MANO/RAMO was created in 2009 for the express purpose of providing a unified and responsive voice for Ontario’s media arts sector. The media arts sector has had a rapid and continued evolution that has been innovative and responsive to new and emerging technologies and formats over the last two decades. The time has come for the sector to communicate its abundant achievements, pursue funding parity with more traditional disciplines, and pursue increased opportunities for its artists. In the coming years, MANO/RAMO will play an important role in spearheading advocacy, professional development, networking and communications that further the profile of the media arts sector in communities across the province.

The Media Arts Net­work of Ontario/Réseau des arts médi­a­tiques de l’Ontario (MANO/RAMO) is an arts ser­vice orga­ni­za­tion whose man­date is to devel­op and fos­ter a uni­fied and respon­sive provin­cial net­work for Ontario media arts orga­ni­za­tions and the inde­pen­dent artists they rep­re­sent. MANO/RAMO cur­rent­ly rep­re­sents over 50 orga­ni­za­tions in Ontario. Key orga­ni­za­tion­al goals include:

• To improve the work­ing and liv­ing con­di­tions for Ontario artists through spe­cif­ic pro­gram­ming activ­i­ties and advo­ca­cy ini­tia­tives at the provin­cial lev­el;
• To cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for col­lab­o­ra­tive exchange and infor­ma­tion shar­ing among expe­ri­enced, mid-lev­el and emerg­ing media arts orga­ni­za­tions and col­lec­tives;
• To respond to the needs of the provin­cial media arts com­mu­ni­ty with action-based ini­tia­tives and com­mu­ni­ca­tions;
• To gar­ner greater sup­port and pro­file for the sec­tor in the province’s cul­tur­al pol­i­cy;
• To cre­ate aware­ness of and engage­ment with the breadth of media arts activ­i­ty in Ontario.

MANO/RAMO’s vision is informed by the val­ue that a rich and vibrant cul­tur­al land­scape includes the con­tin­ued diver­si­ty of artis­tic and cul­tur­al expres­sion offered by inde­pen­dent film, video, audio and new media arts. These forms of expres­sion pro­vide nec­es­sary alter­na­tives to main­stream, com­mer­cial and insti­tu­tion­al ide­olo­gies. It is the organization’s belief that com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment with diverse artis­tic prac­tices improves qual­i­ty of life by pro­mot­ing cul­tur­al under­stand­ing and respect at all lev­els of soci­ety.