Public Art Administrator

We acknowledge that the land we gather on, Mohkinsstsis, is the ancestral territory of the Siksikaitsitapi—the Blackfoot people—comprising the Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani Nations, as well as Treaty 7 signatories, the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Îyâxe Nakoda Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley First Nations.

This land is also the home of Métis Nation Region 3. We recognize all Indigenous people of Turtle Island who call Treaty 7 home.

We acknowledge that there has been art, music, dance, storytelling, and ceremony on this land since time immemorial and it is in the spirit of this land and its people that we do our work.

Employment Equity Statement

Calgary Arts Development is an equal opportunity employer and employs people without regard to race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, language, citizenship, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, physical, and/or mental abilities.

While remaining alert and sensitive to the issue of fair and equitable treatment for all, Calgary Arts Development has a special concern with the participation and advancement of members of designated groups that have traditionally been disadvantaged in employment: Black, Indigenous, and people of colour, persons with physical or mental disabilities, and members of the 2SLGBTQIAP+ community.

We are currently working remotely to reduce the risk of COVID-19 contact for our staff, but it is important to note that our office in the Burns Building downtown is unfortunately not fully accessible in the following ways:

• The Burns Building is not fully wheelchair accessible.
• We do not have accessible or gender-neutral washrooms—the closest ones are in the building adjacent to ours–Arts Commons.
• We are not presently equipped with technology that supports those with hearing or visual impairments.

While we seek to rectify this in the future, we feel it is important to be transparent about the limitations of our current facilities.

Who Are We?

Calgary Arts Development Authority is our city’s designated arts development authority. We provide grant investments to hundreds of arts organizations, individual artists, and groups. We value relationships, generosity, reciprocity, plain language, and curiosity.

We believe the arts have the power to build our city. Through the arts development strategy, Living a Creative Life, our vision is a creative, connected, prosperous Calgary where every resident has the opportunity to live a creative life. We foster a sustainable and resilient arts sector, and support arts-led city building.

Strong relationships are central to our work, and will be particularly central to this role. We honour artists and believe that art is a critical component of public good. We welcome new introductions and partnerships with artists and arts organizations as well as with others whose work may be outside the arts who are trying to make our city great through living a creative life.

Our team has been working towards creating shared environments where all people can feel safe, heard, and validated. A sensitivity to the lived experiences of diverse, marginalized, and equity-seeking people is very important as we continue valuing equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in all aspects of our work.

Public Art at Calgary Arts Development

History

Calgary’s public art program was created in 2004 to deliver broad based public art programming, and the public art collection has been in existence and growing for over 100 years. Since 2004, the program has provided a broad variety of programming, permanent artworks, and conservation of public art assets on behalf of Calgarians. In the last five years, there have been broad-based discussions around the direction and priorities of the program.

A New Direction for Calgary’s Public Art Program

In September 2019, Calgary’s city council directed city administration to engage a third-party consultant to review a series of broad-based questions to determine if consideration of an external service model was an appropriate direction for the public art program.

In November 2019, city council publicly released a notice of motion, directing administration to move ahead on engaging the sector in the development of a request for proposal (RFP) for release in 2020 inviting proposals from external parties interested in managing the program.

After a rigorous engagement and reporting process, city council approved the transition of Calgary’s public art program.

On March 22, 2021, The City of Calgary announced Calgary Arts Development as the future operator for Calgary’s public art program.

Calgary Arts Development as the Future Operator for Calgary’s Public Art Program

Calgary Arts Development is focused on stewarding public dollars for public good.

Calgary Arts Development envisions a public art program rooted in meaningful engagement leading to a public realm that tells the story of who we are and what we value as a city. We envision public art that Calgarians can connect with throughout our city; a program that reaches everywhere and everyone.

As a much smaller organization than The City of Calgary, Calgary Arts Development is able to streamline the program and reduce barriers for local artists to participate, while also increasing engagement opportunities and transparency for Calgarians. Our commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility will serve the program well, increasing access and representation from a wide cross section and variety of artists. We look forward to stewarding a public art program that reflects who we are and what we value as a city.

The City of Calgary will work with us to gradually transition oversight and implementation of public art projects and programs over the course of three years, with full transition expected to be complete in 2024.

The Role

We are recruiting for a full-time public art administrator to join our team. This is a new role, and will report to the public art projects manager. It is a term-certain position for one year.

The individual in this role will work closely with the public art projects manager and the rest of the public art team to support their work in an administrative role.

This position is responsible for co-designing, implementing, and maintaining workflow and processes to ensure the public art program is run in a way that is straightforward, transparent, and effective. The individual in this role will support both public art projects and the public art program through the handling of contract administration, daily financial transactions, financial tracking, and the operational needs of the public art team.

Internally, this individual will work closely with the operations team at Calgary Arts Development, as well as with other administrative level staff.

It is expected that the individual in this position will occasionally work closely with City of Calgary departments in supporting the financial reporting of the public art program.

The successful candidate is committed to embedding the values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in all relationships and processes related to public art. This includes Truth and Reconciliation and right relations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities within Treaty 7 territory, in part realized through the activation of the White Goose Flying Report, a local adaptation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report with calls to action that can be influenced locally.

Accountabilities

This is a new position at Calgary Arts Development, and as such we recognize that accountabilities may shift as the program is developed.

The public art project administrator will:

• Provide administrative support for the public art team, including maintaining data and records, administering online application tools, organizing meetings, taking meeting minutes, processing and tracking payments.
• Process payments and manage filing and record keeping.
• Support financial processing, including tracking accounts payable and accounts receivable transactions related to public art.
• Support the monitoring of project and department budgets to ensure Calgary Arts Development remains a good steward of public funds and that fiscal goals are met.
• Ensure that appropriate procurement regulations are followed through the life of a project, including supporting trade agreement requirements are met, obtaining quotes for construction and fabrication, putting projects out to tender, and commissioning artists through requests for qualifications, etc.
• Act as first contact for inquiries to the public art team by phone and email, directing inquiries to the appropriate team members, and where appropriate providing general information to artists about programs, services and resources available to them.
• Appropriately respond to inquiries in a manner that builds trust and relationships.
• Support info sessions (online or in person) and application workshops, and help artists prepare their application for the assessment committees.
• Support project assessments by providing administrative support through the assessment process and communicating assessment committee decisions.
• Organizing meetings including communications, taking meeting minutes, overseeing schedule implementation, catering, audio and visual set up, and other needs in the context of supporting programs.
• Support the development of a contractor roster, and supporting the contracting and consistent training of public art project contractors and consultants.
• Support awareness of local fabricators and construction companies to ensure competitive opportunities for local public art fabrication and installation.
• Contribute to reporting and accountability related to the public art contract with The City of Calgary at key junctions.
• Actively work to decolonize how capital public art projects are delivered by supporting the following of an existing public art process map. This includes defining when and how Indigenous Elders are involved in each public art project.

Who Are You?

For this position, we are looking for someone who is passionate about public art, and is a detail-oriented individual who enjoys working with people.

You are highly organized, detail oriented, and self-motivated in your work.

You’ve held a role like this in the past and are comfortable juggling multiple tasks simultaneously, identifying priorities, and ensuring those you work with have all the details they need to be successful in their work.

You are interested in accountability and ensuring we are good stewards of the resources the public invests in this program, and with public engagement as a core component of all stages of a project’s life.

You are committed to growing your awareness of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility and want to ensure that our systems reflect those values, but this is not new work for you.

You’re not all things to all people, but you’re probably already a few of these things:

• You have experience in, or are familiar with financial processes.
• You have experience supporting projects of different scales and budget sizes.
• You are passionate about working with people, and interested in building relationships.
• You might have an understanding of procurement laws and regulations and how those apply to public art.
• You have experience in, or are familiar with financial and granting software.
• You have strong technology and computer skills, are familiar with Mac and Windows environments, and can adapt quickly to using new software and processes.
• You enjoy problem solving and troubleshooting to find solutions when situations arise.
• You are comfortable multitasking, and working within tight deadlines.
• You are comfortable working in a collaborative and open work environment.
• You are a self-starter who is adaptable working both independently and with a team.
• You have an ability to maintain a high level of professionalism, discretion, and confidentiality.
• You are adept at managing risk.
• You’re a lifelong learner.

If you see yourself in this opportunity, we encourage you to apply. And if you’re not sure, you can learn more about us by exploring our website.

We are also open to having conversations with individuals in advance of the submission of an application to clarify questions about this posting. Please address those inquiries to Greg Burbidge, Interim Director of Public Art, at greg.burbidge@calgaryartsdevelopment.com.

How to Apply

Please indicate your interest by emailing jointheteam@calgaryartsdevelopment.com with your resume and cover letter. Please use the subject line: Public Art Administrator.

Your cover letter should address the question: “What role do you believe equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility play in public art?”

If you would like to request application assistance, please contact jointheteam@calgaryartsdevelopment.com or call 403.264.5330 to arrange assistance. Details around application assistance are listed in detail below.

For best consideration apply by August 9, 2021. We are hoping to fill this position by September 1, 2021 but our commitment to finding the right fit may require more time.

Minimum annual salary is $45,000 in addition to an extended health benefits package, and a matching RRSP program.

Application Assistance

We recognize that the job application process can create barriers to access for many applicants who are interested in applying. Our job calls are written in English, shared online and require applicants to email their applications in English. This creates technological, linguistic, communication, and cultural barriers, to name a few.

In recognition of these barriers to access, eligible applicants can request assistance to help alleviate some of the costs associated with preparing and submitting a job application.

Who Can Request Assistance?

Individuals who self-identify as:

• An individual who is Deaf, hard of hearing, has a disability or is living with a mental illness.
• An individual facing language, geographic, or cultural barriers.

To receive assistance, you will need to provide:

• The name and contact information of someone who can help you (this could be a trusted friend or family member, or a professional service provider). We may be able to make recommendations depending on the service being requested.
• The amount you are requesting, including the service provider’s hourly rate.

Types of Assistance

General Transcription or Editing Services & Organizing of Support Materials

• Applicants who identify barriers within the writing process directly due to a physical or learning disability or due to living with mental illness.
• Maximum Contribution: $75

Language Translation

• Applicants writing an application in another language who require translation into English, including American Sign Language.
• Maximum Contribution: $150

ASL Interpretation

• Calgary Arts Development is able to make arrangements for reputable, in-person ASL interpreters for interviews, in consultation with the interviewee, and at no cost to the interviewee.

Interview Parking

• Applicants who must drive to an interview at our request are eligible to have their parking costs paid by Calgary Arts Development.
• Maximum Contribution: $26 per interview, or the equivalent of the daily rate for parkades or parking meters that are close to the Calgary Arts Development office. Please note that currently all interviews are being conducted via Zoom.

Childcare

• Applicants who require childcare services in order to attend the interview are eligible to be reimbursed for those childcare expenses.

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