New Board Confirmed for CCA

Ottawa, March 29th, 2005 — The Pres­i­dent and Chair of the Board of Gov­er­nors of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) is pleased to announce the con­fir­ma­tion of the thir­teen indi­vid­u­als who will form the new CCA Board when the cur­rent one is dis­solved this April.  “Given the qual­ity and vast con­tri­bu­tions over the years of these incom­ing mem­bers to Canada’s cul­tural com­mu­nity, they are, as a group, ide­ally suited to car­ry­ing CCA for­ward,” stated out­go­ing CCA Pres­i­dent Denise Roy, who will be join­ing the new Board as an ex-officio mem­ber once the cur­rent Board com­pletes its three-year mandate.

In accor­dance with a new gov­er­nance model adopted by CCA in 2002, eight of the thir­teen mem­bers were elected by the mem­ber­ship in an online vote that took place over three weeks in Feb­ru­ary.  The remain­ing five mem­bers were appointed by the out­go­ing Board as a means of achiev­ing bal­ance in regional and pro­fes­sional rep­re­sen­ta­tion.  Respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing lead­er­ship, gov­er­nance, and pol­icy direc­tion to the CCA, the Board of Gov­er­nors ulti­mately steers the orga­ni­za­tion with the aim of address­ing the needs and aspi­ra­tions of the artis­tic and cul­tural com­mu­ni­ties of Canada.

“The for­ma­tion of this Board is an acknowl­edge­ment of the pas­sion and com­mit­ment of these thir­teen indi­vid­u­als to the arts in Canada,” com­mented CCA National Direc­tor Jean Malavoy, extending his con­grat­u­la­tions to the new Board mem­bers. “My staff and I look for­ward to work­ing with the Board to facil­i­tate a national envi­ron­ment where artists are val­ued for the essen­tial role they play, and the fun­da­men­tal con­tri­bu­tions they make to our society.”The CCA extends a warm wel­come to the fol­low­ing mem­bers of the 2005–2008 Board of Governors:

Frank Addario – Frank is a part­ner in the law firm of Sack Gold­blatt Mitchell in Toronto, where he has a trial and appel­late crim­i­nal defence prac­tice.  He has been a Direc­tor of the Crim­i­nal Lawyers’ Asso­ci­a­tion since 1995 and is cur­rently a Vice Pres­i­dent.  Frank has been assist­ing CCA with legal issues related to free­dom of expres­sion for nearly ten years.  He has a long­stand­ing inter­est in assist­ing and defend­ing artists whose free­dom of expres­sion is chal­lenged or infringed upon by the state.

Lori Bax­ter – Lori is the Direc­tor of the Art­sNow pro­gram of 2010 Lega­cies­Now, a non-profit soci­ety that is actively work­ing to ensure every region of British Colum­bia ben­e­fits from new oppor­tu­ni­ties that will result from host­ing the 2010 Olympic and Par­a­lympic Win­ter Games.  Lori has worked exten­sively in advo­cacy efforts with all lev­els of gov­ern­ment, the busi­ness com­mu­nity and gen­eral pub­lic.  Her par­tic­u­lar inter­ests include inter-governmental rela­tions and planning, arts for chil­dren and youth – par­tic­u­larly in the edu­ca­tional sys­tem, and increas­ing the public’s under­stand­ing of the arts’ inte­gral rela­tion­ship to com­mu­nity.  This will be Lori’s sec­ond term on the CCA Board of Governors.Rose Bel­losillo – Rose is cur­rently the Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment for Hot Docs, North America’s largest doc­u­men­tary fes­ti­val.  As a proud advo­cate and sup­porter of arts and cul­ture, she sits as a board mem­ber for the Images Fes­ti­val for Inde­pen­dent Film and Video and is involved in the TAC’s Toronto Arts Online work­ing group and the Toronto Fes­ti­vals net­work.  She has acted as an advi­sor to many arts groups, and is look­ing for­ward to the respon­si­bil­ity of being on this Board, as it rein­forces her inter­ests around nec­es­sary col­lec­tive action on issues that directly impact cul­tural workers.

Michel Blondeau – Michel is a Toronto-based new media pro­ducer.  As a found­ing part­ner in ecen­tri­carts inc., he has pro­duced many award win­ning dig­i­tal pro­duc­tions.  In 2004 he received the Can­west Global Excel­lence in Com­mu­ni­ca­tion award for his sup­port of the indus­try.  As a Board mem­ber, he will con­tinue to inform the CCA on the issues related to dig­i­tal cul­tural pro­duc­tions and make rec­om­men­da­tions accord­ingly.  He will also sup­port other national and inter­na­tional pri­or­i­ties within the CCA, such as sta­tus of the artist, dig­i­tal divide real­i­ties, and cul­tural diver­sity.  This will be Michel’s sec­ond term on the CCA Board of Governors.

Nor­mand Chouinard – Nor­mand is a come­dian, direc­tor, writer and pro­ducer who has been actively involved in the Que­bec the­atre, tele­vi­sion and film indus­tries for over thirty years.  From 1995–2001 he was direc­tor of the Con­ser­va­toire d’art dra­ma­tique de Mon­tréal, and he has been co-owner of the Théâtre des Grands Chênes de Kingsey Falls since 1991.  Nor­mand also chaired the Con­seil québé­cois du théâtre from 1991 until 1994, and he has sat on sev­eral com­mit­tees of the Union des artistes (UdA) since 1976.  He cur­rently sits on the board of Cul­ture Mon­tréal as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Union des artistes (UdA).

René Cormier – René is Artis­tic and Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Théâtre pop­u­laire d’Acadie in Cara­quet, New Brunswick.  He has been Pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion inter­na­tionale du théâtre fran­coph­one since June 2000 and Canada’s arts rep­re­sen­ta­tive on this com­mis­sion, and has been involved in arts advo­cacy in Canada for many years, receiv­ing many hon­ours.  René has spent 30 years in the arts and cul­ture sec­tor, and his pas­sion is pro­mot­ing artists and cul­tural man­agers who work in all areas of the coun­try and help­ing to iden­tify impor­tant cul­tural issues in Canada and else­where in the world.

Carol Ged­des –Whether writ­ing or pro­duc­ing, Carol’s pro­lific out­put has high­lighted the sto­ries and strug­gles of Abo­rig­i­nal life in both her home ter­ri­tory of Yukon, as well as other parts of Canada, while gar­ner­ing her national and inter­na­tional awards for doc­u­men­taries.  Rec­og­niz­ing that changes in tech­nol­ogy, in par­tic­u­lar, have meant that the entire field of arts faces new chal­lenges in terms of intel­lec­tual prop­erty rights and new audi­ences, Carol is proud to return for a sec­ond term on the CCA Board to look at this issue, and to act as an advo­cate for Aboriginal artists.

Bastien Gilbert – Bastien has worked as a cul­tural admin­is­tra­tor for more than 25 years.  He has been instru­men­tal in the found­ing of sev­eral arts and cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions in Canada, par­tic­u­larly in Que­bec, and has sat on sev­eral Boards, includ­ing being elected chair­man of the Board for ESSE in 2003.  The orga­ni­za­tion he man­ages, the Regroupe­ment des cen­tres d’artistes auto­gérés du Québec (RCAAQ), is an active mem­ber of the Mou­ve­ment pour les arts et les let­tres (le MAL), and he him­self has been actively involved in advo­cacy for con­tem­po­rary and mod­ern visual art, and for its prac­ti­tion­ers in Que­bec and Canada.  He is com­mit­ted to two issues in par­tic­u­lar: improv­ing fund­ing for the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, and facil­i­tat­ing access to the des­ig­na­tion of national arts ser­vice organization.

Sheila Roberts – Sheila is a cul­tural pol­icy con­sul­tant, ana­lyst and researcher and is a rec­og­nized Cana­dian author­ity on ‘Sta­tus of the Artist’ issues.  She has a life­long involve­ment with the artis­tic com­mu­nity and pro­mo­tion of Saskatchewan’s artists, par­tic­u­larly in the film and broad­cast­ing indus­try, as ACTRA’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive for many years, in inde­pen­dent train­ing and devel­op­ment ini­tia­tives and in research.  In 2004 she was nom­i­nated for the Lieu­tenant Governor’s Award for Lead­er­ship in the Arts.  Sheila rec­og­nizes that efforts need to be made to bring arts orga­ni­za­tions and artists, at the provin­cial and national lev­els, into motion in order to make progress on equity issues for artists, and she will be bring­ing this inter­est for­ward, as a Board member.

Karl Siegler – Karl is the Pres­i­dent and Pub­lisher of Talon­books.  As a pri­vate con­sul­tant, he coor­di­nated Manitoba’s cul­tural indus­tries pol­icy, and cre­ated the first book and mag­a­zine pub­lish­ing Cul­tural Indus­tries Sub-agreement with the Gov­ern­ments of Canada and Man­i­toba in 1983.  He was also one of the found­ing mem­bers of the Simon Fraser Cen­tre for Stud­ies in Pub­lish­ing, and the Mas­ters in Pub­lish­ing pro­gram.  In his role as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Cana­dian Pub­lish­ers, for whom he twice served as Pres­i­dent, Karl played a sig­nif­i­cant role in cre­at­ing the “Cul­tural Indus­tries Exemp­tion” in both the FTA and the NAFTA.  He believes that Canada needs a strong and inde­pen­dent pub­lic pol­icy on arts and cul­ture now more than ever and is eager to work towards this as a CCA Board mem­ber. This will be Karl’s sec­ond term on the CCA Board of Governors.

Robert Sir­man – Robert is Admin­is­tra­tive Direc­tor of Canada’s National Bal­let School in down­town Toronto.  As a speech­writer and pol­icy advi­sor for the Ontario Gov­ern­ment in the 1970’s, he helped to estab­lish Ontario’s first Min­istry of Cul­ture in 1975.  Among other accom­plish­ments, Robert was a found­ing mem­ber and vice-chair of the Cul­tural Human Resources Coun­cil in Ottawa, and chairs the advi­sory coun­cil of the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto’s Co-op Arts Man­age­ment Pro­gram at Scar­bor­ough.  Most recently, he was libret­tist for James Kudelka’s full-length bal­let, The Con­tract.  Robert is hon­oured to add his voice to CCA efforts, and is strongly com­mit­ted to advanc­ing arts prac­tice in soci­ety, and to cre­at­ing con­di­tions help­ful to sup­port­ing a vibrant cul­tural sector.

Robert Spick­ler – Robert has 35 years of expe­ri­ence as a senior man­ager of cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions, hold­ing senior man­age­ment posi­tions at the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts, the Mon­treal Sym­phony Orches­tra and the Cana­dian Cen­tre for Archi­tec­ture.  He has also been chair and spokesper­son of cul­tural agen­cies on both the domes­tic and inter­na­tional scenes.  As a CCA Board mem­ber, Robert is com­mit­ted to par­tic­i­pat­ing actively in the exam­i­na­tion of issues focused namely on the train­ing and pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment of arts man­agers, arts funding, implementation, analy­sis and eval­u­a­tion of cul­tural poli­cies, and the rela­tion­ship between gov­ern­ment and the arts and cul­ture environment.

Andrew David Ter­ris – Andrew is the founder of ARTS NOVA Cul­tural Research and Con­sult­ing which has been involved in a num­ber of fed­er­ally funded research and devel­op­ment projects.  After spend­ing twenty years work­ing as a self-employed crafts­man, designer, artist and sculp­tor in Nova Sco­tia, in 1990 he authored the Pub­lic Pol­icy and Cul­tural Devel­op­ment in Nova Sco­tia report which even­tu­ally led to the cre­ation of the Nova Sco­tia Arts Coun­cil.  Andrew has served on numer­ous boards and com­mit­tees, and is pleased to be return­ing for his sec­ond term as a CCA Board mem­ber, com­mit­ted to build­ing CCA’s focus on research, pol­icy analy­sis, and advocacy. The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts is Canada’s national forum for the arts and cul­tural com­mu­nity. The CCA is a leader in the defence of artists’ rights, an author­ity on pub­lic pol­icy in arts and cul­ture, and a cat­a­lyst for debate and action within the sector