The National Director’s Blog

The Winds of Change

The last two months have slipped through our fin­gers! We worked hard this sum­mer, as usual you say, but this time it’s dif­fer­ent. We worked on projects for the future. We weren’t just work­ing on the sur­vival of the CCA: do more with less or just do it dif­fer­ently. No, today we work on invent­ing our future, the cre­ation of an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tion that the whole cul­tural sec­tor can be proud of, because it belongs to them and it meets their needs.

You think this is an ambi­tious project? Me too! Oscar Wilde said, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.” Just because I cite the moon and stars isn’t to say that this project is unre­al­is­tic. We have con­crete sup­port and inter­ested part­ners. We are devel­op­ing pub­li­ca­tions and essen­tial prod­ucts. I’ve talked to dozens of peo­ple who want to see a com­pletely new CCA emerge after the government’s deci­sion to cut off sup­port. A bit like a cater­pil­lar becomes a but­ter­fly… but for now we are really at the chrysalis stage.

And fun­da­men­tally it is work­ing. This sum­mer, we had busi­nesses agree to sup­port us, and oth­ers to sup­port par­tic­u­lar projects. Sep­tem­ber is one of the two major months for mem­ber­ship renewals for the CCA, the other being April, and so far so good! We are up to 12 orga­ni­za­tions that have increased their annual sup­port, a vote of con­fi­dence that we greatly appreciate.

We need more than renewals though; we need to expand our mem­ber­ship base. On top of devel­op­ing research projects, we have also spent part of the sum­mer prepar­ing a mem­ber­ship cam­paign that we will be launch­ing in the com­ing weeks.

A New Busi­ness Model

Our busi­ness plan calls for eight sources of financ­ing, includ­ing the sale of pub­li­ca­tions. In the past, gov­ern­ment sup­port has allowed us to offer these pub­li­ca­tions for free. Now, that is no longer pos­si­ble. Those that par­tic­i­pated in the bat­tle over copy­right know all too well, you must pay for the use of some­one else’s work, oth­er­wise the cycle of cre­ation dries up!

There­fore we will start this pat­tern the week of Sep­tem­ber 18th with the sale of our Fed­eral Bud­get Analy­sis. This year it will be free for mem­bers, but keep in mind that there will be a fee next year. This year non-members can pur­chase the analy­sis for an ini­tial launch price of $250.

One of the projects in devel­op­ment is an analy­sis of the provin­cial and ter­ri­to­r­ial bud­gets from the cul­tural per­spec­tive. This new pub­li­ca­tion will com­plete our analy­sis of the fed­eral bud­get that we have been doing for many years. Given the cuts imposed by the gov­ern­ment, and the deci­sion to aban­don the annual pub­li­ca­tion on pub­lic spend­ing on cul­ture from Stats Canada, this analy­sis will be a timely one although not intended to replace their work. The project is being coor­di­nated by Sharon Jean­notte, from the Uni­ver­sity of Ottawa’s Cen­tre for Gov­er­nance, who will be work­ing with a team of experts in each of the provinces. This annual pub­li­ca­tion will be avail­able sep­a­rately or as a pack­age with the fed­eral analysis.

We have begun work on the repub­li­ca­tion and updat­ing of our book Review of Fed­eral Polices for the Arts in Canada by D. Paul Schafer and André Fortier which cov­ered the period from 1944–1988. A steer­ing com­mit­tee has been assem­bled, notably includ­ing Gérald Grand­mont, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at HEC; Joyce Zemans, pro­fes­sor emer­i­tus at York Uni­ver­sity; and Paul Schafer, one of the orig­i­nal authors. This doc­u­ment will be an essen­tial ref­er­ence in the man­age­ment of arts and pol­i­tics. As they say, “In order to know where you’re going you must know where you’re com­ing from.”

We are prepar­ing to wel­come two interns who will be help­ing with the pub­li­ca­tion of our Bul­letin and The Mag­a­zine among other things. We are con­tin­u­ing to rally our mem­bers around com­mon inter­ests and to keep track of what is hap­pen­ing in the House of Com­mons. On that note, after the return to Par­lia­ment, our mem­bers will have access to sum­maries of what is being said in Ottawa con­cern­ing cul­ture. More than ever we will be your eyes and ears in Ottawa.

We have a full plate! But noth­ing is more moti­vat­ing than know­ing that you are with us as we face this challenge!

–Alain