CCA Bulletin 51/08 – From the Desk of Alain Pineau – From the Regional Forums to the March 12 Chalmers Conference

December 17, 2008

Dear colleagues,

The past four months have significantly altered the Canadian cultural landscape. We have seen over $ 65 million in cuts to arts and cultural programs (factoring in the abolition of the New Media Fund and of the PromArt program), an election campaign where the arts and culture featured as a key national issue, and an international crisis putting investments, pension funds, endowments, and the whole Canadian economy into jeopardy.

It is against this backdrop that I have spent the past two and half months touring the country to consult with the cultural sector on how we can all work together better to ensure that arts and culture figure prominently onto the public agenda. During this time, I visited 15 cities and met with over 400 artists, creators, culture professionals, and diverse stakeholders. In these forums, I witnessed first-hand broad areas of consensus across the country in terms of the current state of affairs and of the challenges facing Canada’s cultural sector. There is a strong sentiment nation-wide that this sector has both short-term and long-term challenges which need to be formally addressed and that now may be the moment.  You can find a series of blogs on each of the sessions here.

Of the diverse feedback I was given, here are several points which reappeared throughout my tour. There is a realization that the whole sector has an image problem within the Canadian public, which needs correcting. Stakeholders acknowledge that the current state of fragmentation within our organizational structures must be addressed if we want to define shared objectives for the common good and define coordinated strategies to achieve them. It was deemed strategically important to develop fact-based arguments and dispose of the basic statistics which will support the growth and health of the sector. Once the solidarity of the sector is achieved, there is also a recognized need to reach out to other sectors of Canadian society to successfully reposition arts and culture within the national psyche. Finally, there is a consensus that some of the actions needed will take several years to implement and produce results.

Some will say that there is nothing new here. Perhaps, but I strongly believe that this is a time of heightened momentum which must be harnessed if we are ever to resolve the problems facing our sector.

It is in this spirit that I will prepare a Report on the CCA Regional Forums which, once approve by our Board, will be published by the end of January 2009. This Report will be the basis of a March 12 National Cultural Strategy Workshop to be held in Ottawa, where we will begin mapping out the path to achieving the goals of the sector.

On March 12, the Associate VP for Americans for the Arts (AFTA), Anne L’Ecuyer, will share the experiences of the American arts community as it moved from disarray to a strong, coherent, and effective national political voice. She will discuss the positive impact of AFTA now, versus its position in the late 1980s and early 1990s; as well, she will outline how AFTA accomplishes forming an annual approach to producing a shared policy agenda.

Ms. L’Ecuyer will then conduct two workshops systematizing a five-stage approach to gaining consensus and strategies. These workshops will establish guidelines on how to move the sector into a coordinated future direction. The CCA will also provide attendees with the infrastructure and tools to conduct similar workshops within their own organizations and institutions.

After completing the strategy workshops, the CCA will invite all participants to celebrate the artistic achievements of the sector by attending the evening CCA Awards Ceremonies.

I invite you to put March 12, 2009 in your agendas and to register immediately for what promises to be an integral step towards more cohesion and concerted action for the whole sector.

And as the year draws to an end, I want to express to all of you, on behalf of the CCA Board of Governors and of the Secretariat, our very best wishes for the Holiday Season and for the New Year… And please note that the CCA will be closed from December 21 through to January 6, 2009!