The Central Québec School Board’s Performing Arts Festival (PAF) offers more than performances: it provides a hands-on, experiential learning environment where students actively create, perform, and engage with artistic works. The festival brings together educators, artists, and families to guide students as they explore multiple art forms, collaborate with peers, and reflect on their own and others’ creations. Every detail is designed to reinforce that the arts are not an “extra,” but a vital part of how students learn about themselves, connect with their community, and engage with culture.
What is the CQSB Performing Arts Festival?
The PAF is a board-wide event where students share their work in music, drama, dance, and multimedia creation. Representing diverse regions, the board buses students from across its territory, making the festival a true meeting point of cultures, schools, and lived experiences.
Students are not only performers, they are creators and collaborators. Through workshops, rehearsals, and performances, they develop adaptability, risk-taking, and teamwork skills that extend beyond the stage.
Hoop dancing workshop
During the day, artists and community partners lead workshops that introduce students to new artistic disciplines. From dance and music to multimedia practices, students develop new skills and explore forms of expression they may not encounter in everyday school settings.
In the evening, student performances take center stage. These acts are carefully prepared at the students’ own schools in advance, independent of the workshops offered during the day. Acts roll one after another, demonstrating the creativity, skill, and confidence students built throughout the day. Students experience the excitement of final rehearsals, costume adjustments, and stage cues.
The live performances provide students with a meaningful, authentic stage to share their voices. Last year, every seat in the Palais Montcalm was filled with staff, families, friends, and proud members of the CQSB community, all there to celebrate the students’ hard work and artistic achievements.
Full house at the Palais Montcalm
When Technology Meets Culture and the Arts
Team of elementary students creating their own podcast with Canva
As provincial pedagogical consultants with LEARN, my colleague Stacy and I support meaningful technology use across Québec’s anglophone education community. For the 2025 PAF, we were invited to participate by CQSB’s local RÉCIT consultant, Yannik Blier, who had recently attended one of our podcasting workshops and immediately saw its potential for culture, voice, and artistic expression.
Throughout the day, we facilitated a podcasting workshop for grades 4 to 6. For many students, this was their first experience with podcasting. They explored different formats (informative, storytelling, conversational, and interview-style), and in less than 90 minutes, created their very first podcasts. Working in teams, each student took on a specific role (host, interviewer, technician, or planner), developing not only technical skills, but also collaboration, communication, and creative problem-solving.
One pair of Grade 6 students stands out: one was extremely shy, the other very outgoing. Initially unsure where to start, they brainstormed, made a plan, and focused on their work. In the end, it was the introverted student who confidently led the interview, discussing their questions about moving on to high school. Witnessing their confidence and teamwork in such a short time was inspiring.
A Space That Inspires: The Palais Montcalm
Palais Montcalm
Last year’s PAF took place at the historical Palais Montcalm, located in the heart of old Québec. Hosting the festival at the Palais Montcalm added a powerful layer of meaning. This historic cultural venue, deeply rooted in Québec’s artistic landscape, offers students the rare opportunity to perform in a professional space.
For many students, stepping onto that stage is transformative. It sends a clear message: your voice matters, and you belong in cultural spaces. The experience elevates students’ perception of their own work and reinforces the idea that the arts are not reserved for a select few—they are for everyone.
Celebrating Indigenous Traditions
Mariah Miigwans, from the Kitigan Zibi Algonquin First Nation
The 2025 PAF opened with a meaningful Indigenous opening ceremony, led by Mariah Miigwans, from the Kitigan Zibi Algonquin First Nation. Mariah began with a smudging ceremony where she shared the significance of this practice with those present. After this, she shared her love for hoop dancing with the students. Traditional practices created a positive, cleansing energy that invited everyone to engage fully in creating and appreciating the arts. Opening with the artistic practices and traditions of the Indigenous Nations of Québec was a powerful reminder of the importance of Indigenous perspectives, cultural traditions, and respect for diverse ways of knowing. It set a reflective tone, connecting the arts to broader cultural and community values.
Why the Arts Matter—Now More Than Ever
Student performance
The performing arts play a crucial role in education. Through artistic creation, students develop communication skills, empathy, discipline, confidence, and emotional awareness. They provide space for identity, expression, and storytelling, which is particularly important in a time when students navigate complex social and emotional realities.
By valuing artistic learning, the CQSB PAF supports diverse strengths and learning styles, offering students multiple ways to engage, succeed, and feel proud of their contributions.
MEQ Connections: Appreciating Arts and Culture
The festival is a living example of the MEQ competency of appreciating artistic works, as described in the Programme de formation de l’école québécoise:
“Students have had contact with works that provide them with a variety of models for expression and communication, enabling them to appreciate the richness of different artistic languages, to explore their cultural environment and to prepare the way for an ongoing discovery of culture in general.”
(Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec, PFEQ)
Students enjoying the geometry and architecture at the Palais Montcalm. The center student is taking a photograph of their peers in the stairs.
At the CQSB PAF, students engage fully in this process through workshops, performances, and cultural experiences. They:
- Engage actively with artistic works across music, drama, dance, multimedia, and other practices
- Reflect on their own creations and those of others, deepening interpretation and understanding
- Participate in cultural life as performers and audience members
- Collaborate and communicate through authentic creative processes
- Explore Quebec’s cultural spaces and traditions, including the Palais Montcalm
These experiences mirror the MEQ’s vision for elementary and secondary arts education, where students are encouraged to create, perform, and appreciate artistic works. By living these competencies, students build confidence, curiosity, and a sense of belonging while connecting learning to culture, community, and self-expression.
Beyond the Stage
The CQSB Performing Arts Festival is more than an annual event. It is a learning ecosystem. It brings together education, culture, technology, and community in a way that is both meaningful and memorable for students. The festival:
- Offers students authentic cultural experiences
- Supports teacher collaboration and innovation
- Values the arts and its appreciation as a core component of education
- Builds inclusive, creative communities across the province; a sense of belonging
When students are given space to create, collaborate, and perform, they don’t just learn about the arts, they learn about themselves, their voices, and their place in the world.
Special thanks to CQSB’s local RÉCIT consultant Yannik Blier for the invitation and co-animation of the workshop, and to pedagogical consultant Bronwen Hughes, her team, and the generous volunteers who made the 2025 edition we attended possible.
