Peter A. Mello’s Post

Find out how investing in the arts sector is helping build a creative, connected Calgary. Our annual Accountability & Impact Report for 2023 includes information on arts funding, participation and impact: artsaction.ca #yycArts

I spent the last couple days attending Calgary Arts Development ‘s free, Living a Creative Life Congress. These are some of the things I enjoyed about it: -Free dinner, lunch, drinks and snacks. -The venue, Calgary Public Library is such a beautiful building. -Meeting friendly, art loving people. -Seeing friends and acquaintances from Calgary’s art sector. -Chris Gamble’s clown performance. -The breakout session where we discussed how artists can be agents for social change. -The effort to be inclusive. -Discovered a couple interesting arts organizations. This CADA run initiative was not a “how to” seminar and it wasn’t a gathering to address the issues artists face. What it seemed to be, is a place to celebrate being creative. Whether you’re a hobbyist, a professional artist, a “creative” or an arts administrator. CADA is a government funded organization and so they must try and be all inclusive. They are succeeding it that category. If you consider yourself creative, or work for an organization that focuses on creatives, then there is space for you. And for better or for worse, that’s how it should be. Everyone seems to agree that art is a vital part of any civil society. I would suggest we establish another congress to address the issue of “How to help artists survive as artists”. #lclyyc #lifeasanartist #yycarts #focusedonmusic #yycmusic #yycwriters #businessandart #artistvscreative #art4artsake

The most important checklist I’ve downloaded this year. Protect your creative rights by downloading The Story Sovereignty Checklist by powerhouse Emele Ugavule below #storysovereignty #creativerights

Looking forward (albeit with a heavier heart) to reading this series on Art + Money from The Local Magazine (one of Inspirit Foundation’s fabulous grantees). It’s hard not to see artists and arts workers as one of the canaries in the mine in terms of sending society signals pointing to wealth inequality, lack of accessible housing and spaces, outmoded management models, extractive practices that devalue IP and algorithms that enrich a small few, and the social isolation that is happening across Canada. The arts can be enriching in so many ways, and are, I believe, more necessary than ever. But we have to re-imagine structures and practices to ensure they and the creatives driving them, can not just survive, but flourish in our towns and cities. #artsfunding #nonprofits #inclusion #Toronto

The Arts and Culture sector in Toronto is in crisis. As a city, we have to and must do better. - Toronto is home to 32,000 artists and arts workers, representing 40% of the national total. This means that 1 in every 50 workers in the city is a professional artist - we need to find new ways to support these folks and fund our arts, culture, festivals and events in the present and find permanent solutions or our city will suffer. The arts and culture sector brings in huge economic and community benefit alongside assisting with mental health, and wellness and joy in our cities. If we don’t fix this now, Toronto will be a city of towers and nothing else. We invest incredibly less than other cities for the arts and this is a moment for us to really start shaping a future for the arts or else we loose the people, the places, the energy that makes this city one worth living in. Brad Bradford Toronto Arts Council Toronto Arts Foundation City of Toronto Joe Sellors

Paywalled, but this Globe piece by Barry Hertz perfectly articulates Toronto's current cultural crisis. Here's the lede: "If it feels like Toronto culture is under relentless attack, that’s because it is. But there are different battlegrounds, different fights, and different opponents, making a united defence all the more challenging to mount. And if we want to continue living in a city that values art, imagination and the kind of transformative experiences that change lives – a once inalienable notion that has become more of a tremulous assumption over the past few years – then Toronto, and ultimately every Canadian urban centre, is facing a crisis point. Over the past two months alone, Torontonians have lost access to a frighteningly wide range of cultural institutions: the Ontario Science Centre, the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, and, unless a solution can be found over the long weekend, the Revue Cinema, the city’s oldest operating movie house." Thankfully, within the last 24 hours, the non-profit that runs the Revue Cinema has won a court injunction to stay open past July 1st, but the shock news of its imminent closure - and the seemingly intractable power of its nonagenarian landlord - on the heels of the sudden closing of the Science Centre, and the news about the Phoenix not long before that - really elucidated Toronto's collective grief at the loss of our cultural spaces, and the precarity of the organizations we have left. https://lnkd.in/grn97sgi

The underlying message of the value of the arts is universal, not only applied to the geography outlined in this article. Listen up everyone, everywhere!! This point in time, if ignored, can lead down a path that we might want to seriously consider the ramifications of. A life WITHOUT the arts and its multi-faceted impacts, would be profoundly different!! A world of lost hope. I won’t write an essay here (I could) but this is a VERY slippery slope. And it’s not an ‘us or them’ scenario; it’s a matter of addressing systems on so many levels that simply have run their course. If a vibrant life is important to you or your community, big or small, think twice about how to better support (perhaps in new ways) the arts and artists in your town/city/neighbourhood, not diminish or retract current supportive measures. PRIMARY, and very important cogs in the arts ecosystem, are at the LOCAL level… I’m looking at you, municipalities and business sector. Set the economic lens aside; facilitate support that drives artistic creation and local engagement for all. The economic impact will be there for you to benefit from… I promise!!

Very much looking forward to delivering this day long workshop for Hall for Cornwall next Wednesday with Kitty Billings and HFC's Helen Tiplady Head to Page to Stage! Date & Time - 12th June 10am - 4pm Where- Hall for Cornwall, Truro A focused fast-paced-one-day workshop to support you getting your project or idea from your head and out into the world You’ll be guided through a series of tasks to help shape your ideas into a manageable project plan which would break down the tasks into manageable chunks – from head to page and page to stage! We encourage attendees to select one project to develop as you are guided through several short, focused exercises to help articulate your ideas. Consider your target audience, create a basic budget, think about potential partners/venues, and devise a simple project plan. By the end of the day, the project will become clear enough in your head to be able to start a funding bid. Or be in a position to present the project as a pitch to a funder/producer. Suitable for people new to the process of creating a project AND ideal for more experienced artists who need a focused day to kickstart that project you keep putting off because other stuff gets in the way Limited places - so book now to secure your place https://lnkd.in/e7Hj9b5K

Yes, Working in the Arts is a “Real” Job: Why I Fight for the Arts The arts are vital to the human experience, and we must do all we can to support arts programming at all levels. "As a child, I was taught to value #music, #theater, and visual arts arts, and spent lots of time in those spaces. Yet, there was always an undercurrent of struggle that ran through all of these organizations. Too often, I feel that the narrative is that the #arts are a dying field, and an industry filled only with struggle, but that is not true. The arts are imperative to our existence, to inspire us, make us question the world around us, and see things in a new way. Even if it feels that in some places, support for the arts is fading, there are many places where they are living, breathing, and thriving. This conference was proof of that, and galvanized me to start thinking about how I view the arts. Even though I have always valued the arts to a high degree, I always saw it as something to pursue as a side gig, never something that could be a “real” job. I feel like when people think about the field of the arts in general, they only think about #actors, #musicians, and #dancers, not all of the people who work behind the scenes to put people on stage. From #venue presenters, ticket offices, #technicians, #agents and managers, the list goes on. Not to go all finance bro on you, but in 2021, the production of arts and cultural goods added $1,016.20 billion dollars to the U.S. economy. Of course, this is an industry that was crippled by the pandemic, and is still working to rebound, but audiences are coming back. In 2022, 48% of all adults attended at least one arts event in person. For so many of us, the pandemic was a chance to re-evaluate our lives and figure out what mattered most. For me, what matters most is support for the arts: seeing wild and wacky things that make me feel something, regardless of if it’s good or bad." #entertainmentindustry #entertainment #filmschool #film #performance #performingarts #fineart #college #university #collegecounseling Amy Goldin, she/her

Join Stone-Olafson, the Rozsa Foundation, and invited panelists to discuss the results of the 2nd wave of research on arts audiences in AB. Alberta continues to be at a crossroads brought by a pandemic that has changed public life and reshaped our economy. This is especially true in the Arts & Culture sector which continues to experience a decline in engagement with events and activities. This work was developed for this sector exclusively. It is designed to provide specific, relevant and reliable facts to support the leaders in the arts & culture sector as they build relevance and grow attendance. Key topic areas from Wave 2: -Exploring arts engagement and general perceptions -Understand audiences’ preferences for content, programming, and ticket purchasing -Understanding opportunities for increasing support and engagement This work is designed to be shared. The ultimate goal is to build on collaboration by sharing resources that can drive smart and focused engagement strategies. All are welcome. For more info and registration: https://lnkd.in/g4tH_Z_b #art #artists #yycarts #alberta #community #rozsafoundation #AudienceEngagement #audience