Jean Malavoy to head up the CCA

Ottawa , March 17, 2004 —   The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts ( CCA ) is pleased to announce the appoint­ment of Jean Malavoy as its new National Direc­tor. A search com­mit­tee com­posed of mem­bers of the Board of Gov­er­nors and for­mer st af f con­ducted a national com­pe­ti­tion to find a suc­ces­sor for Megan Davis Williams, who announced her inten­tion to leave the CCA af ter serv­ing as National Direc­tor since 1998. Mr. Malavoy will assume the reins of Canada pri­mary arts advo­cacy orga­ni­za­tion from Megan Davis Williams in mid-June.

Mr. Malavoy brings an impres­sive wealth of expe­ri­ence in the cul­tural sec­tor to the CCA .   He is cur­rently the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of La Nou­velle Scène, a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary arts venue that serves four fran­coph­one per­form­ing arts groups in Ottawa . His past work includes 12 years at the Ontario Arts Coun­cil, as well as stints at the Ontario Tril­lium Foun­da­tion, the Bureau des regroupe­ments des artistes visuels en Ontario (BRAVO), and the Con­seil des organ­ismes fran­coph­o­nes du Toronto mét­ro­pol­i­tain. Mr. Malavoy also worked as a con­sul­tant in the cul­tural sec­tor through his com­pany, Jean Malavoy & Associés.

“ Jean Malavoy is pas­sion­ate about Cana­dian cul­ture and the place of   the artist within our soci­ety” said Denise Roy, Pres­i­dent of the CCA ‘s Board of Gov­er­nors. “We believe his strong vision and activist ori­en­ta­tion will serve the CCA and its mem­ber­ship very well.”

“I would also like to express the deep appre­ci­a­tion of the CCA Board of Gov­er­nors for the exem­plary ser­vice of the out­go­ing National Direc­tor Megan Davis Williams,” said Roy . “She has guided the orga­ni­za­tion for the past six years with both wis­dom and zeal.”

The tran­si­tion in lead­er­ship comes at a time when the CCA is heav­ily engaged in sev­eral key pol­icy files, including:

•  the threat to free expres­sion posed by Bill C-12,

•  the cre­ation of a national strat­egy on arts and edu­ca­tion, and

•  the pro­mo­tion of an inter­na­tional con­ven­tion on cul­tural diversity.

For more infor­ma­tion on the CCA ‘s cur­rent advo­cacy work, please visit our web­site at www.ccarts.ca .