CCA Bul­letin 9/09

March 19 , 2009

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.

Tell me more

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 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.