CCA Bulletin 9/09

March 19 , 2009

From the Desk of Alain Pineau:

2009 Chalmers Workshop: Building Consensus

Just the Facts

March 12 and 13, 2009 were productive days for the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) and the Canadian arts and cultural sector in general. The CCA brought stakeholders together from around Canada to continue the process of consensus building initiated through the 2008 Regional Forums. With an aim to foster unified policy platforms and increased sector-wide networking, the two days featured frank discussions and open dialogues.

Over 110 people from all disciplines, organizations and regions participated in the National Cultural Strategy Workshop led on March 12 by Anne L’Ecuyer, from Americans for the Arts. A number of policy priorities and preoccupations were highlighted at the end of the meeting, which fed into the discussions of the next morning at the CCA Board special breakfast meeting.

On March 13, 2009, the Board of Governors met with representatives of key arts service organizations and some of their board members to further develop the concept of consensus building within the Canadian arts sector. The organizations represented the full spectrum of disciplines and regions of Canada. There was a broad agreement that the arts and culture sector needed to develop a more coherent public and political message and the CCA has agreed to assemble a pan-sectoral working group to undertake this task with some urgency. The CCA will release more details on this development in the next few days.

The CCA would like to thank the participants for attending these events and engaging the discussions with trademark enthusiasm, passion and imagination.

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CCA President Kathleen Sharpe opened the March 12 Workshop with a tribute to the generosity of Joan Chalmers whose gift to the CCA helps to underwrite the Chalmers events. The participants joined in giving Ms. Chalmers a warm ovation for her dedication to the arts.

The Chalmers Workshop was held featuring Anne L’ Ecuyer from Americans for the Arts (AFTA), a national arts lobby organization which has become an influential political voice in the United States. AFTA developed into the powerhouse that it is after the arts in the USA went through a dark period which saw major cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, renewed called for censorship after the Robert Mapplethorpe and Piss Christ uproars.

Using a consistent approach to consensus building, AFTA developed a coherent voice and agenda for the arts which it brings to Capitol Hill every year for a blitz on members of Congress. The process of distilling messages and priorities has proven effective and Ms. L’ Ecuyer shared some of the tricks of the consensus building trade with workshop participants through a keynote address and exercises similar to those used by AFTA every year when developing their messages for the politicians. The March 12 session was live-blogged so that the workshop could be followed by our members across Canada.

The workshop was followed by the annual CCA Awards Ceremony. The event was hosted by Senator Tommy Banks, a musician and producer for 50 years and now a member of the Red Chamber. Senator Banks, a long-time friend of the CCA, set the tone for the event with his warm and relaxed style.

The 2008 winner of the Diplôme d’honneur is Allan King, a film-maker whose work has been celebrated around the world as ground-breaking and provocative. In accepting the award which consists of a sterling silver talisman by British Columbia artist Bill Reid, Mr. King noted that he had worked with Bill Reid at the CBC several decades ago which made the award particularly poignant to him. The full text of his acceptance speech can be found here.

The winner of the 2008 Keith Kelly Award for Cultural Leadearship is Simon Brault. Mr. Brault is the Vice-chairman of the Canada Council for the Arts and founder of Culture Montréal and les Journées de la culture. He was praised for his dedication to the arts and his tireless energy in promoting the importance of the arts for our whole society. His acceptance speech can be found here.