The ED Report, March 2020

Members, friends, and followers of the BC Alliance,

Welcome to my inaugural monthly ED Report, where I get to write about some of the things I’ve been up to. I hope you find it informative.

Last week I traveled to Victoria to meet with Minister Selena Robinson, Deputy Minister Kaye Krishna and David Pyatt, acting executive director of BC Gaming, to talk about some of the challenges the arts and culture sector has experienced with the BC Gaming grants. I was joined by BC Alliance board chair Jessica Schneider (Massey Theatre), Ryan Hunt (executive director of the BC Museums Association), Melanie Yeats (Playwrights Theatre Centre), Mary Ann Anderson (Little Dog Consulting), and Rebekah Johnson (Blue Ridge Repertory).

During the 45-minute session, we talked about the need for consistency and transparency in decision-making and asked that guidelines be put in place so that arts and culture organizations have a clearer understanding of all the assessment criteria and how Gaming Grant funding is determined. The Minister and her staff spoke about the work they are doing to clarify the intention of the Gaming Grants and admitted that improvements were ongoing. This will be an ongoing conversation, as we believe there is still a lot of room for improvement on the part of the government. In the meantime, be sure to check out the new gaming guidelines before applying this year as some things have changed – for the better. 

A few years back a group of local arts community members, interested in developing a visionary arts advocacy committee, worked with consultants from Avalanche Strategy and came up with an idea to champion creativity and its connection to well-being. That idea is still alive and we’re looking for funding to develop a strategy that can effectively re-orient people’s thinking about the value of arts and culture in our everyday lives.

We are also waiting to hear about funding for two projects from the Canada Council: Digital Ladders 2, the second cohort of the 2019 digital literacy program developed and delivered by the amazing Sue Biely and Robert Ouimet; and the Artists Brigade for Climate Action, a one-day event on June 22 modelled around collective ideation in collaboration with committed individuals from the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF), the Vancouver Park Board, The Only Animal Theatre, Story Money Impact, and Indigenous artists Lolehawk (Stó: lō) and Tasha Faye Evans. Fingers crossed.

We are also collaborating with Vancouver Opera and the Vancouver Kettle Society on an event that will celebrate arts for social change and the connection between the performing arts and mental health, taking place during the Opera Festival on May 2 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Stay tuned for more information!

And if you haven’t heard, our annual gathering/summit is confirmed for June 25, in partnership with SFU Woodward’s. We’re calling it Why Art? Why Now? because we want to bring people together to talk about how their artistic practice is impacting British Columbians. We think it’s vital to have this conversation in order to break down the wall between art for art’s sake and arts for social change that has adversely affected our sector for more than 70 years. I hope you’ll be part of the conversation.

See you next month!

Brenda Leadlay
Executive Director
BC Alliance for Arts + Culture