Town Hall On Pluralism In The Arts
Aboriginal and Ethno-Racial Communities In Ottawa and Implications for Arts and Culture

Thursday September 20, 2012 from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM
219 Argyle  Avenue, Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership

The Ottawa community is changing and there are increasing signs of this in the growth of Aboriginal and ethno-racial communities.  To address this, several arts organizations in Ottawa have come together to discuss these changes and what they mean to promoting arts and culture in the Ottawa region.   Together with Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), such organizations as MASC (Multicultural Arts in Schools and Communities), Coalition of New Canadians for Arts and Culture, the Ottawa Art Gallery, Shenkman Centre for the Arts and Centre Point Theatre, One World Dialogue, CARFAC National, the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership and others are hosting at TOWN HALL ON PLURALISM IN THE ARTS: ABORIGINAL AND ETHNO-RACIAL COMMUNITIES IN OTTAWA AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ARTS AND CULTURE.

This Town Hall will provide an opportunity for Ottawa artists and arts organizations to discuss these changes in the Ottawa region and to share strategies for engaging these communities and building audiences for and from them. 

This first Town Hall will focus on the characteristics of Aboriginal and ethno-racial communities and relationship to community engagement and audience development.  This full day session will involve presentations by Cathy Shepertycki (City of Ottawa Cultural Services), Professor Brian Ray (University of Ottawa) and Jerry Longboat (Artistic Director Circadia Indigena).  These panellists will address issues related to Aboriginal communities and their engagement in the arts as well as on ethno-racial and immigrant communities,  their interests in the arts and their social capital. This will be followed by facilitated discussions on the importance and extent of community-based organizations in Aboriginal and ethno-racial communities and how to work with them.

In this session, participants will receive information related to the changing numbers and compositions of communities across Ontario related to:

1) What has happened and will continue to happen in terms of the numerical growth and areas of settlement of these communities;
2) The implications/significance of these changes in terms of social, economic, political and cultural perspectives;
3) The key characteristics of these growing communities, particularly in terms of cultural interests/retention and how this might lead to programming, employment and marketing opportunities;
4) The social capital of these communities and some geographic mapping of them as well.
An all day session (9:30 – 4:30), the presentations will take place in the morning.  In the afternoon, there will be facilitated workshops to carry through this discussion further and to learn from each other what artists and arts organizations are doing to connect with these growing communities, what’s working and where there is need for assistance.  This will set the stage for future workshops aimed at developing strategies for Ottawa arts organizations to connect with Aboriginal and ethno-racial communities in the Ottawa Region.

Registration begins on Tuesday September 4th and ends on Tuesday September 18th. The cost is $25 general admission and includes refreshments and lunch.  The costs for students and the under-employed is $15.00 and for those who bring their own lunch, the session is free of charge.
To Register: http://ottawatownhall.eventbrite.ca
* If you require interpretation services, please let us know and we will endeavour to accommodate your needs as best we can.

Contact Information:
charles c. smith
Project Lead of CPPAMO
Lecturer, Cultural Pluralism and the Arts/University of Toronto Scarborough
charlescsmith@rogers.com

Victoria Glizer
Project Assistant
info.cpamo@gmail.com

Website: http://cpamo.posterous.com
Facebook: search “CPAMO” or click here!
Twitter: http://twitter.com/_CPAMO

The speakers are:
Jerry P. Longboat is Mohawk-Cayuga, Turtle Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River in Southern Ontario. Jerry has a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Michigan and the Ontario College of Art and Design. He has extensive professional training and practice in Traditional and Contemporary forms of visual art, dance, theatre, and storytelling. Jerry creates from the oral traditions of his people – history, teachings, and stories. In 2002, after a 15 year artistic career, Jerry began work as a Program Officer at the Canada Council for the Arts primarily assisting Aboriginal Dancers and Dance organizations across Canada. In 2010, Jerry joined the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health as Cultural Coordinator to deepen his work with community. He is very excited to bring his passion for sharing the rich cultural and artistic legacies of First Peoples’ to the Conference.

Catherine (Kateryna) Shepertycki is a graduate of the University of Ottawa with degrees in music (majoring in piano and ethnomusicology) and communication (focus on human creativity).  Additional university study included work in Arts Administration (certificate) and Slavic Studies.  Catherine received professional dance training at various dance schools in Ottawa, at the Saskatchewan School for the Arts and as a full-time student at the Kyiv Institute of Culture, Ukraine.
 
After working at the Ottawa School of Art as a program manager for several years, Catherine joined the City of Ottawa’s Culture Division in 1989 and has worked in the areas of public art, cultural funding and arts development.
 
Catherine led the transition of the municipal cultural portfolio from Ottawa-Carleton’s 12 former municipalities into the new, amalgamated City of Ottawa (2001).  Since that time, she has successfully led the development of the Ottawa 20/20 Arts Plan (2003), the Arts Investment Strategy (2007), and the Renewed Action Plan for Arts, Heritage and Culture (2013-2018) – all in full partnership with the community.
 
As Co-ordinator, Cultural Development and Initiatives at the City of Ottawa, Catherine is currently working on a range of municipal cultural initiatives with a diverse team of passionate people.

Brian Ray is a social geographer who is interested in the diverse ways that urban people organize their everyday lives in multi-ethnic cities. For the most part, Brian’s work examines different aspects of immigrant integration in North American and European cities. His research projects have emphasized the following issues: the importance of cultural identity and gender in integration processes among new immigrants, housing affordability and homeownership trends among refugees and ethno-cultural groups, the social networks of immigrant women, the spatial segregation of immigrant and ethnic groups in large cities, geographies of employment and social mobility, and the social construction of ‘race’ and racist practices. Beyond the fields of immigration and cultural diversity, his
research also examines the socio-cultural meaning of neighborhood spaces for marginalized groups and geographies of gender and sexuality.

 

Masc, Coalition of New Canadians for Arts and Culture Performances, and, One World Dialogue Art Show:
As part of this event, CPAMO will be co-sponsoring performances by artists associated with MASC and CNCAC and an art show at Shenkman Centre for the Arts convened by One World Dialogue (OWD).  Featuring Ottawa artists from diverse communities, the performance will take place on Thursday, September 20 from 7 – 10 p.m. and the art show will be from Friday to Sunday. 
MASC and CNCAC have held performances together with CPAMO in April and this performance promises to be an exciting, interactive event involving Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse backgrounds, e.g., Latino, African descent, South Asian. 
The OWD art show is its second International Day of Peace Art Show that will feature several Ottawa-based artists and aims to bring awareness and promote collaboration in the community around Peace Day.  The objective of the show is to bring artists together from diverse backgrounds to promote a dialogue om peace and integration on the community and to create spaces for positive public engagement through the arts. 

One World Dialogue (OWD) is a non-profit organization that applies the principles of integrative thinking, art and design to social issues. OWD’s mission is to examine how to create an effective dialogue that works towards greater integration and fostering a lasting peace. OWD works off building partnerships and promoting collaboration to showcase how the work around us can promote dialogue. For more information, please visit our website at www.oneworlddialogue.org.

International Peace Day Art Show:
The main annual event for OWD is to celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace on September 21. OWD hosts an International Day of Peace Art Show, this year taking place on Friday September 21, 2012 from 7:00 – 10:00 pm at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Ottawa. The purpose of this show is to bring awareness and promote collaboration in the community around Peace Day. The objective is that by bringing different artists together we can promote a dialogue on peace and integration in our community. Through art, we can create a space for positive public engagement in a non-threatening setting. Art is often about emotions and personal experience; thus artists have the unique ability to explore subjects in ways that are accessible to everyone. International Peace Day provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared day.

The unique aspect of this show is that artists represent the diversity of the Ottawa community (for example, professional artists, emerging artists, adults with developmental disabilities, aboriginal artists, immigrant artists and refugee artists). This event asks the community to come together on the subject of peace and integration and use art as a medium to create a safe space for a dialogue. This is about using art to share voices and build greater understanding and appreciation in our community.

One World Dialogue is looking at ways to engage youth in Ottawa and across Canada to use art and way to express peace and share ideas on integration and community development. At this year’s International Day of Peace Art Show some art will be presented by youth both from Canada and Tanzania. On Saturday September 22, 2012 from 9:30 am – 1:30 pm, OWD will hold children’s art activities at the Shenkman Centre to engage youth in our community on peace.