The Blog

CCA Together!

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Yes, we're still here, and it’s high time that I reported our recent weeks’ activities!

Just like Mark Twain (and many others since), the CCA would like to say that rumours of its death have been greatly exaggerated! Upon hearing the recent news, some may have jumped to the conclusion that the CCA was folding its tent. Neither the board nor the staff has thrown in the towel and we’re working at full steam ahead...

CCA President’s Blog – All together now!

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April 23, 2012 After months of silence, we finally know where we stand: the fed­eral gov­ern­ment has con­firmed offi­cially it will put an end to 46 years of fund­ing to the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts by March 31, 2013. The good news is: we can count on some tran­si­tion fund­ing. We trust that Min­is­ter Moore’s deci­sion to grant final fund­ing to the CCA is an acknowl­edg­ment of the per­ti­nence of our busi­ness plan and of our seri­ous intent to trans­form the organ­i­sa­tion. I won’t deny how­ever...

Reinventing the CCA: an update

Reinventing the CCA: an update

There are big changes happening at the CCA. Read Alain Pineau's latest blog post to learn more about our ongoing efforts to implement our new strategic plan.

Message from the President

Dear Mem­bers and Colleagues, By now many of you have been made aware of the CCA’s chang­ing rela­tion­ship with its major fun­der, the Gov­ern­ment of Canada. Indeed, many of you may already or will soon be fac­ing the prospect of reduced sup­port fed­er­ally. The model is shift­ing and chang­ing for all of us. It is an immense chal­lenge for this orga­ni­za­tion given its reliance for 45 years on fed­eral sup­port. The board and staff have been work­ing since last sum­mer on a series of finan­cial options and a...

St. John’s — last port of call!

Feb­ru­ary 19, 2012 For weeks, I have won­dered what kind of weather awaited me in the last leg of my pan­cana­dian tour. Hal­i­fax and St. John’s are two cities well known for their win­ter storms. Well, the Gods were kind to me all through­out my five weeks on the road! After spring-like tem­per­a­tures and sun­shine in Hal­i­fax, I arrived in St. John’s on Thurs­day night to the New­found­land ver­sion of spring, with above aver­age tem­per­a­tures, a thick fog and pour­ing rain! Another more recent con­cern of...

Halifax

Feb­ru­ary 16, 2012 I have always loved Hal­i­fax for its friendly atmos­phere, the qual­ity of its cul­tural life and its restau­rants. In fact, I must con­fess that I have a soft spot for Nova Sco­tia where, over the years, I have spent four sum­mer hol­i­days. But it is the first time that I set foot in the Nep­tune The­atre where, after a short inter­view for Radio-Canada’s tele­vi­sion ser­vices, I join the thirty peo­ple or so who have gath­ered in one of the rehearsal rooms on the third floor of this vast...

Québec City

Feb­ru­ary 14, 2012 Bon­homme Car­naval was back in stor­age, the sky was pure blue and the air icy cold when I arrived in Québec City on Sun­day. I come here invited by the net­work of Québec inde­pen­dent pre­sen­ters (RIDEAU) to be a pan­el­list at their annual gath­er­ing. I seize the oppor­tu­nity to meet a num­ber of peo­ple in the province’s old cap­i­tal who have an inter­est in the future of the CCA. Mon­day starts early: an all-morning work­shop  start­ing at 8:30 am,  pre­ceded by break­fast with...

Moncton and Charlottetown

Feb­ru­ary 12, 2012 Last Wednes­day in Monc­ton was as busy as I said it would be in my last blog! Three pre­sen­ta­tions back-to-back in the City Coun­cil Cham­bers (clearly a favoured venue for this visit to New Brunswick). The day begins at 10 am with a meet­ing in French, my first since Saint Boni­face. Over thirty peo­ple lis­ten atten­tively to my pre­sen­ta­tion and I am a bit dis­com­bob­u­lated by their quiet­ness. What has hap­pened to the Aca­di­ans I have grown to know? Not very much like them to stay...

New Brunswick Tour — Part One

Feb­ru­ary 9, 2012 I finally have some free time to tell you about my tour of New Brunswick: what a heavy agenda that was! This is the only province where I have vis­ited three cities: Fred­er­ic­ton, Saint John and Monc­ton. All in all, five pub­lic pre­sen­ta­tions, five small group meet­ings, and some 125 peo­ple heard the CCA mes­sage over those three days… not count­ing those who fol­lowed one pre­sen­ta­tion on Twit­ter (more about that in a moment)! It all started in Fred­er­ic­ton where I arrived on Sun­day...

The National Director’s Blog — On the way back from Edmonton

Feb­ru­ary 2, 2012 EDMONTON — My too-short visit to Edmon­ton was a fit­ting con­clu­sion to a very excit­ing week in Alberta. I arrived in the provin­cial cap­i­tal Tues­day night on the Red Arrow bus from Cal­gary (what high qual­ity travel on board of those buses, some­thing to shame Voyageur ser­vices back East!). Tom McFall, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Alberta Craft Coun­cil and CCA Board mem­ber, was wait­ing for me at the sta­tion and after drop­ping my lug­gage at the hotel, we went out for din­ner to...