The Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with the Canadian Cultural Observatory

The Obser­va­tory, in sup­port of its man­date to inform and advance cul­tural devel­op­ment in Canada, has recently launched Culturescope.ca. This new Web site is an inter­ac­tive hub for arts and cul­ture pro­fes­sion­als that includes a col­lec­tion of spe­cial­ized resources, as well as net­work­ing tools that enable groups of peo­ple to work together on-line. While Culturescope.ca is oper­ated and main­tained by the Obser­va­tory, which is an ini­tia­tive of the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage, the CCA has the oppor­tu­nity to estab­lish an on-line resource cen­tre and dis­cus­sion forum for our mem­bers. This is an oppor­tu­nity for the CCA mem­ber­ship com­mu­nity to take an active role in the future devel­op­ment of this new tool, and to com­ment on how it might help us achieve our organization’s objectives.

We are pleased to announce that CCA mem­bers may now access the CCA’s on-line com­mu­nity on Culturescope.ca.  Once signed in to the secure and pri­vate CCA Com­mu­nity, CCA mem­bers will be able to:

· Access key cul­tural pol­icy doc­u­ments and reports pro­duced by the CCA

· Eas­ily post your organization’s lat­est reports, events and news to inform other CCA members

· Dis­cuss and debate impor­tant issues with other experts and stakeholders

· Con­tribute to future pol­icy and advo­cacy posi­tions taken by the CCA; and

· Help to orga­nize effec­tive coali­tions to voice the con­cerns of artists and cul­tural work­ers across Canada.

The CCA On-line Com­mu­nity in action: Defend­ing our posi­tion on con­tin­ued Cana­dian own­er­ship of the broad­cast­ing industry.

Over the next three months, the CCA will be post­ing infor­ma­tion related to key cul­tural pol­icy and advo­cacy projects. Through­out Feb­ru­ary, the com­mu­nity will focus on pend­ing threats to Cana­dian broad­cast­ing own­er­ship rules and the ram­i­fi­ca­tions for our artists, cul­tural work­ers, and cul­tural indus­tries. The CCA will draw from the on-line debate and dis­cus­sion to develop its strat­egy and posi­tion­ing in defence of Cana­dian own­er­ship of the broad­cast­ing indus­try. Be a part of the conversation!

To take part, visit www.culturescope.ca and sign up today. Sim­ply click on the “Knowl­edge Net­work” item in the left-hand menu on the Culturescope.ca home page. From there, click on the “Request Account” link and you will be guided through a one-time sign-in pro­ce­dure. Ques­tions or trou­ble sign­ing in? Con­tact James Mis­sen at james.missen@ccarts.ca or 613–238-3561, ext. 14.