Equity Priority Group Descriptions
This document has been updated as of February 7, 2022.
Download the Equity Priority Group Descriptions as a PDF
Calgary Arts Development has adapted these priorities and descriptions from the Toronto Arts Council’s Equity Framework. We are grateful to the Toronto Arts Council for their work in this area.
The descriptions provided below are iterative and we acknowledge that they are imperfect and may not be reflective of how individuals or groups might identify themselves. We welcome any feedback. We will be engaging with the community this year to further interrogate, develop, and improve upon the equity priority groups and their descriptions.
We also want to acknowledge intersectionality which recognizes how an individual may face multiple types of overlapping barriers, oppression or discrimination based on gender, age, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, physical or cognitive abilities, and many other characteristics. Rather than being defined solely based on one characteristic, intersectionality reinforces that we are complex human beings with a multitude of identities that define and influence us. We will consider each application within their own context with this understanding.
Current equity priority groups are listed below in alphabetical order:
We acknowledge the social model of disability views disability as a consequence of environmental, social and attitudinal barriers that prevent people with disabilities from fully participating in society, as opposed to the medical model of disability that focuses on an individual person’s so called physical or mental limitations. Adapted from the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s definitions of models of disability.
We acknowledge that persons of colour is an umbrella term for a diverse spectrum of racialized peoples with unique identities who have experienced vastly different historical disadvantages and barriers to participation in Canadian society and the arts sector. We recognize that the term lacks nuance and can flatten difference and oversimplify complexities, contributing to erasure of these unique identities.
