The Council is launching the first of a series of discipline-based consultations this spring as the next phase of its review of operating grant programs. The review formally began in October 2011 in response to growing pressures to ensure Council’s programs stayed in step with the massive changes – demographic, technological, economic – taking place at the community level.
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Category Archives: Bob’s Blog
Apr
25
25
Consultations now underway
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Feb
01
01
Yes, it’s about professional artists
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The conversation on Public Engagement in the Arts launched by the Canada Council last October took a new twist this week with a lead article in Montreal’s Le Devoir citing anxiety in some quarters of the artistic community that the Canada Council might be contemplating funding amateur artists.
I use the word “twist” advisedly, since the Council has consistently reinforced that it is not now or any time soon abandoning its historic commitment to professional arts practice.
The documents speak for themselves
Consider the following. In its current strategic plan, Strengthening Connections 2011-16, it identifies as the first of five ongoing directions, “reinforce the Council’s commitment to individual artists, working alone or collaboratively, as the core of artistic practice in Canada.” It defines its approach to public engagement in the arts as follows: “[The Council] will take a more active role in advancing a public conversation on the expressive needs and aspirations of the citizenry at large, and by broadening its messaging to make clearer how the Council’s work in the professional arts sector benefits all Canadians. While staying true to its ongoing focus on professional arts practice, it will highlight the contribution that art and artists make to everyday life, and how its mandate relates to enhancing public engagement in Canada’s cultural life. In the process it will find direct and indirect ways to help artists and arts organizations deepen and expand their engagement with audiences.” (pp. 2 and 8)
No reference whatsoever to supporting amateur artists.
Dec
17
17
Responding to change
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We are living in a period of major change that impacts both artists and audiences. The root causes of this change – demographic, technological, economic, generational – are not negotiable, but how we respond to them certainly is.
Artists and arts organizations in Canada are constantly adapting the way they work to reflect new realities, and the Council has launched a major re-think of how it fulfills its mandate to keep in step. The broad outlines of this re-think were signaled in our last two strategic plans.
For the Canada Council, any changes that result from this re-think will be iterative and will follow a rigorous methodology: in-depth research and analysis, community consultation, and phased implementation that minimizes disruption and maximizes public good.
Jun
15
15
Oh, Canada takes Massachusetts by storm
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Opening of the exhibition Oh, Canada at MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art)
On the last weekend of May, three of us from the Canada Council – John Goldsmith, Director of Stakeholder Relations, Melinda Mollineaux, Program Officer in Visual Arts, and I – drove to North Adams, Massachusetts to take part in the opening of the exhibition Oh, Canada at MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art). MASS MoCA is located in a repurposed set of industrial buildings in the heart of New England’s summer festival region, which boasts Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Jacob’s Pillow, a dance festival that programs over 300 performances each summer.
Mar
22
22
Bob’s Blog: A message from the Director and CEO
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The Canada Council for the Arts finds itself in a fascinating situation.
While constraint and sustainability are the catchwords of the day, the Canada Council promotes a dimension of life which defies limits to growth: creativity. The capacity of individuals to tell stories, make music, and imagine other worlds appears limitless.
Photo: Dave Chan, 2011
In many respects artistic creativity is not much different from other forms of creativity, but it certainly looks different. It is more sensory in nature, expressing itself through sound and colour, rhythm and rhyme. The right side of the brain is clearly engaged, probably more so than in other creative enterprises like mathematics, physics or economics.