British Council disbands its specialist arts departments, including dance

This story comes from Dance UK and offers their research into this new development.

British Council disbands its specialist arts departments, including dance

Some Dance UK members have contacted Dance UK this morning (Thursday 20 December) to raise their concern about a story that ran in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph that the British Council’s executive board has decided to disband its departments in film, drama, dance, literature, design and the visual arts.

We attach a link to the story below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/12/19/bacouncil119.xml

As many of our corporate members work closely with the British Council to facilitate their work internationally Dance UK contacted the British Council to ask for their response to the story. They issued us with the following statement:

The British Council is committed to the arts and will continue to deliver arts projects internationally. Examples include the British Council Edinburgh Showcase, managing the British Pavilion and showcasing the best of Britain at the Biennales as we have done since 1938.

The British Council has a global arts programme of £30m and there will be no reduction in this budget. We have re-structured our arts group. We will retain sector expertise in all of the art forms but are mobilising our resources in different ways so that we can deliver bigger, global projects with the same amount of cash resources. This reorganisation involves the merging of sector expertise into more flexible project teams.

We are in a period of consultation with external stakeholders and a more formal announcement will be made in the January/February, 2008. A process document outlining this timeline is available on the website.

Martin Davidson CEO of The British Council said ‘The arts provide a unique space for creative dialogue and underpins our understanding of the world around us. In all its forms, the arts stimulate debate and allow us to better understand what we have in common and the differences between ourselves and other societies. The British Council is deeply committed to the arts in our cultural relations work, now and in the future - especially at a time when the arts and creative industries are flourishing in the UK’

It seems at present that we will have to wait, as do British Council staff, until the New Year to see how this situation develops and how it will affect dance. When we have more news we will let Dance UK members know, formulate a formal response, and if necessary write to the Foreign Office and the DCMS to express members’ concerns.

Sian McAulay, Deputy Director, Dance UK

Culture Vultures book, England

There is no doubt that in the last decade or so, arts in the UK has seen a massive injection of money for new projects and exhibitions... The book 'Culture Vultures: Is UK arts policy is damaging the arts?' shows official claims about the social benefits of art are based on exaggeration, and that arts practice suffers as a result. The book is being published by the think-tank Policy Exchange....

The collection of essays show that many of the claims made about the social benefits of arts are exaggerated, resulting in wasteful projects of poor artistic quality. The criteria for funding means that arts organisations are drowning under a tidal wave of 'tick boxes and targets'.

The book's authors are a mixture of academics and commentators. They recommend:

More honest and independent use of evidence in cultural policy. Too much research is driven by arts advocacy and is therefore biased.

Less bureaucracy around arts funding. The funding framework forces artists to spend valuable time and resources on ‘ticking boxes’, at the expense of producing excellent work.

Debate about true value of the arts. The government and arts quangos should promote the importance of art for its own sake.

Click here for more info.

EU funds research into roles for older female performers

An article in The Stage published Tuesday 4 December 2007 by Matthew Hemley explains:

"Grant money of more than €150,000 has been awarded from Brussels for the research, which will examine what roles exist for older women and how decisions are made when casting parts which can be played by either sex. It will also look how women over 40 are portrayed in television and theatre.

Entitled Changing Gender Portrayal: Promoting Employment Opportunities for Women in the Performing Arts, the research will include a survey that will be handed to each of the federation’s affiliated unions in Europe."

Read the whole article by clicking here.

Policies and Programs of Support for Senior Artists

D'Art research report: Policies and Programs of Support for Senior Artists
D'Art Topics in Arts Policy, no. 28, December 2007
IFACCA and Joyce Zemans

The research, headed by Professor Joyce Zemans of York University, was undertaken at the request of the Canadian Artists’ Heritage Resource Centre Steering Committee. The D'Art report outlines a selection of policies and programs that provide support to senior artists who are experiencing financial difficulty or are no longer able to work. The initiatives, which come from eighteen countries, are classified into six broad types:

• pension schemes
• multi-year grants
• guaranteed income
• subsidised housing programs
• dancer’s transition centres
• grants for senior artists awarded for artistic contribution.

Click here to download the document in pdf.

Conference on Art Institutions as Catalysts or Indicators: the Role of Art Institutions in Gentrification Processes

Conference on Art Institutions as Catalysts or Indicators: the Role of Art Institutions in Gentrification Processes - click here for more info.

The conference on the role of art institutions in gentrification processes will focus on the interaction of culture and art institutions with processes of urban development, and the role of such institutions in gentrification processes in Latvia and abroad.

CHRC's Mentorship Strategy for Managers and Administrators of Cultural Organizations

CHRC's Mentorship Strategy for Managers and Administrators of Cultural Organizations (March 2005)

The goal of the mentorship strategy is to increase support for and invovlement in the mentorship of managers and administrators in the cultural sector across Canada.

To view the Mentorship Strategy, click here.

CHRC Online Module Critical Thinking for Cultural Planners

The Cultural Human Resources Centre has released a new online module – Critical Thinking for Cultural Planners. This interactive module works to further clarify the roles critical thinking plays in cultural management. The material is designed to allow Cultural Managers to engage with various aspects of critical thinking as it pertains to their everyday work.

The module is available here. CLICK HERE.

The internationalisation of cultural life (Ministry of Culture Sweden)

Here's a fact sheet from the Ministry of Culture in Sweden (October 2007) on the Internationalisation of cultural life.

excerpt:

The development and vitality of Swedish cultural life is dependent on international exchange and cooperation. As a result of this, an international perspective must permeate the activities of cultural institutions and action to promote internationalisation must be integrated into the infrastructure of cultural life and government grant systems. Culture has assumed an increasingly important role in building relations with other countries in such fields as the promotion of Sweden, democracy promotion and development cooperation. The role of culture and the media for the development of democracy and freedom of expression is becoming increasingly clear. The consequence of this development is that the creators of culture both should, and must be given more scope in the international dialogue. Internationalisation is a long-term cultural policy process...

There are three major objectives:
1. High quality, artistic integrity, a long-term perspective and reciprocity
2. Swedish successes abroad
3. International cultural meetings in Sweden
4. Deeper cooperation between different policy areas

The turn to cultural internationalism is happening across the board.
Read the full Swedish version by clicking here.

Add Value to Contents: the Valorisation of Culture Today

This article (on www.transform.eipcp.net - a site worth checking out) talks around and through the industry-paradigm of culture.

As a critique of the industrial frameworks surrounding valorization of culture, Esther Leslie offers a thoughtful portrayal of perspectives on culture, and she responds to it. Starting with UNESCO's insistance that:

‘cultural industries’, which include publishing, music, audiovisual technology, electronics, video games and the Internet, ‘create employment and wealth’, ‘foster innovation in production and commercialisation processes’ and ‘are central in promoting and maintaining cultural diversity and in ensuring democratic access to culture’

She rapidly moves on to attest that within this paradigm, "value is a gift of industry, not a quality of artifacts themselves."

What I find particularly resonant (and strangely not paradoxical, even as it ironically tempts hypocracy), is the say she frames her statement that value has become a debased term. She rephrases the cultural economic argument (the value that is more valuable than all others is monetary) with cultural marketability.

Alongside, Adorno and Benjamin, she invokes Marx in the article.

Click here to read the whole article

excerpt:

In Britain today, as elsewhere, culture is the wonder stuff that gives more away than it takes. Like some fantastical oil in a Grimm fairytale, this magical substance gives and gives, generating and enhancing value, for state and private men alike. Culture is posited as a mode of value-production: for its economy-boosting and wealth-generating effects; its talent for regeneration, through raising house prices and introducing new business, which is largely service based; and its benefits as a type of moral rearmament or emotional trainer, a perspective that lies behind the ‘social inclusion’ model, whereby culture must speak to – or down to – disenfranchised groups. Culture is instrumentalised for its ‘value-generating’ spin-offs.

Raises for me broad questions of value, valorization, partnership, leadership, and the relationships between culture and art (both theoretical, perceptual, and functional) in post-industrial capitalism and productive consumerism.

Trade in Culture Services - A Handbook of Concepts and Methods

Trade in Culture Services - A Handbook of Concepts and Methods

Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics
Research papers, 2007

This is a very basic handbook, and what makes it interesting is the discourse employed - the choice of language signals how they are conceptualising issues and topics, and how the Cultural Statistics Program is creating frameworks of reference and justification.

Here is an excerpt:

The Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics includes the following activities in
the definition of culture services: creative services, intellectual property rights for
culture products, artistic expression, content services, and preservation services.
Perhaps the most intuitive example of a creative service is a performance.
Live performances are intangibles that can be bought and sold and involve creative
artistic activity. Performances can be final demand products (you pay to see a show)
or intermediate inputs (production services). Examples of live performances are
theatrical plays or musical performances.

This sure is revealing about who their intended audience might be (for this handbook I mean) and how much current knowledge they assume their audience has. For example, live performance, in this excerpt, is regarded as material product where services are cash transactions rather than services that may also include other 'intangible' and 'intuitive' human exchange. How this handbook defines cultural services infers a lot about what is valued in the trade of cultural service, and the directed choice of approach.

Find the whole handbook by clicking here.

Historic five-year action plan by Assembly of First Nations: The Rebuilding Our Nations Youth Accord

Hundreds of First Nations youth from across Canada gathered November 1, 2007 in Winnipeg to complete a draft five-year action plan called: The Rebuilding Our Nations Youth Accord. The Accord will set out specific actions to address health, cultural, economic, political and social issues. A draft of the Accord was presented to AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine and Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Ron Evans.

Some of highlights in the Accord are:

• Mandatory First Nation history curriculum in the public education system and a requirement for all teachers to take mandatory courses in First Nations history;
• Recognize First Nations languages as official languages of Canada;
• Mobilize First Nations youth in voting campaigns;
• Establish a First Nations History Month;
• Establish First Nations youth governance systems including regular youth gatherings;
• Increase funding to First Nations schools and addressing the crisis in post-secondary funding;
• Create healing circles to address intergenerational impacts;
• Create environmentally friendly enterprises more aligned with First Nations values;
• Strengthen the child welfare system including better support to families as a first measure

The Accord will be presented to the AFN Special Chiefs Assembly, December 11 – 13, 2007 in Ottawa, Ontario.

Click here to see the full press release on the Assembly of First Nations website.

Artist colonies rise above USA politics for new funding

Artist Colonies, `Heat Shield' From Critics, May Get U.S. Funds

By Laurence Arnold

[See the original source article, in full, at www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=ab8gKgmzjyaU# ]

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Twelve years after Congress ended most funding to individual artists, the National Endowment for the Arts may reopen the flow of money to poets, musicians, writers and painters through artist colonies.

The NEA, which is in line for a budget increase of as much as 28 percent next year, plans to direct some of the additional money to the hundreds of U.S. colonies and communities that provide artists with residencies, funding and, above all, creative freedom.

``We're very excited about this,'' NEA Chairman Dana Gioia said at a Nov. 7 conference in Washington sponsored by artist communities. ``It's something we've been talking about internally for a couple of years now.''

Gioia said his plan would amend the endowment's application categories to create a specific opportunity for artist communities to win funding. The goal, he said, is to support ``individual artists creating new work.'' Arts groups apply for NEA funding in several different categories.

Colonies give artists the freedom to explore works that otherwise might be imperiled by public criticism, said Cheryl Young, executive director of the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. ``They provide a heat shield,'' she said.

Congress in 1995 sharply limited the NEA's authority to fund individual artists, a response to controversies over publicly financed art that involved nudity or addressed homosexuality and religion.

Budget Slashed

For years, Republicans in Congress expressed outrage that the NEA supported exhibits that included erotic gay photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe and an Andres Serrano work depicting a crucifix immersed in urine. Republicans took control of Congress in 1995 and slashed the NEA's budget by 40 percent during the next five years while imposing the new limits on support for individual artists.

The NEA's budget, which peaked at $176 million in 1992, fell to a low of $97.6 million in 2000 and was $127 million in 2007.

The new Democratic-controlled House has approved giving the NEA $160 million in 2008, a 28 percent increase. In the Senate, also now controlled by Democrats, the Appropriations Committee has proposed a smaller, 7 percent increase, to $133 million. Differences between the House and Senate plans would have to be worked out during budget conferences.

Gioia said the NEA's plan to boost support of artist colonies is dependent on the agency being ``well treated in this budget, as we have every expectation to be.'' A program to support artist colonies, if created, wouldn't begin providing money until 2009, according to NEA spokeswoman Felicia Knight.

Creative Freedom

A poet, music critic and former General Foods executive, Gioia was appointed to the NEA post by President George W. Bush and took office in January 2003.

In an interview, he said artist colonies are technically eligible to apply for NEA funding, though they face obstacles under the agency's current system of categories.

``We don't recognize them as a unique kind of cultural entity,'' he said.

Creating a new funding category ``without question'' will increase the number of colonies that receive support, he added.

Gioia said there are hundreds of such colonies in the U.S.

The Providence, Rhode Island-based Alliance of Artists Communities says its 250 members -- communities, residency programs and individuals -- collectively support 12,000 artists annually in the U.S. and more than a dozen other countries....

There is more to this article. Read the rest by clicking here .

USA Scholars Ask For Normal Relations with Cuba

U.S Scholars Ask For Normal Relations with Cuba
20 de Noviembre del 2007

"In an open letter to Bush, more than two hundred artists and scholars from the United States asked their president to end the travel ban that prevents U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba and allow Cuban artists and scholars to visit the United States."

Read more at ahora.cu and find the entire article by clicking here.


Source: ACN

Art & Innovation: An Evolutionary Economic View of the Creative Industries

Art & Innovation: An Evolutionary Economic View of the Creative Industries
Unesco Observatory, The University of Melbourne Refereed E-Journal, 2007

by Jason Potts ; Arc Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation,
Queensland University of Technology, School of Economics

"This paper argues that the economics of the arts and culture, and more formally the economics of creative industries, should be based on evolutionary economics. The reason is simple. The value of the arts and culture to an economic system is dynamic: it is change value, and naturally experimental and uncertain. New ideas and technologies are the drivers of economic growth, yet only to the extent that they are adopted and retained by people. The creative industries are the entrepreneurs and manufacturers of this socio-technical process. They are, I will explain, part of the innovation system of the economy in terms of what I shall call the ‘creative systems’ framework.
This suggests a new line of thinking for those engaged in research on the arts, education and cultural development that is based on a rather different conception of the economy than is conventional."

The paper asserts that the value of the arts and culture are dynamic, and Jason Potts explains in this paper how arts, education and cultural researchers could benefit from working with an analysis of economic dynamics (as open system processes of change and re-coordination) ratherr than making futile attempts to defend (static) cultural value against (equally static) economic value.

Juicy!
- R

Beyond Performance: Building a Better Future for Dancers and the Art of Dance.

Click here to read: Beyond Performance: Building a Better Future for Dancers and the Art of Dance.

This is a 64 page document providing rigorous comparative research that documents and lluminates the issue of dancer career transition on a global basis, providing a platform for analysis, action, and advocacy.


An excerpt:

OBSERVATION #4:
Multiple strategies will be necessary to address the career transition needs of dancers
on an international scale, because the broader context in which dancers carry out their
work varies from country to country. Factors that come into play on a country-by-country
basis include the degree to which the arts are publicly or privately supported, cultural
attitudes towards the arts in general and dance in particular, the dominant dance
genres in a particular country or region, and the nature of existing worker protections in
the form of social benefit programs. Because of this variability, the global dance community
has much to learn from shared information about “promising practices,” which
can be adapted and refined to meet local conditions.

R

wow, what a bibliography! (CECC)

The Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities has an increadible resource of bibliographic listings on their site.

Culture and Sustainability http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/culture-and-sustainability.html

Cultural Infrastructure
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/cultural-infrastructure.html

Impacts and Indicators
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/impacts-indicators.html

Cultural Planning (Culture in Communities)
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/cultural-planning.html

Creative Cities (Culture in Communities)
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/creative-cities.html

Cultural Ecosystems (Culture in Communities)
http://www.cultureandcommunities.ca/resources/bibliographies/cultural-ecosystems.html

Talk about winter reading....

-R

Vancouver long-range cultural facilities plan underway

"In May 2007 the Managing Director of Cultural Services and the Manager of Materials
Management sought proposals for consultant services related to the creation of a long-range
cultural facilities priorities plan through an RFP (PS07083). The RFP was posted on the City’s
website, BC Bid, and circulated to the cultural community through the City and Alliance for
Arts and Culture email distribution lists.
Five proposals were received and reviewed by the interdepartmental staff team using a
comparative and consistent matrix format. The matrix compared the proponents’ teams past
experience with large complex public art programs, proposal content, methodology, and cost.
Proponents were scored out of a total of 100 points.
The review team short-listed two of the proponent teams for further consideration.
Following input from references and the interdepartmental staff team ranked the proposal
from Toronto Artscape as superior to the other proposals. The Toronto Artscape team
proposed a project budget of $91,250 plus GST and disbursements.
Subject to Council approval, the program review will commence October 15, 2007 and be
completed by March 31, 2008. The result of the review, along with the implementation
planning reports, will be reported back in June 2008.
The Cultural Facility Priorities Plan will be developed by the consultants working with a
Steering Committee comprised of the Managing Director of Cultural Services (Chair), the Co
Director, Office of Cultural Affairs (Policy Planning & Infrastructure), the Director of Financial
Planning & Treasury, the Assistant Director, Vancouver Civic Theatres, the Senior Cultural
Planner, the Senior Social Planner and the Directors of Planning and Facilities Design and
Management.
An Advisory Committee with representation from arts and culture organizations will be
convened to provide advice on community input and process, as well as recommended
outcomes. Additional public engagement will take the form of a surveys, interviews,
discipline-based and cross-discipline focus groups, as well as public open houses. The goal is
to create a plan that reflects community input and develops consensus-based criteria for
prioritizing in outcomes. The full scope of work for the Cultural Facility Plan is contained in
Appendix A."

Click here for the administrative report Vancouver long-range cultural facilities plan underway

Arts debate - Arts Council England's public value inquiry

Arts debate

Learn about the findings from Arts Council England’s first ever public value inquiry! An overall summary of arts debate findings now available.

The arts debate, Arts Council England’s first ever public value inquiry, ran from October 2006 to September 2007. It involved a number of stages of in-depth research as well as an open consultation. During that period we learned an enormous amount about how different people value the arts and their views on arts funding in England.

We have now brought together the findings from all stages of the inquiry into an overall summary report, Public value and the arts in England: Discussion and conclusions of the arts debate, available on the summary & conclusions page.

You can also access detailed findings from each stage of the inquiry on the research & consultation page.

Next steps

We are currently taking time to reflect upon all that we have learned and to consider the implications for future policy and practice. We will also be sharing and debating the findings with our partners in the arts sector and beyond.

The Arts Council will be different as a result of the arts debate. We will use the next few months to develop a detailed response to the findings, combining:

• short term actions in our next corporate plan

• a long-term policy response to be published in spring 2008

More details on how we are responding to the arts debate will be available on this website in 2008. In the meantime, we would like to thank everyone who has helped us by supporting or taking part in the debate. Your contribution is making a difference.

British arts funding - final rites, or olympic transmogrification?

My particuar weakness for admiring the practices happening far from home involves yearning for them with a longing that is unashamedly transparent. At times like these (everything is greener...) a reality check or two is necessary.
This article by Norman Lebrecht titled "London needs to form its own arts council" is a kind of wake-up call:

"The final rites were administered last week to the founding principle of British arts funding. In Scotland, an aggressively secessionist government announced new laws to replace the arts council with a state-run ‘cultural agency’. Wales is mulling a similar move while England abolished any pretence of arm’s-length independence by appointing a Yes Minister official from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to be chief executive of Arts Council England, effectively its terminator."

Lebrecht's article goes on to talk about the changes in London and England, the troubles brewing (I'd call them troubles, and look forward to seeing how reactions unroll), and the need for a concerted London arts council, especially in the run up to the 2012 olympics. Good thinking Lebrecht, thanks for the mini expose.

To read the entire article, click here.

Alan Davey appointed new Chief Executive of Arts Council

Alan Davey appointed new Chief Executive of Arts Council

- To read the full article from Dance UK, click here -

Sir Christopher Frayling, Chair of Arts Council England, announced on Wednesday 26 September the appointment of Alan Davey as the new Chief Executive of Arts Council England.

Alan Davey, 46, is currently Director of Culture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, (DCMS) a post he has held since 2003 having worked in the Department as head of the arts division since 2001. In an earlier stint at the then Department of National Heritage he was responsible for designing the National Lottery. Mr Davey is well known as a dance fan and is often seen at dance performances. He recently attended the All Party Parliamentary Dance Group event at the Ballet For the People Gala at the Royal Festival Hall, which featured performances by the Ballet Boyz, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert, and new choreography from Christopher Wheeldon, Craig Revel Horwood and Rafael Bonachela.

His appointment to Chief Executive of the Arts Council is potentially good news for the dance sector and early responses from dance professionals are all positive. Mr Davey is seen as a supporter of dance as an art form, whilst also being informed about a crosssection of current issues facing the dance sector, such as tax and dancers’ health, all issues raised in the recent DCMS Dance Forums.

Born in Stockton-on-tees, the son of an electrician, Alan Davey studied English at Birmingham University and went onto Oxford where he received an MPhil. He was then offered a provisional place at Manchester University to study medicine, but when he failed to raise the money to attend the course, he opted for a career in the civil service.

Mr Davey will take up his new appointment at the Arts Council in early 2008 – succeeding Peter Hewitt, who will have been in post as Chief Executive for ten years.

Alan Davey says: “I couldn’t be more excited about my new role. The arts in England have never been healthier, more challenging, innovative or popular. I want the Arts Council to be at the forefront of building on that success – working with artists to reach even greater heights, leading the arts with passion and excellence, and forging new partnerships that secure the position of the arts in national life.

“Building on what has been achieved by Peter Hewitt, I am confident that a creative, focused and entrepreneurial Arts Council can do just that. I can’t wait to get started.”

New post

Haven't posted much since I took up my 'new post', leading me to move halfway across Canada (to Ottawa) and begin a year-long contract with the Canada Council for the Arts, in the dance section.

Now with feet on ground and head in stars, more will be posted here again soon.

- R

ERASING THE LINE BETWEEN WORK AND LEISURE

Robert A. Stebbins, FRSC
University of Calgary
Paper presented at the “Leisure and Liberty in North America” Conference held 12-13 November 2004, University of Paris IV, Paris, France. Read the entire paper - click here.

Change is afoot regarding human resources, young administrators, aging dance artists and devotee work in relation to working in the arts.

“devotee work,” is work that is so attractive that it is essentially leisure for those engaging in it. The only important difference between their work and what their counterparts in "serious leisure" do is that devotee workers get paid for their efforts...

... Vis-à-vis other kinds of work and leisure, both occupational devotion and serious leisure stand out, in that they, alone, meet all six of the following distinguishing criteria:
1) The valued core activity must be profound; to perform it acceptability requires substantial skill, knowledge, or experience or a combination of two or three of these;
2) the core must offer significant variety;
3) the core must also offer significant opportunity for creative or innovative work, as a valued expression of individual personality;
4) the individual devotee must have reasonable control over amount and disposition of time put into the occupation (the value of freedom of action), such that he can prevent it from becoming a burden;
5) the individual must have both an aptitude and a taste for the work in question;
6) the individual must work in a physical and social milieu that encourages them to pursue often and without significant constraint the core activity.
It should be understood that these six criteria do not necessarily constitute an exhaustive list; for through further exploratory research and theorizing, other criteria may well be discovered...

... What is happening today to this interface between work and leisure? In answering this question note, first, that the modern work ethic – most generally put that hard work is good – is manifested in at least two main ways: workaholism and occupational devotion.

Devotee? or Serious leisure? Hmmm. Read the entire paper - click here.

Presto-chango: Josée Verner as Canadian Heritage minister

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has appointed the Honourable Josée Verner as the new Minister of Canadian Heritage, switching places with the Honourable Bev Oda who has gone to replace her at International Cooperation. Verner, a francophone from the Louis-St-Laurent riding in Quebec City, assumes the Heritage portfolio.

First elected Member of Parliament in January 2006, Ms Verner represents the riding of Louis-St. Laurent, in the Québec city area. She became Minister for international co-operation, la Francophonie and Official Languages in the very first Conservative Cabinet. Previously, she had been spokesperson for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Region of Québec in Mr. Harper’s shadow cabinet. This was widened in September 2005 to include the Official Languages portfolio.

She also chaired the Québec Caucus for the Conservative Party of Canada. More bilingual than her predecessor, Ms. Verner has spent close to 20 years in the communications and public service fields. She served in the office of former Québec Premier Robert Bourassa and in the office of the Deputy Speaker of Québec’s National Assembly, and also worked in the Ministry of Health.

Cabinet shuffle for Bev Oda?

August 8 2007. The Toronto Star reports that the biggest cultural development of the summer could be an impending cabinet shuffle, said to be in the works for next week.

"That's because Bev Oda – who has been an enigmatic and lacklustre head of culture as heritage minister since early 2006 – is a likely target for Stephen Harper... if Harper shuffles Oda, it won't be because she has disappointed the arts world. He may opt for the political advantage of a French-speaking heritage minister, knowing culture gets votes in Quebec."

Read the article - click here.

A profile of professional dancers in Canada

A Profile of Professional Dancers in Canada

Based on a questionnaire from the Dancer Transition Resource Centre

Profile prepared by Kelly Hill, Hill Strategies Research Inc., February 16, 2005 http://www.hillstrategies.com

Professional dancers were asked about the dance-related activities from which they earned income during the past tax year (generally the 2003 calendar year). Almost all selected performing (92%). The next most common sources of dance earnings were teaching (51%), choreography (31%) and grants (22%). The following table summarizes the responses to this question. (Because dancers could choose all applicable responses, the percentages in this table add up to more than 100%.)

Click here to download the entire research paper.

R

Arts in Health and Well-being Strategy

Arts in Health and Well-being Strategy

The Arts Council of Wales has published for public consultation a draft strategy on Arts in Health and Well-being

The strategy has been developed in partnership with a steering group of representatives from health, education, local government, the arts and Welsh Assembly Government, and chaired by Professor Stephen Tomlinson CBE (Provost, Cardiff University). Comments are invited on the direction and content of the strategy, which has been recognised as a significant step forward in valuing the impact of the arts within the health sector and the excellent work already being delivered across Wales. The deadline for comments is 20 September 2007. The document is available from www.artswales.org/viewnews.asp?id=621.

deadline: 20 September

Jude Kelly, telling it as it might be... 2012 Olympics

“I’m the Joan of Arc of the Southbank”

Here’s a taster from the Guardian online click here for the original.

“As artistic head of the resurgent Southbank Centre, Jude Kelly has confounded her critics - and there were many. She tells Lyn Gardner how they had her all wrong.‘Do I think that having the Olympics here in 2012 is damaging the arts? No, I don’t,” says Jude Kelly, so firmly that I feel like a heretic summoned before the thought police for having allowed such a dangerous notion to enter my head. The former artistic director of West Yorkshire Playhouse, Kelly is one of the most powerful people in the arts. Not only is she chair of culture, ceremonies and education at the London organising committee for the Olympic games, she is also the artistic director of the recently reopened Southbank Centre, the 21-acre site which encompasses the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery. She is a woman who has always had a finger in many pies and whose mantra of access and diversity has chimed well with New Labour’s agenda over the past decade as it has increasingly seized upon the arts as a vehicle for delivering social policy. (At one point it looked as if Kelly might be the first woman to run the National Theatre. Instead, she has had to settle for the Southbank, potentially the more far-reaching empire.) …

…”Do I think that doing the Olympics is easy? No - it’s messy, chaotic and difficult. I don’t underestimate how people whose grants have been affected must feel. But am I personally responsible? No. Should we not have bid for the Olympics? No. Is it a paradox one has to live with? Yes,” says Kelly…

"Space&Place" and "LAND2" get it on

Look what took place in June! Summer studio about art, geography and re-placement... right up my alley.

Space&Place is hosting a summer studio with LAND2, a U.K. visual arts network, to begin a dialogue about creative/research practice and to explore the possibilities of an international partnership.

Space&Place (click here for bibliographies etc) is an interdisciplinary, intellectual and creative collaborative begun in 1999 by Drs. Sonja Kuftinec (Theatre Arts and Dance), Jani Scandura (English) and Karen Till (Geography), and, since 2004, co-directed with Dr. Margaret Werry (Theatre Arts and Dance). We have become a vital interdisciplinary and experimental forum that bridges the methods, concerns, theories and practices of the Humanities, Performing Arts and Social Sciences, bringing faculty and postgraduates in conversation across the University.

LAND2 (wow, very cool group!) is a creative practice-led national research network of faculty, artists, and research students started in 2002 by Dr. Iain Biggs (Reader in Visual Art Practice, Bristol School of Art Media and Design, University of West England (UWE)) and Dr. Judith Tucker (Lecturer in the School of Design, University of Leeds); currently, artist Dr. Ruth Jones is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Fellow (Appendices II and III). Members share a common interest in how art can engage with the possibilities and problems associated with landscape, place, and space, as they are understood today.

"The main focus of the studio will be presentations of works in progress that will refer to participants’ self-understanding of their location, positionality and social situation, and of how their various geographies may have framed their theoretical understandings and practice-based deployments of place, matter and memory..."

"To begin the summer studio, we reframe questions both groups have explored in recent years: Why, how and when does memory matter? What is the matter of memory? How do people negotiate the temporal and spatial landscapes of becoming and being subjects in and through memory and forgetting? How do we think about, represent and respond to a modernity seeped in the oldness of its newness? Although intellectuals and artists have interrogated these questions in recent years, few institutional spaces foster translocal intellectual and creative projects that interrogate the very terms that divide them: place, space and memory. The main focus of the studio will be presentations of works in progress that will also refer to participants’ self-understanding of their location, positionality and social situation, and of how their various geographies may have framed their theoretical understandings and practice-based deployments of place, matter and memory. By initiating, articulating and discussing the similarities and differences related to participants’ current practice, work and locations, the studio will also seek to create “re-placements” as a basis for further work in an international context."

Love it.

R

Diversity in Canada

Culturescope.ca continues to do a great job of providing accessible and weighty research.

Here you can find Diversity in Canada, an independent research study. It quite comprehensively explores consumer behaviours, social attitudes and demographics of Canadians in six target groups: Chinese, South Asian, West Asian/Arab, Black, Hispanic, Italian in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. It was created by Solutions Research Group for the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Click here to check out their work.

Call for artists to participate in mediatised sites

CALL FOR ARTISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN MEDIATISED SITES

Artists with an interest in exploring relationships
between mediatised performance and site-responsive
work are invited to participate in a research and
development project that investigates notions of
place, performance and mediatisation

The project will involve participating in a curated
making process from November 2007 to April 2008. The
curation and performance process will take place
through new media, such as free online social
technologies, wikis, blogs, streaming video etc.

The project will culminate in online and live
performances on April 18th 2008. Performance
participation can be live or through online
technologies. Geographical presence at or proximity
to the live performance is not a requisite of
participation.

Each selected project/participant will receive £100.

To apply to participate send:

• A short biography

• A rationale for your participation, including what
you think you might bring to the project and what you
hope to gain from taking part

• Contact information

Send the above, or any questions that you might have,
to Kate and Tamara mediatisedsites@yahoo.co.uk

Final year undergraduate students, post-graduate
students, emerging and established artists are all
encouraged to apply.

Deadline for submission: Friday 28th September 2007

Kate Craddock is currently a graduate teaching
assistant at Northumbria University, where she is
engaged in PhD research on notions of cross-cultural
interdisciplinary collaboration. With Lynnette Moran,
she is co-artistic director of mouth to mouth: a
globally dispersed performance collective.

Tamara Ashley is currently undertaking PhD research
into improvisational practices in mediatised
performance sites at Texas Woman’s University. She
also co-directs Brief Magnetics, with Simone Kenyon
and is a senior lecturer in choreography at
Northumbria University.

The project is supported by Northumbria University.

Risk and relief

Talking about risk...

"There are times that break apart and the indefinite comes to light: the grey time of the inbetween. lt is a time without definition, rare and precious, when all seems to be possible, and that after all passes most swiftly. There are moments in which one feels inevitably to be on an inclined plane, and as there is no short-term release in sight, there is no escape. Only one thing is helpful here: to look precisely, to listen, to become all pervious and sensitive. In these in-between-times dreams can change into spaces which it is worthwhile to occupy and then to defend."

Talking about artist residencies, check out this article - Artists' Residency: A Model
There are opportunities to escape, look precisely and dream: www.resartis.org

R

Community art or finding the way home?

The Canada Council's website has some great 2-pagers (or in this unusual case, five) about their workshops in 2003-04 about critical practice in art. My favourite to date (still working through all of them) is 'Community art or finding the way home?' - looking at the ethical issues fundamental to community art practices.

Find the whole paper here.

A quote to whet your whistle:

It is all about relationships and responsibilities.
What kind of relationships are you coming from,
and what kind are you
developing in the work you are doing?
What are your responsibilities?
This assumes that we are never operating as
individuals, but rather within a community or
multiple communities. We carry
responsibilities in all our relationships,
human and other.
How does our work as artists play into all of this?
- Kim Anderson

Necessary kudos and details:

Saturday, March 13, 2004, La Caserne, Montreal, Quebec
A day of discussion organized by Engrenage Noir on the ethical issues fundamental to community art
practices.
Joanne Gormely (yoga instructor)
Kim Anderson and Pam Hall (speakers)
Louise Lachapelle and Devora Neumark (facilitators)

Return to risk

I've heard it around, but never as much as recently. There is a lack of risk going round, and choreography is suffering for it. So what if the political tendency is towards security, lockdown, safety, the thrill of art is that it can show us a different truth.

"It is not just new work that we need; it is work that has genius and resonance. It is up to the people who are in the positions of power to discover the new talents and bring them into a bigger scale and take risks. We need to be more daring, and OK, maybe we fail. Maybe it won't sell. But does everything we have to put on necessarily have to sell?"

So says extraordinary ballet dancer Carlos Acosta in 'Dance must be more daring' in The Telegraph June 23 2007.

Equally, the recent Vancity report The power of the arts in Vancouver: Creating a great city (by Pier Luigi Sacco) alludes to the fact risk is essential for the growth of artists, economies and cities. If we don't risk we lose.

In spite of the popular cultural concerns with fear and terror, all aspects of dance arts require a rigorous return to risk for the ongoing development of the form.

New book plus peripherals: "Engaging Art"

There's a new book out there, coming to a mailbox near me hopefully soon. If anyone has read Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural Life (Co-edited by Steven J. Tepper and Bill Ivey), I'm keen to hear your thoughts.

Here's what The Curb Centre for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy has to say about it: click here
Here's what Taylor & Francis books have to say (and they have the best price): click here

The Engaging Art group blog is a discussion based around the idea that the ways in which audiences and artists interact are changing. Twelve bloggers have been lined up to participate in the conversation beginning June 14, 2007 - that's TODAY! Get your fill here http://www.artsjournal.com/league/ See also http://madsilence.wordpress.com/

R

Nonprofit Arts Organizations Face Leadership Crisis

Nonprofit Arts Organizations Face Leadership
Crisis as Baby Boomers Retire

Menlo Park, CA – The world of nonprofit arts organizations must act now to forestall a looming crisis of leadership that will occur as the current baby boom generation of administrators and volunteers starts to retire, according to a newly released report commissioned by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

The sixty-two-page report, “Involving Youth in Nonprofit Arts Organizations: A Call to Action,” was prepared by Barry Hessenius, former Director of the California Arts Council. Hessenius cites a shrinking pool of young people, increased competition for their services and a lack of attention to the issue of generational succession on the part of arts organizations as key reasons for the problem.

“The vast majority of arts organizations have too few young people on their boards of directors or staffs, even fewer young advocates and financial supporters, and no means to track their young audiences,” Hessenius says in the report. “No quarter of the arts community can afford to remain silent or fail to participate in crafting a response to this looming problem.”

Moy Eng, Director of the Performing Arts Program at the Hewlett Foundation, said she decided to commission the study after hearing anecdotal accounts from the arts community about the rising age of their audiences and growing concern from them about attracting a new generation to the arts.

“A generation has passed since the arts have been given their due in the California public schools,” Eng said. “In a sense, a new generation is rising that doesn’t even know what it might be missing. And an increasingly competitive marketplace for fewer young people will only make the arts leadership problem more acute."

The report has three parts: a survey of youth programs among California’s nonprofit arts organizations, case studies of a dozen successful youth engagement programs in the arts, and a comparative analysis of youth programs in the environmental movement, with an in-depth look at the youth programs of two leading organizations. An advisory committee of leaders from all areas of California’s arts community was created to review the survey and recommend arts organizations to include. The survey tried to embrace the broadest possible range of organizations geographically, in size and by discipline. A total of 720 organizations comprised our final master list.

The report recommends that national service organizations for the arts craft a plan to increase young people's involvement in the arts nationwide. Local and regional arts organizations are called upon to budget time and money to involve youth, add young adults to their boards and strengthen ties to high schools and colleges. The report also recommends that funders to support research into young people’s views and behavior regarding the arts.

The full report can be viewed and downloaded here. An executive summary is available here.

Hot research 4 - Society for the Arts in Healthcare

Round the world work...

The Society for the Arts in Healthcare (SAH) is a non-profit... in Washington, DC. Founded in 1991, the Society for the Arts in Healthcare is dedicated to promoting the incorporation of the arts as an integral component of healthcare by:

• Demonstrating the valuable roles the arts can play in enhancing the healing process;
• Advocating for the integration of the arts into the environment and delivery of care within healthcare facilities;
• Assisting in the professional development and management of arts programming for health care populations;
• Providing resources and education to healthcare and arts professionals; and
• Encouraging and supporting research and investigation into the beneficial effects of the arts in healthcare.
  

Hot research 3 - CCAHTE Journal

Here's a source I've happily stumbled upon. I'm subscribing.

The CCAHTE Journal is your creative arts, health, training and education connection. You'll find information about creative arts approaches in staff health and wellness, arts raising awareness about social issues and health, information and resources that will benefit those involved in gerontology and education, nursing education, social work, medical education & health training.

Here you can also subscribe free toThe Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education CCAHTE Journal which features topical news and stories from professionals across the country involved in cutting edged research and progressive programmes making a difference in health, training and education in Canada and internationally.

www.cmclean.com

Hot research 2 - Arts in health: a review of the medical literature

Arts in health: a review of the medical literature by Dr Rosalia Lelchuk Staricoff

This review of medical literature published between 1990 and 2004 explores the relationship of arts and humanities with healthcare, and the influence and effects of the arts on health. See the full document (90 pages) by clicking here Arts in health: a review of the medical literature. For a bite-sized version click here - it's the executive summary.

Another option is to read Can the arts have a positive effect on health? A review of the medical literature by the same author. It's the promo version.

Hot research 1 - Arts and Culture in Medicine and Health

Arts and Culture in Medicine and Health, by Nancy Cooley, January, 2003.

This is a survey paper on research available in English on the ways that arts and culture promote the health of individuals and communities, contribute to effective medical treatment, and assist doctors, nurses, and other health care workers to cope with the grief, frustration, and other stressful demands of their work.

The paper briefly looks at the current relationships between arts and medicine and then summarizes research from the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, Australia, Japan and Canada that indicates various aspects of arts and culture make positive contributions to at least seven of Health Canada’s twelve Key Determinants of Health.

This paper is now available in PDF format at Arts and Culture in Medicine and Health: A Survey Research Paper.

Community-Engaged art research

Three to refer to:

IMAGINE: An External Review of the Canada Council for the Arts’
Artists and Community Collaboration Fund by Laurie McGauley (February, 2006) click here

The City of Rich Gate: Research and Creation within Community-Engaged Arts Practices by Rita L. Irwin, Principal Investigator, Ruth Beer (Emily Carr Institute for Art and Design), Kit Grauer (CUST), Stephanie Springgay (Penn State), and Gu Xiong (UBC Fine Arts), Co-Investigators (2004-2007) click here

Whose voice is this, anyway? Exploring Artistic Control and Issues of Ownership in Community Arts Practice by Douglas David Durand click here

R

The Nature of the Beast: Cultural Diversity and the Visual Arts Sector.

There's a new book out called The Nature of the Beast: Cultural Diversity and the Visual Arts Sector by Richard Hylton, a UK curator and art critic. It's a a study of diversity policies in UK arts between 1976 and 2006. The Spiked Review of Books reports it to be a "thoughtful, thorough and searing critique of the introduction of divisiveness into the visual arts in England" click here to read the full review.

Looks like a good book to read alongside its US counterpart The Trouble with Diversity: How we learned to love identity and ignore inequlity by Walter Benn Michaels.

-R

Speaking up, speaking about

The recent reading I've been doing about artists and artists' voices was mostly published in the 70s - views of critics, views of artists, views of scholars. Yesterday on New York Sun's website, Kate Taylor published Artist's Own Words Can Drown Out Scholars', raising the question of roles in speaking:

The deluge of available information on American artists from the 1960s on
is both a blessing and a curse to art historians. Since the 1960s, most artists
have been audiotaped or videotaped talking about their work; because of changes
in how they are trained, artists have become increasingly sophisticated in
talking about their work and cooperating with critics to shape the
interpretation of it. But where does this leave the historian?

Not only is this an issue about who is or feels entitled speak about art and artists, or who can hold the attention of listening ears, but also, what is the current-day role of an artist and a system of people that surround artists (critics, presenters, historians, scholars, managers, funders, etc)? In an environment in which people speak for themselves (reality-tv led/followed), what is the place of disciplinary expertise in a network system of art? And what of the emerging problem of 'qualification overinflation' - what results is a confusion in conferrance and entitilement.

Ongoing determinations about what makes a dance artist 'professional' (and what professionalism is) fuels a whole other set of related questions.

Rolling it all around my mind...

Flexible Management Models report

Jane Marsland created a report on Flexible Management Models for the Canada Council in 2005. It offers some material to think about when feeding back to the Council's stragetic plan, and their questions about it.

Find the whole report: click here.

Here's the briefest excerpt.
Three critical aspects emerged from the review:

1. Nonformal or alternative producing entities require new supporting administrative and management structures.
2. The increasing deficit of trained administrators, managers, producers, agents must have training/development/mentoring programs in place to alleviate the impending crisis.
3. Changing the ‘institutional lens’ as the primary way of seeing arts organizations – for both the funders and artists, will take time and the building of trust.

- R

Department of Canadian Heritage's 2007/08 priorities

The federal Department of Canadian Heritage put out a report on their cultural priorities.

Click to see: 2007-2008 Report on Plans and Priorities (RPP) Provides Further Clues to Federal Government’s Cultural Policy

Here are some key excerpts from the report:

Priority - Canada's Cultural Interests Abroad

The arts and cultural industries play a vital role in our economy, engage Canadians, and
represent the face of Canada abroad. The Department has identified three key initiatives that
collectively serve to promote Canada’s cultural interests abroad.
These include:

• taking an active role in Canadian trade policy, delivering the cultural trade development program, sharing Canada’s expertise in cultural trade with developing countries and expanding on an international level to strengthen industry at home;
• promoting the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, an instrument that reaffirms the right of countries to take measures in support of culture, while recognizing the economic nature of cultural goods and services; and
• managing Canada’s participation in international expositions - events that promote Canadian interests and strengthen bilateral business relations with host countries.

Priority - An Inclusive and Participatory Society

Canada’s ability to leverage the benefits of diversity depends on its success at ensuring that all citizens have the opportunity to participate economically, socially, politically and culturally in Canada. The Department aims to identify and work towards addressing the barriers to full participation in Canadian society through targeted interventions.

Canada Council is all ears

The Canada Council for the Arts has a discussion paper out called "Creating our Future" and it's looking for feedback.

Don't be slow about it - they want to hear back by July.

It's a strategic plan, with questions imbeded. A historical overview is provided, for a bit of depth.
Read it with a thoughtful mind... it's policy in the making.

http://www.50.canadacouncil.ca/Downloads/Discussion_paper.pdf

Artists as entrepreneurs

There was a conference on social theory, politics and the arts (the 32nd Annual STP&A Meeting) held in Vienna in July 2006 with some heafty topics. Going through some of the transcripts (I wasn't there for the conference) I found this one quite interesting, it's by Elmar D. Konrad. Artists as Entrepreneurs acknowledges the skills, talents, and contributions of artists to society, as entrepreneurs. It's a pdf done in the format of powerpoint. Read the document at www.culture.info/images/stories/konrad.pdf.

The main conference listing website is stpa.culture.info/listings... it's worth a look.

Building Bridges - Strengthening Provincial Government and Community Voluntary Sector Relationships in British Columbia

Building Bridges - Strengthening Provincial Government and Community Voluntary Sector Relationships in British Columbia
This is a paper that addresses the volunteering sector - related to but different from the non-profit sector. Sometimes they get confused, and also confusing.
Anyways, as this paper says, despite the significant role of the community voluntary sector in society and economy, and the vast numbers of community organizations delivering public programs, there are far fewer examples of relationships between government as a whole and the sector overall. Where those links have been made they rely on:
• structures supporting alliances,
• policies guiding and sustaining relationships, and
• knowledge and capacity building initiatives increasing understanding about the sector
and the capacity of community voluntary sector organizations.

I believe we need to develop these relationships for the goodwill, in the interests of, and to benefit the arts sector. Here's a line from the executive summary:

"Over the past five years, there has been much work done to promote positive relationships
between government and the community voluntary sector. This paper, commissioned
by the Centre for Non-Profit Management, outlines what has been learned from this work and describes examples of relationship-building initiatives linking the voluntary sector and both federal and provincial governments in Canada. It also discusses the relationship between the Government of British Columbia and the province’s community voluntary sector since 1998 and proposes actions that could be taken to strengthen that relationship."

The report's conclusions?

1. A sound relationship between government and community is critical for developing effective public policy and the management of programs.
2. Mutual understanding between government and the community voluntary sector is vital.
3. It is important to continue building a body of research and capacity.
4. Structures in both government and the community voluntary sector are critical for the development of relationships.
5. An accord sustains the relationship between government and the voluntary sector.

Read the full report - click here.

- R

Economic Contribution of the Culture Sector

Economic Contribution of the Culture Sector to Canada’s Provinces by Culture Statistics Program

A Statistics Canada report that provides a descriptive analysis of the economic contribution of the culture sector to the Canadian economy. Culture sector output and employment levels are measured for each province, for the years 1996 to 2003.

The results of the study demonstrate that, on average, the culture sector accounted for 3.8% of national output and 4% of national employment, over the period under investigation. Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia were among the largest contributors to the culture sector in Canada, accounting for more than three quarters of total output and employment.

Read the report online by clicking here.

Canadian report on Mental Health and the Arts

No joke, this is hot stuff. Everyone's after the not-so-elusive connection between mental health and dance, and it's top of the charts for today's research.

In September 2006, the National Arts Centre held the second in its series of three roundtables on healing and the arts. The roundtable addressed the interconnections between the arts and mental health. A report, The Roundtable on Mental Health and the Arts, provides an overview of the day’s dialogue, including information on some of the current research being undertaken in Canada in this field.

Check out the report - click here to download your copy.

New online network for emerging arts professionals

Mentor of the Month?! Great idea!

The Emerging Arts Professional Network is a new online community network, podcast, blog magazine, discussion forum (coming soon) and career resource for Canadian arts professionals.

The blog-magazine will be dedicated to articles written by arts professionals across the country. Each month will feature a new Mentor of the Month and the discussion forum is on it's way to provide another outlet to share ideas and communicate. Visit the EAP at http://www.eapnetwork.ca/blog/archives/welcome/

EAP is looking for writers with all levels of experience and insight, is seeking more article submissions for a monthly blog magazine and also seeking emerging arts professionals from across Canada to interview seasoned arts leaders. See www.eapnetwork.ca/pages/submit/ or contact Blair Francey editor@eapnetwork.ca for more details.

- R

City of Vancouver reviews funding approach for grants

Is Vancouver is poised to be a world leader for arts and culture, or, just like everyone else will it keep plodding along at the usual speed? Which will it be? Don't get me wrong, I am for funding reviews. Who doesn't like time to reflect, review and respond to current opportunities? Thought the last - about responding - is the clincher. The Creative City Conversation that happened in Vancouver on April 23rd wasn't the response I was looking for when all the promo material focused on contributing my point of view as an arts worker living here. I spent the whole day listening to other people: people on stage, people who were facilitating, people who felt more entitled to interject... I barely got a word in edgewise. To my mind, a review should host many views, it should consult by listening with an ear open to multiple perspectives, it should take into account (and in order to take into account, it needs to encourage) others' innovative ideas in transforming the way things are now into *the way things could be*.

That's not even taking into consideration the fact that the Creative City Conversation was predominantly foolscap white... in this day and age, this makes me ask how the event was marketed and, because of this, who was excluded. We all missed out big time.

Okay, so the Creative City Conversation has nothing really to do with the funding review. The only thing is, it occurs around the same time, things are interlaced in time, and a pattern is being woven.

Here's the blurb from the Alliance for Arts and Culture - for the original click here.

"On April 3, Vancouver City Council unamiously supported a motion brought forward by Councillor Elizabeth Ball that will have city staff report back to council in three months with plans to develop a collaborative, comprehensive, streamlined and multi-year funding approach for grants that will include:

• Consultation with Corporate Services (Budgets/Finance) and Law to review the city’s legislative framework and budgetary process;
• Review of funding models and cycles utilized by other funding organizations, both public and private, in the non-profit sector;
• Consultation with community groups and other funders;
• Cost/benefit analysis;
• Development of funding guidelines;
• Potential alignment or augmentation of existing evaluation and monitoring mechanisms;
• Identifying any additional resource requirements to conduct the above noted work."
...
"At the April 17 Vancouver City Council meeting, Ference Weicker & Company were awarded the contract to provide consulting services for a comprehensive review of the city’s current arts and cultural grants and support programs administered through the Office of Cultural Affairs, at an estimated cost of $75,000 plus GST, with funding to be provided by the 2007 cultural budget."

Planning process underway for Cultural Tourism Strategy

"On April 3, Vancouver City Council approved the planning process, outlined in the report Cultural Tourism Strategy – Planning Process (click here to read), for the development of a Cultural Tourism Strategy to be presented to city council in the fall of 2007 at a cost of $65,000. The approved process includes the creation of a temporary Cultural Planner I position at an estimated cost of $45,000 with the source of funds to be Cultural Tourism Strategy planning funds, budgeted in the 2007 contingency reserve. Council also approved an additional allocation of $300,000 per year for four years starting in 2008 in order to leverage support from other funders, agencies and organizations towards the implementation of the Cultural Tourism Strategy. The source of funds will be a $300,000 increase to the 2008 through 2011 operating budgets.

City staff were also directed to review and report back in the fall with potential funding implementation partners and in particular, potential funding support for the City’s 125th anniversary celebrations through the federal government’s Cultural Capitals of Canada program."

This was listed in Synergy, from the Alliance for Arts and Culture.

England cuts arts to pay for Olympics

Controvercy over Olympic wangling here in Vancouver is at the forefront of many dance artists' minds, as the 'cultural olympiad' dribbles by without much ado.

England has taken the bull by the horns:

"To pay for the 2012 Olympics, the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, is taking another £675m out of the national lottery fund. This comes on top of the £410m she already plans to withdraw. The losses will hit a raft of good causes: not just arts and heritage, which will give up at least £273m, but also community projects. Even local sports groups are losing out to the 2012 celebration of athletics." Read more on The Guardian website.

Artists in England are rallying around, creating petitions, fighting for their survival. Check out Dance UK for details.

These cuts also affect Humanities Research in England (often underpinning and reinforcing art processes and products) - for more on this, check out Shirley Dent on theblogbooks.

As my favourite fortune cookie aptly says: the future is uncertain.

- R

Relational aesthetics

I've recently picked up a copy of Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics, which is a great read for thirsty minds. Proposing art is relational at its core (taking impetus from Althusser and Marx), Bourriaud spins a fresh scent around modernity, urbanization, and the role of art in current societal developments. He's writing as one of those revered thinkers in France, and as so often, his book was translated into English several years after it was originally published.

I'm interested in Bourriard's take on the legitimacy of art in a mechanicalized world. This is not new, and Walter Benjamin tumbles to mind as an early songbird in this regard (anyway, Bourriard says the 'new' does not factor as a criterion for art anymore - a cool relief.) Here's what he notices: If the world continues along the line of increased machinery, human interaction will be increasingly restricted. He sees contemporary art as aloe on the burn of mechanization and asserts contemporary art provides intersticial opportunities. Contemporary art is a buffer zone of time and space in which interaction (relational engagement) can take place, and interaction between humans and art (humans and humans; art and humans) becomes a form of special 'limited time only' chance, therefore still commodified but in a radically different way.

This goes to reinforce Bourriard's understanding of the relational in art - that contemporary art serves to look at things not only in a different way, but through a whole set of new categories, new forms of paradigm shifts that collide with earlier modernist understandings of art. He believes we are not out of modernity, but we are in a different form of modernity, a form developed through a pile-up of encounters that beg borrow and steal a renewed take on the world, one that takes into consideration the extreme urban and demographic changes we have undergone in the past century.
- R

The latest occupation

It's been an occupied springtime, and I have been run off my feet with work: organizing pitch sessions, receptions, attending performing arts tradeshows, writing articles, fundraising.

My latest occupation is represented at madeinbc.org. No I have not changed jobs... I continue to develop the three-year pilot project Made in BC - Dance on Tour.

I've taken on the challenge of reinvigorating regional touring in the most westerly province of Canada. British Columbia is absolutely beautiful, and its geography is considerably challenging. The many mountain ranges cut off the north and south at the midriff of the province. The west of centre strip at the midline is nearly impenetrable and almost inhabitable wilderness. The 'regions' of the province are basically everything outside of greater Vancouver, which is our relatively mammoth city in the furthest southwest corner of the province.

In the 2006 census report, British Columbia is the most urban province in Canada - we have more people living in Vancouver than we do in the rest of the province... that's loosely 4.3 million in the province and 2.2 million in greater Vancouver. It makes sense that Vancouver is growing - the less the provincial economy is based on resources and industry, the more people are migrating to the city for alternative work. Too, as Vancouver's reputation for 'the best place on earth' spreads, the more populated it becomes.

Regional BC is filling up with moneyed retirees, and housing prices in 'beautiful British Columbia' are outpacing earners, especially young ones and growing families, so it becomes unaffordable in several ways. Here is a forecast for the next few years: schools will close, hospitals will be oversubscribed, second and third home ownership (which lacks resident taxation) will increase, golf courses will flourish, tourism will fluctuate, and young workers will be absent from the regions.

Remember, there are few roads crossecting the province, and the landscape and weather mean that road travel can be challenging (no, not impossible - don't be misled). Flights are costly, and nearly all are routed through Vancouver. Travel distances are long - arrive in Vancouver from Prince Rupert (close to the Alaskan border) in 2.5 hours by plane (plus you must take a bus and ferry to get the airport in PR) or drive it in 18hours. When I lived in Germany, the popular comparison was that Germany fits into B.C. two and a half times, yet the population of Germany is 82.4million now. We are a piddly population in comparison, but want and expect the same level of infrastructure and provision. No less, everyone deserves it. And yet, the demographic shift towards the one city is remarkable and has repercussions.

The regional and urban divide are strong here - we actually have a town called 'Hope' which marks the barrier for this divide. Both parties say that once you've crossed it, you're in the territory 'beyond hope.'

In the midst of this comes contemporary dance. Yes, contemporary dance. In the isolation of regional British Columbia (towns settled according to resource bases, not proximity), the presenters I work with are upping the level of dance in their communities. They are interested and committed to bring more BC contemporary dance to their audiences, and exposing their communities to new ideas through performing arts. Reciprocally, BC contemporary dance artists are reaching out to the regions with refreshed enthusiasm and developed understanding.

If you want to see how I'm working with presenters and dance artists to exchange ideas, bridge the urban/regional divide and stimulate awareness of contemporary dance in local communities, check out the work at www.madeinbc.org. There is plenty going on.

- R