Where are we now?

The Strategic Planning Committee (Michael Stanley, Rilla Marshall, Annette Campbell, and me) met today to review the report on our public consultations (publicly available as soon as I review it with the Board). There are some pretty clear themes arising and they relate to community, services for artists, and the role of arts in education. Hardly surprising results, but important to have gathered and confirmed.

This topic of community is very interesting as it opens new doors for the Council within the existing mandate. There are so many interesting examples of community arts programs that have had remarkable impacts. We have the DVD from BC’s Documenting Engagement project that is positively inspiring. Feel free to drop in and view it here at the office.

We’d already started looking into expanded services for artists, first in our grant programs, and then in other programming, such as a pilot for export readiness that we’re in discussions on at present. In that light, it was encouraging to see that supported in the consultations.

Lastly, in Arts Education, the need for work in this area is becoming more and more evident. The trick here, as I see it, will be in hammering out a partnership with the Department of Education, assuming, of course, we can adequately illustrate the need for the partnership. Good thing is, we’ve got the consultation to support that, and we’ve also go the recently completed “Arts and Learning Environmental Scan”. While this document is an internal Canadian Public Arts Funders (CPAF) study (not for public release) the Council can use the data and findings, and we can share the official CPAF response. We’ll be meeting next Monday to determine how and when we will share this document, and I’ll have it on our website as soon as the release is agreed.

We'll also post the complete public consultation report on our website shortly(now available here), and we’ll be touring the province once again with the Strategic Plan, in draft, in the next month or so. Stay abreast of this information by subscribing to our newsletter.