Jessica coached me for four months in conversational French so that I can more readily use it both personally and professionally in international development. I appreciated her way of integrating lessons with my everyday and professional life experiences, and she got me to enjoy practicing and refining my language skills. Jessica cleverly creates ways to serve a student’s specific needs keeping the study fun and interesting.

French classes with Jess really helped give me a boost, with a better perspective on my language learning process and tools for continuing to practice. Thank you Jess for helping me bring down that anxiety, and make practicing French practical and dynamic!

We came to Jessica looking to study French together, and she crafted a lesson plan for us that included both simultaneous and separate sessions, and accommodated travel we had planned with remote lessons via Skype. She helped us build up our confidence speaking French, identified important areas of grammar and vocabulary where we could improve, and was often able to situate a language usage topic in contexts that were familiar to us. Working with her was a great experience and a valuable investment for us.

It’s now been 16 months! Learning with Jessica has greatly improved my French skills and increased my confidence in my ability to use those skills. Self-study and course work gave me basic French skills, but never the confidence to use them. After lessons with Jessica, I’m finally comfortable using what I’ve learned outside of the classroom! I’m now able to represent myself professionally in French, and am even participating in 100% French meetings regularly where I volunteer. Huge steps up from where I was a year ago!

Coming from Berlin, my classes with Jess helped me to express myself more freely in French, broaden my vocabulary, and provided a great setting to talk and learn about Montreal culture and arts. Jess also gives great recommendations on what magazines, shows and artists to check out and discuss in class. Highly recommended!

Jessica is a great resource for artists learning french. She is very patient, knowledgable, and most importantly she understands the art world! She was able to offer specific/customizable learning plans that centered around my work in grant writing and theatre creation.

If you have tried to learn French before, then you know that the vocabulary and grammatical rules found in textbooks do not always reflect how the language is used in day to day life. It’s important because when it comes to communicating with real, live, native Francophones, knowing the right colloquialisms and idioms is as important as knowing how to correctly conjugate your verb tenses. Jess covers all these bases. She will help make sure that your French is not only technically correct but also appropriate for the specific, real-life contexts in which you’re speaking or writing!

Jess is magic! I had specific goals to broaden my vocabulary and to find a job in French. By week three, I had already completed my goals! Our mutual background in the arts made it feel like learning was based on common ground. If you’re looking to complete specific goals, go to Jess!!! She will be a wonderful support and I have no doubt that whatever you want to accomplish, you can accomplish with her.  

Jessica was an excellent resource in terms of increasing my comprehension and comfort with the french language. Her teaching style is supportive and encouraging and she pays special attention to you as a student and the ways that you learn best. We connected as artists as well and her engagement in the arts made the lessons more interesting because she was able to incorporate my interests into the material. Definitely a great teacher!

I approached Jess looking to improve my French conversation skills and language comfortability so that I can better understand and communicate in social situations. Jess’ background as an artist and musician made it easy to relate to each other and helped me learn new vocabulary to talk about my own artistic practice in French. Aside from her artistic background, Jess has a very non-judgmental and encouraging attitude, which helped me gain confidence in speaking outside of our weekly lessons.

Sika was invited to Vanier College in the Spring of 2019 to facilitate a 15ft x 6ft collaborative art mural as part of a campaign centering and celebrating our queer and trans communities at Vanier and beyond. Sika brought vision, passion to the project and invited students to help her color the mural offering explanations on her process and the piece. She was reliable and consistent in her work despite limiting scheduling constraints, communicated her needs clearly, and was very easygoing. She was well-organized, remained within the budget provided, and coordinated her team of two effectively and efficiently.  It was a pleasure to work with Sika and the finished mural is both magnificent and meaningful – come by Vanier to check it out!

Working with Jessica on her album “Sika” was a distinct pleasure. While facilitating the production process (Montreal-Miami), her sense of direction combined with a desire to explore foreign territory and willingness to entertain new ideas was as remarkable as it was refreshing. For a new artist, accepting and giving constructive criticism is often associated with “growing pains,” but Jessica demonstrated a level of maturity and conciseness of thought that is rare in even seasoned artists.   

Jessica Valmé occupe un rôle clé dans mon obtention du poste de Directrice à la programmation du Centre des Arts de la Maison d’Haïti. Intuitive, elle a vu un potentiel sous-estimé et a investi son savoir-faire pour m’accompagner, et m’aider à relever mon mandat mesurant son impact dans la communauté. Jessica est une personne ressource avec qui j’ai partagé idées créatives, et avec qui j’ai réfléchi sur comment atteindre mes objectifs en affaire. Tout est dans son style, Jessica est réellement à l’écoute, impacte mon travail et sa passion est contagieuse!

Jessica is possessed of an organizational nature, perfect for unconventional settings, is capable of a grand overview, paying close attention to small details that amount to a coherent project. Colour Your Walls was not merely an album launch, but a complete art project: she maintains the ease to clearly express herself, makes certain her collaborators and volunteers are working with her on the same wavelength all while setting a pleasant atmosphere for those committed to her. Professional placidity that only experience can generate.

Through couple art projects, my experience working with Jess was purely positive. In my opinion she is hardworking, creatively mature and devoted to honing the skills of her craft. Specifically in her album launch, she had a clear view for the shape it should take and was able to organize plus work well with her collaborators on the event, myself included.

Que des expériences enrichissantes avec Sika! Massimadi est fier d’avoir collaboré avec Sika (2018-17-16). Une personne méticuleuse qui sait ce qu’elle veut, encourage la créativité, favorise discipline et rigueur dans le travail. Elle a offert ses services à l’organisme Arc-en-ciel d’Afrique en créant des œuvres contribuant à promouvoir le festival. Sika fait preuve d’initiative artistique, a le sens des affaires gardant un esprit communautaire. 

I had the pleasure of working with Jessica on a couple of songs on the last Dead Messenger album entitled The Owl In Daylight. I was not only impressed with Jess’ ability to take direction, but also with how she took the material and made it her own. The songs (“The Glass Hotel” and “Small Devices”) really came to life thanks to her vocals and harmony work.

Respectueuse, professionnelle, novatrice et efficace de la conception à la réalisation au démontage, Jessica a gagné mon admiration, pas seulement comme artiste, mais aussi comme visionnaire et gestionnaire de projets. Sa conscience de ses points forts et faibles lui permet de s’entourer de personnes aux habiletés complémentaires, afin de pouvoir réaliser un projet de manière soignée.