This is what relevance looks like: not chasing trends, but building a structure flexible enough to meet artists where they are.

Recognition is part of that ecology too. Through the Kenny Doren Award, Ed Video honours outstanding artistic contributions to media art, particularly in audio, and recent recipients include annais linares, Lisa Conway, Dustin Seabrook, Rene Meshake, SLEDD, Em Wright and Elaquent. Across programming, grants, workshops, awards, rentals, and presentation, the centre keeps building an environment in which artists can develop seriously and be recognized seriously.

As we mark this 50th anniversary, I am thinking across generations. I am thinking of the artists and audiences who built this place, and of those who are only just arriving. I am also thinking of one of our founders, Eric Cameron, whose work appears in Ed Video’s anniversary-year programming and whose death on January 29, 2026, makes this milestone feel especially tender.

Upcoming events and projects include a June 21, 2026 50th-anniversary event, a major anniversary exhibition at the Guelph Civic Museum titled Ed Video 50 Years of Operations — A Look Forward, not to mention a lot of workshops and other presentation programming. Fifty years is long enough for an institution to become part of a city’s memory. It is also long enough for it to become part of a city’s future.

That phrase — “a look forward” — is exactly right. The point of celebrating Ed Video is not nostalgia. The point is stewardship. If Guelph wants to remain a city where artists can access affordable tools, where experimental work can be shown publicly, where youth can develop digital and cinematic skills, and where local stories can travel outward, then Ed Video must not simply survive. It must be sustained.

So I am asking the community to give. Give because the “Ed” stands for education. Give because affordable equipment access matters. Give because artists and filmmakers need
places that are empowering, welcoming, and technically capable. Give because your support is what keeps staff in place, equipment maintained, access affordable, and artist fees possible. And give because Ed Video helps locals share local stories. That is worth protecting for the next fifty years.

Donations can be made via the Donate button at the top right of our website. Or come in person and say “Hi”, learn about our services and equipment and meet the staff. 🙂

Ed Video is located at 46 Essex St, in Guelph.

Photos and images courtesy of Ed Video Media Arts Centre.