Equity Town Halls

Our commitment to Indigenous reconciliation, racial equity, disability justice, and gender and sexual diversity.

About Equity Town Halls

What is this moment asking of us?

To support and nurture diverse art and artist-led city building to foster not only a resilient and sustainable arts ecosystem, but also to achieve a truly equitable, inclusive and accessible city where everyone belongs.

Calgary Arts Development is committed to bettering our systems regarding equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility (EDIA). As a public agency stewarding public dollars for the benefit of all Calgarians, we aspire to foster a resilient and sustainable arts sector that is safe and welcoming for all, regardless of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, language, citizenship, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, physical or mental abilities.

Please join us for a series of Commitment to Equity Virtual Town Halls. These sessions take place over Zoom and are free and open to everyone. Registration is required for each individual session you plan to attend.

Upcoming Town Halls

Live from Congress

Update: We will not be presenting an Equity Town Hall live from Congress. Instead, our 2024 Living a Creative Live Congress offers several panel discussions and breakout sessions on topics such as Art for Social…

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Climate Change Art

Join us for a conversation with local heroes working to make art practices more sustainable. More details coming soon.

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Town Hall Library

Artists as Changemakers

Join us for a discussion about making change through art while embedded in the community. This session focuses on what’s working, what isn’t, and current grappling with trying to make the world a more equitable…

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Imagining the Unimaginable

Founder and innovator of the Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation (ICAI), Toyin Oladele, talks about her upbringing and how it brought her to successes, failures and current grappling as she tries to make the art…

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Art Rights. Artists Reverberate Trans Rights.

The second of our 2024 Equity Town Halls focuses on artists working to reverberate why trans rights are human rights.

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Artistic Community Care Town Hall

The first of our 2024 Equity Town Halls focuses on community care plans for self and others — art renderings and responses in and before crisis as part of a wellness plan.

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Considering Disability as Culture Town Hall: Video and Transcript

On December 4, 2023, we hosted a virtual town hall led by activist and artist JD Derbyshire and focused on Disability as Culture. Watch the video and read the transcript.

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Racial Equity in the Workplace III: Video and Transcript

On September 28, 2023, we hosted the third of three virtual town halls focused on Racial Equity in the Workplace. Watch the video and read the transcript.

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More Information

Our Commitment to Equity

Our commitment to Indigenous reconciliation, racial equity, disability justice, and gender and sexual diversity.

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 Îyârhe Nakoda Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations. Today this land is home to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government Districts 5 and 6 as well as many First Nations and Inuit from across Turtle Island.

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.

Please see our full Commitment to Equity, including the sections on our aspirations, accountability, current initiatives and EDIA history.