INNOVATION & RESILIENCE
IN CANADA’S CULTURAL SECTOR
IN CANADA’S CULTURAL SECTOR
MUSE Arts
Discipline(s): community arts, festivals
Happenings is the first and only Toronto festival made by community artists, giving centre stage to the talents and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. This year’s festival takes place during the entire month of May and will bring together over 80 artists and performers belonging to diverse communities.
Equity seeking: RacializedSource: Research
Link to website
STEPS Public Art
Discipline(s): community arts
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Collaborating with 26 Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) across Ontario and engaging 50+ Canadian artists in creative opportunities, main streets will be activated through unique outdoor public art projects for communities to enjoy all summer long. New this year is the launch of an app platform for the public to engage with the projects virtually and plan walking tours around participating communities.
Source: ResearchLink to website
Arts Etobicoke
Discipline(s): community arts
Reaching a broad age range with smart programming.
Source: ResearchLink to website
Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society, Keiko Honda
Discipline(s): media arts, reading, writing, publishing, multidisciplinary, community arts
The project Terakoya is an intergenerational learning and collaboration that is a unique approach to bridging the generational gap. Students (high school to university) and older adults to get a chance to form connections through shared experiences and projects. Older adults will play a vital role by sharing their wisdom and life stories, while students will learn valuable practical and emotional skills from working with older adults, such as group co-leadership, self-confidence, and emotional maturity. The older adults may also learn social networking skills and etiquette from the students.
Special impacts:After harvesting the goodness and challenges of 2020 and this year, I would like to keep coming back to Goethe’s participatory method that allows us to see a thing that is perhaps hiding in plain sight all along. And go out to nature more. Our true legacy for further generations is to leave nature accessible to the next generations so that they can actively participate to come into being. And in that, I see what is art for.
Equity seeking: Indigenous Peoples, Racialized, 2SLGBTQIA+, D/deaf, disabled, or live with difference, Members of official language minority groupsSource: Survey
Link to website
East End Arts
Discipline(s): community arts
Highly impactful, local, innovative: Seniors online art diary. Book club addressing BLM and BIPOC readings and discussions. Partnership with Indigenous organization for online beading circle.
Equity seeking: Indigenous PeoplesSource: Research
Link to website
Aanmitaagzi
Discipline(s): community arts, multidisciplinary
"Slowly the creatures emerged from the pressure cracks jutting out of frozen Lake Nipissing. They danced about as Nipissing First Nation’s Penny Couchie recited Pressure Cracks. Blue light shone on the creatures as they moved to the amplified composition by Jacob Dayfox. Hundreds walked the ice path lit up with whimsical light installations to witness the performance of Mkomiiwi.
Aanmitaagzi produced the performance Mkomiiwi showcased at Ice Follies 2020 on Lake Nipissing at Marathon Beach in North Bay."
Special impacts:Online culture-specific workshops, which might be relevant to many other organizations and communities.
Equity seeking: Indigenous PeoplesSource: Research
Link to website
Jamii
Discipline(s): community arts
Jamii’s mobile theatre, the Kisanii Hub, travels the residential streets of The Esplanade neighbourhood in the early evening, while delivering musical performances.
Equity seeking: RacializedSource: Research
Link to website
Mabelle Arts
Discipline(s): community arts
Online program with IRCC with refugees to assist with settlement. Online end of Eid celebration.
Equity seeking: RacializedSource: Research
Link to website
1,243 Voices: Live Performance Artists’ Hopes for a Post-COVID Future
Arts Research MonitorDuring the pandemic, 1,243 emerging performing artists applying to a unique granting program from Jerwood Arts completed a qualitative survey and provided “a vision and ideas for the future of their artistic or creative practice”. The 33 successful a… View this resource
Harassment and discrimination: Important aspects of the precarity of women in the arts
Blog(Ph.D candidate at the School of Industrial Relations of the University of Montreal, research agent at ARTENSO, and member of Arts Insights Canada’s Advisory Panel) Women who work as artists and cultural workers encounter specific forms of precarity… View this resource
Looking at Indigenous Performing Arts on the Territory Known as Canada
Arts Research MonitorAnchored in research efforts that include “historic key documents, two bibliographies, in-depth interviews with 12 experienced Indigenous theatre practitioners, and a survey questionnaire”, this report provides insights into Indigenous performing art… View this resource
Towards Braiding
Arts Research MonitorThis qualitative, Indigenous-centred book provides an insightful perspective of Indigenous-settler relations, which could be particularly useful for organizations that are working toward decolonization. The book “is based on conversations that have h… View this resource
A Culture of Exploitation: “Reconciliation” and the Institutions of Canadian Art
Arts Research MonitorThis report is based on “the history of the relationship between Indigenous people in the Arts as well as anonymous interviews completed recently [during the pandemic] with Indigenous cultural workers across Canada, from diverse regions, positions, a… View this resource