NEW PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT TO GUIDE CANADIAN CONFERENCE OF THE ARTS

Bul­letin 26/05

Ottawa, June 3, 2005 — The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) is pleased to announce the elec­tion of Andrew David Ter­ris as pres­i­dent and Robert Spick­ler as vice-president of its board of governors.

Mr. Ter­ris, who has worked as an artist, designer, researcher, writer, admin­is­tra­tor and con­sul­tant over the past 35 years, brings an impres­sive wealth of knowl­edge and lead­er­ship to the CCA. He was the author of Pub­lic Pol­icy and Cul­tural Devel­op­ment in Nova Sco­tia, a 1990 report which even­tu­ally led to the cre­ation of the Nova Sco­tia Arts Coun­cil. From 1992 to 1997, he was Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Visual Arts Nova Sco­tia. He then became found­ing Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Nova Sco­tia Cul­tural Net­work, a broad-based orga­ni­za­tion which was instru­men­tal in ini­ti­at­ing and devel­op­ing the Nova Sco­tia Cul­ture Sec­tor Strat­egy. He recently com­pleted six years as a mem­ber and two years as chair of Sta­tis­tics Canada’s National Advi­sory Com­mit­tee on Cul­tural Sta­tis­tics.
Mr. Ter­ris left the Cul­tural Net­work in 2002 to set up his own com­pany, ARTS NOVA Cul­tural Research and Con­sult­ing, which has sub­se­quently been involved in a num­ber of fed­er­ally funded research and devel­op­ment projects. Over the years, he has served on numer­ous boards and com­mit­tees, includ­ing the Cul­tural Fed­er­a­tions of Nova Sco­tia, Nova Sco­tia Coali­tion on Arts and Cul­ture, Nova Sco­tia Cul­ture Strat­egy Group, Arts and the Cities, and the Inter­provin­cial Net­work of the Cul­tural Human Resources Coun­cil.
“It is a pro­found hon­our to be cho­sen as pres­i­dent of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts in its 60th anniver­sary year. As the col­lec­tive voice of Cana­dian artists and arts orga­ni­za­tions, the CCA has had a pro­found and last­ing influ­ence on cul­tural devel­op­ment in Canada. My goal as pres­i­dent will be to main­tain and expand the CCA’s lead­er­ship role as the only national orga­ni­za­tion which rep­re­sents all aspects of the arts com­mu­nity on cul­tural pol­icy issues.”

Mr. Spick­ler has over 35 years of expe­ri­ence as a senior man­ager of cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions and pos­sesses exten­sive knowl­edge of the field at both national and inter­na­tional lev­els. He has served as chair and spokesper­son for a num­ber of domes­tic and inter­na­tional cul­tural agen­cies, has held senior man­age­ment posi­tions at the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts and Mon­treal Sym­phony Orches­tra, and he is cur­rently Asso­ciate Direc­tor of the Cana­dian Cen­tre for Architecture.

“I look for­ward to my term as vice-president of the CCA, which has been such a strong pro­moter of Cana­dian cul­ture over the years. Along with the pres­i­dent, I will work to ensure that the CCA remains a vig­or­ous sup­porter of the art and artists of Canada.”

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

• The cre­ation of a national cul­tural pol­icy framework
• Increased, sta­ble, multi-year fed­eral fund­ing for the arts, cul­ture, and her­itage sectors
• Fair tax treat­ment for artists