There has been much talk about community development and community engagement in the arts, one of the central features of CPAMO’s mandate and activities and a key part of the CPAMO publication “Pluralism in the Arts in Canada: A Change Is Gonna Come“. To continue this conversation, this event will underline and reinforce work taking place in communities across Ontario and highlight what we’ve learned and what we need to do to build on these experiences. As well, this session will continue CPAMO’s shared educational, networking and collaborative activities between presenters, Aboriginal and ethno-racial artists, and interested individuals from these communities.

As most of you know, when CPAMO convenes such gatherings we encourage learning that leads to action and this forum is no different. In fact, it is a critical moment to discuss how best to support these arrangements and to examine resources that can be shared between artists, presenters and communities, and what each of these sectors needs to effectively engage in this enterprise.

Date: Thursday, 21 March 2013 | 9:30am – 1:00pm

Location: CPAMO will host this session at the studio space of the Collective of Black Artists (COBA), one of CPAMO’s most active members.
Regent Park Arts & Cultural Centre at 585 Dundas Street East, Studio #130.
Toronto, ON M5A 2B7
Map and Directions

The forum will be structured as follows:

1) Keynote Address

Keynote Address will be presented by Sandra Laronde (Founder and Artistic Director of Red Sky Performance) who will discuss Red Sky’s ‘Deep Waters’ project which looks at the development of curatorial and presenting capacities in an Aboriginal community

2) Panel

– Jini Stolk (formerly of Creative Trust/Working Capital for the Arts) who will discuss the shared platform that Creative Trust provided and how such a structure might be needed/established to support Aboriginal and ethno-racial artists and arts organizations; – Nadia Caidi (Professor Information Management/U. of T.) who will discuss how new communities gain access to information and provide some insights as to what the arts communities might learn and need to do to engage these communities;

– Beatriz Pisano (Artistic director Aluna Theatre) who will share her learnings from her recent learnings from a conference she attended in south america and the explorations she embarks upon in her company; and

– Robert Daly (Associate Producer Arts and Culture Pan Am Games 2015) who will share the efforts being made by the Pan Am Games to engage with local communities in preparation for the cultural activities that will take place alongside the Pan Am Games in 2015.

The session will then close with some examples from CPAMO’s book “Pluralism in the Arts in Canada: A Change is Gonna Come” and next steps we can take as a community to build on the collaborative work CPAMO has been engaged in with Community Cultural Impresarios and how this is unfolding to involve other arts services organizations and their constituencies.

Cost: $15

Registration: http://community-engagement.eventbrite.ca

Bios of panelists:

– Sandra Laronde, the founder and Artistic Director of Red Sky, is an accomplished and prolific innovator in the artistic and cultural sector as a director, producer, choreographer, performer, and creative leader. Sandra’s vision for Red Sky is to create a leading international company of world Indigenous performance in dance, theatre and music, and to make a significant contribution to the artistic vibrancy of Canada and the world. Currently, she is also the Director of Indigenous Arts at The Banff Centre, a globally respected arts and cultural institution. She divides her time between Toronto, Ontario and Banff, Alberta. Sandra is originally from the Teme-Augama-Anishnaabe (People of the Deep Water) in Temagami, northern Ontario.

Considered a thought leader in the Indigenous artistic world, Sandra is a member of the National Executive Committee for the Governer-General’s Canadian Leadership Conference, and she is an Advisor to The Association of American Cultures based in Nebraska, USA, and the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto, Canada.

Sandra holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Toronto, and studied Spanish Language and Literature overseas for one year at the University of Granada in Spain.

– Jini Stolk is the newly appointed Creative Trust Research Fellow at the Toronto Arts Foundation, and a consultant on organizational capacity, audience development and facilities development . She was cofounder and Executive Director of Creative Trust, an organization dedicated to strengthening the financial capacity and organizational potential of Toronto’s performing arts community. Before that, she was Managing Director of Toronto Dance Theatre, Executive Director of the Toronto Theatre Alliance/Dora Mavor Moore Awards/and T.O. TIX, Associate Director of the Association of Canadian Publishers and General Manager of Open Studio. She continues her involvement in many community and cultural advocacy activities, and is Chair and a founding member of the Ontario Nonprofit Network steering committee, and a director of the Centre for Social Innovation; she is Past Vice-President of the Toronto Arts Council and Past-President of Toronto Artscape, Hum dansoundart and Six Stages Theatre Festival. She received the 2012 William Kilbourn Award for the Celebration of Toronto’s Culural Life, and is a Sandra Tulloch Award and Harold Award winner.

– Nadia Caidi is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Her primary research interests are information policy and community informatics. Through her involvement with the Canadian Research Alliance on Community Innovation and Networking, Nadia has been examining the dynamics around engagement and effective use of resources that cater to the ways of knowing of specific communities, whether it be newcomers or aboriginal communities in remote and isolated regions. Her current research is situated in the context of global migration and the role that information resources, institutions, and technologies play in the everyday lives of international migrants. This includes the interaction of global and local discourses in the information experiences of migrant individuals and communities, as well as their relationships with cultural and memory institutions such as libraries, archives and museums.

– Beatriz Pisano is an accomplished director and playwright. She is also an actor with more than twenty years of experience on stage, film and television. She is the 2009 winner of the prestigious John Hirsch Prize for Direction from the Canada Council for the Arts and the recipient of numerous awards and internships including The Ken McDougall Award for Direction, The Chalmers Fellowship, The Urjo Kareda Award (Tarragon Theatre), and T
he Metcalf Performing Arts Internship. She has been an Associate Artistic Director for Theatre Revolve and Nightwood Theatre.

– Robert Daly is an accomplished Producer, Project Manager, Production Manager and Technical Director with over 10 years’ experience in live event and television production. As Producer he has partnered with clients to create, develop and execute events in both corporate and non‐profit sectors, lead the creative development process and ensure that the show will come to life as envisioned. Robert has worked for many years as a Project Manager/ Production Manager/ Technical Director on live to air events including the Toronto 2015 Pan Am & Parapan Am Handover Ceremonies from Guadalajara, Mexico; NHL Winter Classics & All Star Weekends and the Canadian Country Music Awards.

Robert’s work has taken him from the United Kingdom & Ireland to Mexico and to all corners of North America working in such diverse locations as Soccer Stadiums, NHL arenas, MLB stadiums, The White House and a working saw mill. Robert is currently working for Toronto2015, the Organising Committee for the 2015 Pan Am & Parapan Am Games, as a Producer in the Arts & Culture Department. Together with Creative Director, Don Shipley and Senior Producer, Iris Nemani, Robert is designing and developing the Arts & Culture Festival that will surround the Games in 2015.