Arts and Culture Council Assessment Committee

Committee members had further discussion about the roles of the proposed organization and discussed the four main areas of focus. These are Advocacy, Relationships, Community and Sustainability & Support. The group reviewed and discussed each of these areas of focus in depth.

The group also discussed governance structures in order to have a clear understanding of what type of Board that the new organization should have. Committee members is moving towards Governance Board for the new organization. In addition, the committee members reached a consensus that there will be two seats from the City of Airdrie on the new organization’s Board.

Another major agenda item was budget and funding for the new organization. The staff provided an overview on how the arts and culture are currently funded in Airdrie. Committee members and staff shared information on how other arts and culture organizations are funded.

Next steps

Staff and Facilitator will:

• Collaborate with committee members to draft a budget for the new organization.
• Clarify what needs to be submitted for Council in the ACAC recommendation report. 
• (a) An Arts Council framework to set a vision, mission and mandate of an Arts Council;
• (b) An Arts Council framework to determine the governance structure of an Art Council; and
• (c) Resource and funding requirements to support an Arts Council.

Committee members will:

• Continue collaboration through the online tool regarding staffing and funding for the new arts and culture organization.

Committee members discussed the experiences and learnings they had while travelling to Lethbridge, touring Casa (Lethbridge’s community arts centre), meeting with representatives from the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge and visiting the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.

The group also reviewed the research completed by committee representatives on St. Albert’s Arts and Heritage Foundation and the arts framework set out in Sylvan Lake’s Cultural Master Plan. Further research into the arts organizational model in the Town of Olds will be completed in the next week and shared for ACAC committee review and discussion.

A review of the Meeting #3 exercise to define and prioritize the roles of the new organization was undertaken. Some of the roles were better defined, combined with other roles or updated based on the new information that was gained through the research that was completed over the summer months.

Input was gathered on the elements of the new organization to include in the ACAC recommendation to Council. Using breakout discussion groups, ACAC members were able to narrow down the type of organizational model they think will best meet the needs of our City and provide input on the staffing requirements to support the proposed arts and culture organization.

Next steps:

• Staff & Facilitators will:
• Upload discussion notes to the online collaboration tool for ACAC members to review and continue to discuss.
• Committee Members will:
• Review the research information gathered about the arts organizational model in the Town of Olds on the online collaboration tool and participate in the online discussion about this research.
• Identify any further research that needs to be completed on the other organizations being studied
• Continue discussions, through the online collaboration tool, on the potential roles, staffing and organizational model for the proposed arts and culture organization.

Committee members took part in a discussion about the role the new organization should play, how it should support arts & culture in Airdrie and what needs it could fulfil. Through this discussion the group created a list of potential roles for the new organization. This list was then prioritized by committee members.

To start the discussion of organizational structure, staff provided 3 examples of arts organizations in Alberta that represented a range of complexity. Committee members broke out into small groups to analyze the examples provided and to determine if the arts organization described would fulfil the potential roles identified earlier in the meeting. Groups also noted where the proposed model had strengths or gaps and tracked questions that would need to be answered to better understand if the example organization could work for Airdrie.
The group found the exercise of reviewing current arts organization models extremely valuable and decided to continue this research into the summer.

Dialogue on sample organizations:

Olds Model: Public Art Committee

Pros:

• Activate economic energy through arts.
• Sustainable funding
• City maintains art
• Public art
• Post-secondary recruitment and attraction

Challenges:

• Not at arm’s length
• More inclusive
• Not a broad mandate

What modifications might fill these roles:

• Funding sources need to be more diverse
• Paid staff and arm’s length
• More artists input

Sylvan Lake Model: Cultural Development Integration Committee

Pros:

• Sustainable funding
• Volunteer Driven
• Municipal in-kind support
• Arm’s length
• Advocacy – built in diversity
• Organized and executes special events
• Communication
• Starts as a communication hub evolves into realizing potential of local artists/arts organizations.

Challenges:

• Too broad – governance structure
• Hub for information
• Distribute money
• Marketing (is this word problematic?)

What modifications might fill these roles:

• What is the focus of this organization? Can’t be all to everyone – decision/policy or doers
• Resident opportunity to experience all art forms
• Training? – more info needed

Lethbridge Model: Arts Council

Pros:

• Advocacy role
• Has several funding streams
• Represents many organizations
• Collaborator/Connector
• Leadership agreement is great
• Education – city-wide programming
• Paid positions

Challenges:

• Missing the reciprocal back to the City – MOU
• Communication of arts is a barrier
• Lacks flexibility for fee for service – inconsistency

What modifications might fill these roles:

• Learn more about franchise fee and fee for service
• No identified grand funding (potential)

Next steps:

Staff & Facilitator will:

• Work to compile a list of arts organizations/models for committee members to review
• Create a list of questions for committee members to use in discussions with arts organizations being reviewed.
• Collaborate with committee members to determine options for connecting with arts organizations being reviewed – virtual, in-person, by telephone etc.
• Set-up an online collaborative space for committee members to continue their work between meetings

Committee members will:

• Connect with arts organizations, ask detailed questions about the organization and how it operates and report findings back to the Arts & Culture Assessment Committee.

The second meeting of the Arts & Culture Assessment Committee (ACAC) began with each committee member sharing about their skills, training and talents. This information will help the group better understand how their collective skills and knowledge can support the work of the committee.

Christina Waldner was chosen by the group as the Community Co-chair. Christina will serve the committee alongside the Council Co-chair, Councillor Heather Spearman.

There is a wide range of possible organizational models to support arts & culture in our community. The group was presented with research on the spectrum of municipal arts and culture support possibilities from low tax-base dependency/high community dependency to higher tax-based dependency/low community dependency as well as an overview of the common functions of arts and culture support organizations.

ACAC committee members also continued the work of creating a definition of ‘Arts & Culture’ for Airdrie. Working from a proposed definition that was developed from ideas shared during the first meeting, meeting attendees suggested additions, adjustments and changes to further shape the definition.

Members of the committee have also been working to put together an inventory of arts and culture organizations in Airdrie and to list the strengths and needs of each of these organizations. This list is helping to inform Airdrie’s requirements and criteria for an organization to support arts and culture in our City.

Finally, to link concepts discussed during the meeting back to projects underway in Airdrie, an overview of the Library and Downtown plans was provided to the group to highlight how an arts and culture organization could support these plans in the future.

Next steps

Committee members will:

• Read the report and research documents provided prior to meeting #2
• Continue to build the inventory of arts and culture organizations currently operating in Airdrie

Staff & Facilitator will:

• Set-up an online collaborative space for the Committee to continue their work between meetings
• Prepare for a more detailed discussion of organizational models

The first meeting of the Arts & Culture Assessment Committee (ACAC) gave committee members the chance to meet and to learn about each other.

Because this was the organizational meeting the group spent time reviewing the committee Terms of Reference, City of Airdrie statistics for context and research on options for supporting arts & culture in Airdrie.

Committee members worked collaboratively to identify a potential vision for arts & culture in Airdrie and began the work of defining ‘Arts & Culture’ for Airdrie.

Through introductions and discussion, the committee was able to further identify the arts and culture backgrounds of each of the members, and what skill sets the committee can draw on to ensure the success of this project.

The committee members left the meeting with a clear understanding of the purpose of the committee. They also took away some homework tasks:

• Review and research the spectrum of options for arts and culture organizations; and
• Begin to build an inventory of arts and culture groups currently operating in Airdrie.

Through engagement, communication, and facilitation, Gay Robinson, helps organizations include the voices of stakeholders in decisions that impact their lives. Her passion lies in working collaboratively with communities and organizations at the grassroots level; preferring to keep discussions at the kitchen table rather than the boardroom table.

Based in Alberta, Gay’s boutique consulting firm, Gay Robinson Consulting, serves clients ranging from energy companies, utilities and regulators to community groups, school boards and local governments. She encourages her clients to raise the bar and establish best practices for stakeholder engagement.

Gay is an active member of IAP2 – as a licensed trainer for the IAP2 Program since 2005 and in various leadership roles. She is an IAP2 Canada Certified Public Participation Professional (CP3) and serves as an assessor for this professional certification program. She currently serves on the Board for IAP2 Wild Rose Chapter and is on the program committee for the IAP2 2020 North American conference. Gay is also an accredited and life-time member of the Canadian Public Relations Society.

Education

• University of Calgary – Bachelor of Commerce 
• Mount Royal University – Associate Diploma in Public Relations

Accreditation

• Licensed Trainer – International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)
• Certificate in Public Participation – IAP2
• Professional Accreditation – Canadian Public Relations Society