Previously:

Part I: Community Engagement is a State of Being, Or, Why We're Changing Again

Part II: Lead with Culture: Thriving. Resonating. Energizing.

Part III: 2005 to 2010 Was About First Things First

Part IV: What's Next? Long Term Goals for Arts Development in Calgary: Incubate

Part V: Long Term Goals - Accelerate 

A funny thing happened on the way to my regular blog posting schedule… I took a pause to help finalize Calgary's bid to be the 2012 Cultural Capital of Canada. I couldn't be happier with our bid, and I couldn't be more proud of our city and the people who rolled up their sleeves to make this bid a reality. Included in that long list (our best guess is that over 5000 people were involved in some way, either through the web, or in person) is City Council. They made a strong commitment to our bid very early in the process. Their commitment allowed us to spend a lot of time in the community learning about the ambitions for culture in Calgary.

Through this extensive discussion with the community, we heard loud and clear that Calgarians want to be active participants in their cultural scene. This desire aligns strongly with our third area of focus, engagement. In reality, engagement has always been a driving force for Calgary Arts Development. Through our planning process, we reaffirmed the strategic importance of this goal, and further defined what it means, as described below:

Goal 3: Engage

Our Aspiration: Ensure a critical mass of opportunities for Calgarians to become enthusiastic arts participants.

Calgarians from all walks of life are increasingly showing interest in engaging with culture and the arts. They’re engaging in new ways, every day, on demand. There is a desire for vibrant (and safe) street life, for cool coffee shops, galleries, and other unexpected creative encounters that define what it means to live in a dynamic urban centre. People around the world are generally beginning to realize that engaging with the arts is "a good thing" for a myriad of reasons, and there’s no “right way” to do it! Calgary continues to diversify its ethno-cultural mix, and at over 1,000,000 in population has an increasingly diverse set of interests and tastes. In response, the number of arts organizations, festivals and community/cultural celebrations (from amateur through to professional) is growing. Against this dynamic backdrop, it is disconcerting to see that many of Calgary’s arts organizations struggle to sustain their base operations, including building a sustainable audience.

What’s missing? A concerted effort to increase public awareness and engagement in the arts. Many of the general issues that hinder the growth and development of the arts in any city are also at play here. Citizens need to be both made more aware of opportunities and encouraged to participate in their art scene, while more opportunities (as audience members, students and other creative capacities) for the public to engage with the arts need to be fostered. Barriers to arts participation (formal and informal) including costs, restrictions on arts activities in public/on streets, and geography (for example: there are no purpose-built art spaces in East Calgary) should be systematically eliminated.

Engaging citizens is aimed at expanding the number of Calgarians who regularly seek out an arts experience, are knowledgeable about arts participation opportunities in their city, and who understand the value of the arts to the quality of life of them and others in the city.  We like to call these people “Creative Connected Citizens.”

Enabling artists and arts organizations to engage is aimed at expanding the public impact of their work. Along these lines, Ben Cameron, of the Doris Duke Foundation, tells us we need to ask tough questions about how our work matters, with the toughest being: "how would my community be damaged if we closed our doors and went away tomorrow?"

Important elements for engagement include: access to suitable facilities for preparation/creation/presentation (and that are convenient for the audience), base funding to cover a portion of operating costs so that cost barriers are reduced, competent administrative human resources, the ability to communicate with and build an audience and for audiences to learn about arts organizations, and access to community-minded sponsors.

I've had some really interesting responses to these blog posts over the past couple of weeks. I'd love to hear what you think! Feel free to use the comments below, or e-mail me at terry.rock@calgaryartsdevelopment.com