Watch the Anti-Racism Virtual Town Hall

Patti Pon: Hello everyone inside the meeting room. We’re just gonna get the last few people who are in the waiting room and then we’ll get started here and in another minute or two welcome and thanks so much.

Okay then. So, we have a few people that are still trickling in in the waiting room so I think what we’ll do, because I want to try and give us as much time as possible to have a conversation and answer questions. So I’m going to get going, and in doing so, I would like to invite Sable Sweetgrass from the CADA team to offer a land acknowledgement and a welcome, over to you Sable.

Sable Sweetgrass: Oki, hello everyone, my name is Sable Sweetgrass, and I am the Specialist for Indigenous Programs with Calgary Arts Development. I want to welcome you all here today, and to acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Blackfoot.

And this is the territory of Treaty Seven, which was a treaty signed in 1877 between the Blackfoot, which is the Siksika, Kainai and Piikani, as well the Tsuut’ina Nation and Stoney Nakoda Nations.

And so I just wanted to extend a welcome here, and also including the Métis Nation Region 3 and all the First Nations, from all over North America, that call Calgary Mohkinstsis home.

This land is home to so many First Nations today. But it’s really home to nations from all over the world, from every corner of the world so our responsibility is to care for this land, to care for the water, the air, the animals but also one another. Everyone that calls this place home. So, thank you and welcome.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much Sable, you know, as many of you who’ve joined us on these calls before know we always undertake a land acknowledgement. And we always do so with meaning and Sable is a great teacher to us in terms of helping us understand that more and deeper, and I think that’s the thing that really begins our journey today in this conversation that for all of us on the call, but hopefully and in particular, all of us here at Calgary Arts Development and me, this is a learning journey. This is not an end in and of itself, this is something that we will all come to from different spectrums. So as Sable shares with us that today, many, many of us from all different nations call this place home. I am reminded of the journey that we’ll all take in sharing this place and sharing this space today. So thank you all very much for joining us in this part of the journey.

So, I want to start today with a few housekeeping things. For those of you who perhaps are new to Zoom, or newish to Zoom I don’t know if it’s possible to be new to Zoom anymore, we’ll just give a couple of technical sort of items, if you want to customize how you take part in the conversation today.

I want to first introduce the members of our CADA staff. We have a full roster of people not only from our staff, but also from our board of directors so I want to welcome all of you and thank you for joining us.

If you look in the participants chat box so across the bottom of your screen if you’re on a computer or a laptop. And if you’re on a phone or an iPad, it might be on the side, there’s a box called participants. So that participants box if you click it will list everybody that is on the call today. And when you look at that participant list, you’ll see that many of us have our name, but we’ve put CADA in front of it, and that’s so you know that there are people here from CADA so if you have a specific question or you want to reach out directly to one of our CADA team members, I’d encourage you to do that. For those members of our board, if you wish to change your name, you can do so as well.

In your participant box beside your name if you bring your cursor over, you’ll see a blue box that says “more”, and you can choose “rename”, and under “rename” you can put CADA. Some of you may wish to also put your personal pronouns beside your name as well. That’s helpful to me as we keep track of who may wish to make a comment or bring up questions over the course of this afternoon. In the chat box, so same menu where you found participants there’s a chat box. In addition to some of the things we may say, we’ll also be putting some of that content in the chat box so you can read it. So for example, wanting to let everybody know we’re recording this meeting, and for future, and that’s for the purposes of those who couldn’t join us today, and also to reference further, and we’ll post that to our website.

In the chat box, you have the option of also privately sending a message to someone. When we record, Zoom’s only option is that we as the people hosting the meeting will see everything, including those private chats, so I just want you to be aware. However, when we load the recording to our website, we will not put the chat in. But while Amy Jo, who’s undertaking our recording today, she’ll see it so I just want you all to know that, and to be aware.

As well, some of you may have seen that we have our ASL interpreter, Kimberley with us. Kimberley will be offering ASL interpretation. If you are someone who would like to make use of that service that Kimberley’s providing, if you take your cursor and you scroll over Kimberely’s video, her image, you’ll see a menu come up with three little dots. If you click on those dots, you’ll see an option to pin the video. If you highlight “pin the video”, then Kimberly’s image will stay up on the screen for the entirety of our meeting today.

And you can pin anybody’s video, for that matter. So that’s an option available to all of you. Another option we have is that we’re using an app called otter.ai. And otter.ai is a closed captioning service. So, at the top of your screen, you’ll see a red button that says live on otter.ai live notes. If you open up that scroll down menu, you can ask to view the stream on otter.ai Live Notes. So if you’d like to make use of that closed captioning service, currently we’re only able to offer it in English, and they’re working on other languages. And also know that it’s an AI app. So you might get some good laughs over what you read on the streaming service. But that option is available to you as well. And these are all in the chat box so if you need to scroll up to find the instructions they’ll be available to you.

I think that’s what we wanted to cover there. Group agreements. So the CADA staff who are on call today in particular and our board members, we’ve all been individually going through this particular time this last several weeks as I know all of you have, and running the gamut of emotions. It’s been a tough time for many of us on our team, like all of you. And I think that as individuals, we come to this with humility and vulnerability. And we’re really all glad that you could join us today. And in that same context, when we undertake our work at Calgary Arts Development we actually have a Group Agreement that we all signed on to as staff members in terms of how we work with each other.

And Greg has very kindly posted the Group Agreement up in the chat box so you can scroll up and see it if you like, but I’m just going to quickly read through what we as the CADA team are committed to today as we undertake this conversation. We’re committing to create a safe space for everyone, by respecting each person, regardless of how they identify including their gender, sexuality, age, class, religion, beliefs, nation, physical, neurological, cognitive and MAD identities. We’re sharing language that respects everyone. We’re speaking from our own perspective and avoiding making generalized claims, or assumptions about other’s identities, not interrupting others and on this Zoom call, we ask that everyone keeps their mic on mute, unless they are speaking. When we open the floor to conversation, comments and questions we will use the raise hand function in order and try our best to get as many people in as possible to speak. We’re mindful of how much time and space, we take up in discussion in order to make time and space for others to speak. We use I statements, I feel, I think, I wonder, etc.

We respect those who wish to listen silently. And we recognize that vulnerable interactions can occur, and creating space to acknowledge and discuss, hurt or offense if it does. We will honor the knowledge and experience others share. We will acknowledge the experiences and values that make each of us biased. We will allow others to help us check in with our biases in a respectful and productive way. And we acknowledge that we are all learning, and may be at different places on our journeys. We’ll be patient with ourselves and others, as we remain open to continued learning.

So, those Group Agreements have gone up, Melissa sharing them again, thank you so much. And with I think those out of the way, I’ll talk a little bit about raising your hand when we get to that part of the questions piece which will be in a few minutes.

The first thing I wanted to, or the next thing, if I may, what I’d like to do is just read to all of you, some of you may have not seen it, the statement that we posted on the weekend on our website. And, well, I’ll just read it, and then we’ll go from there.

Black Lives Matter.

The last few weeks we have seen actions in Calgary and around the world that have revealed and amplified the deep seated racism that exists within our communities and systems. As an organization Calgary Arts Development has committed ourselves to bettering our systems regarding equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility and as such, we cannot remain silent. In the last 14 weeks our work at Calgary Arts Development has been centred on artists and getting emergency relief funding to artists, arts workers and arts organizations, and we missed responding directly to this. It doesn’t mean at all that we don’t care. We have always and continue to be artist centred, and we take full responsibility for the time it took us to respond with a clear statement of where we stand, and more importantly, the actions we are prepared to undertake. We support and will show our solidarity for Black artists and the trauma that has and is experienced by all BIPOC, that’s Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, and artists with disabilities. Effective immediately, this is what we’re going to do. Commission and compensate a working group to help us recraft our commitment to equity, diversity inclusion and accessibility and further develop anti-racist policies and practices governing our work. Make a donation to the Calgary Black Empowerment Fund. Continue our commitment to our reconciliation journey as led by the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the teachings of elders and indigenous artists who have generously provided counsel.

We will convene our next Virtual Town Hall on June 17, specifically to discuss the issues that have most recently been raised, and we will listen carefully and deeply. There is more work to be done. We cannot do this work alone, and we call for the solidarity of all artists, arts workers and arts champions, to help us hear what we need to hear and continue to strengthen our EDIA work already underway. If you wish to reach out to us with comments, please contact us at edia@calgaryartsdevelopment.com. We value the trust that many of you met that many of you have placed in us, and when we let you down, we feel it, and we will do better. On behalf of Calgary Arts Development, Patti Pon, President and CEO.

So that was the statement that we prepared. And just saying that out loud and making it present in this space. A number of you who have responded by joining us today on this call, have also further asked some questions. I expect that there are, I hope that there are questions that people will be adding to this conversation.

As I said in our statement. We are here to listen carefully and deeply and really welcome being in this space and this, this time with you. So, that’s all I really wanted to say right now, I wanted us to have as much time as possible to take part in a conversation with each other.

We have developed just a little bit of a protocol so that I can keep track of everybody and because we have so many folks on the call like I have to scroll through screens, so please bear with me if I’m not necessarily catching all of you in order but I am trying to keep track and I also have Amy Jo and Lesley, to help me with that. If you have a question or a comment that you’d like to make in the chat box, is it the chat box? No, it’s the participant box where you can raise your hand.

Oh, I can’t see it now cuz I’m not on. Is it the participant box? Yes, it is the participant box. So, if you look—low tech—if you open the participant box at the bottom of your screen, there is a raise hand function. And if you raise your hand. I can see you, or I can see that little icon. Alternatively, if you’ve got your screen on and you just do this. Hopefully between the CADA team, one of us will see you, and they’ll bring that to my attention.

So, as well, when I call upon you we will unmute you, and you control your camera. So, it is up to you, it’s your choice as to whether or not you wish to be on screen and that goes for any time during this call. If you want to be off screen off your camera or not, that’s entirely up to you and we respect the choice that you make in that regard.

The other way you can get to, I’m just reading my messages here, thank you, is if you do alt U that also raises your hand.

Okay, so I’m just scanning through, wow, seven screens, that’s awesome. I’m going to start answering a couple of questions that were sent in to us earlier, and maybe get the conversation started that way. And again as maybe thoughts or comments arise, I’d invite you to just let me know or raise your hand and that kind of stuff. So thanks very much. So some of the first questions that we’ve received,  they’re not, they’re in no particular order, beyond the order that they came in. I’m just scrolling down to find them here.

One of the questions that we received with respect to the statement was, what is the process that we are going to undertake to put together the working group that we referenced in the statement.

Currently, we have, we don’t have a plan for that because we haven’t had a chance to ask and work with our communities. So, what we know is that we have crafted a commitment and a statement to equity, diversity inclusion and access, and we’re seeking the insight, and the foresight and assistance with crafting that statement, because we want our statement to mean something to the very communities that we were created to serve. And so you can’t do that inside a bubble.

So, in the days to come, we’ll be working with our communities to determine an appropriate process. I know that some of you on this call, as well as others, have indicated and demonstrated a desire and a willingness to be on that working group. Thank you very much for that, we’ve noted that, and as we determine a process we’ll be sure to share that as broadly as we can. And in particular, with communities that we may not currently have a relationship with, or we may not currently know. So, we may call upon, well, not may, I will call upon those of you who may be or are connected to those communities to please be sure that they’re aware of that process once we’re developing it.

We don’t want to just assume that the way we’ve always done it is the way that we should be continuing to put those processes and those groups together so that is something that we’ve learned and we’ve listened and heard. So, we’re not going to make those assumptions now.

In terms of the next question I have, this is a, I’m making a quote, because I didn’t want to be paraphrasing anybody’s questions. So the specific quote I have is: one issue that I would like to bring to attention in the discussion if suitable is the use of the sentence, People of Colour that I’ve heard frequently. This phrase or sentence is used commonly in our society, but for me this is a kind of racism, since we should refer to people, just like that: People. All people have a different color of skin. Some people it’s Black, some are white, others are in the middle with a diversity of tones and colors. But in general, we are just people with diverse backgrounds and races. If people had no colour, they would be transparent like air, and therefore invisible or inexistent. So I think it is time to stop referring to people as People of Colour, and just refer to people as people. Maybe this is a topic that should be put in the conversation.

Thank you for sharing that comment.

You heard me say it in the statement and make reference earlier. Currently there is a term BIPOC, and Artists With Disabilities, AWD. In the current conversation and context that we have been able to be a part of, those are the terms, with which the communities that we’re interacting with choose to use. Language is fluid, it’s always changing, and we will change our language as well as guided by the communities at large who are choosing to be referred to in that manner. So for the time being, Calgary Arts Development will use BIPOC, and AWD, Artists With Disabilities. BIPOC is Black, Indigenous People of Colour. And then, as it evolves, so will we, in our language.

Another question we have here from the community. And I’m still scanning for hands. Still scanning, sorry seven pages, don’t see any yet so I’m going to continue with the community questions that we’ve received so far.

Why is CADA only just now becoming aware of equity issues?

We have certainly been aware of equity issues for quite some time. We have specifically and in particular been addressing issues of EDI as well, first we called it DNI, diversity and inclusion. And then we called it EDI, equity, diversity, and inclusion. And we’ve since then progressed to EDIA, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.

And this is work we’ve undertaken as an organization for four years. JD Derbyshire, who some of you may know from the community and her time with Momo Dance and as an independent artist in her own right, is also our Inclusive Designer in residence, and JD has been working with us over these last few years, in terms of our own learning around EDIA and in particular, we’ve seen our efforts sort of widen in the context of our grant investment programs so for those of you who have perhaps been an assessor in our programs, you’ll know that we now have Group Agreements, we have a commitment to equity within our assessment process that’s been underway for a couple of years.

That’s thanks to folks like Melissa Tuplin, who’s our current manager of community investment and impact, and our previous team members like Jordan Baylon, who have really led us in that work alongside JD as a staff and board, staff in particular, we’ve been involved in a number of workshops around bystander training around intercultural sensitivity training, learning more work around emergent strategies. Some of our team have been working on work groups, in work groups around Me and White Supremacy, and there have been a number of efforts underway, sort of tied to this question and it came in separately was also a question around where is our work concerning Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, and where is that in our work, and and I will say that through our EDIA work, while it’s not been specifically with regard to that issue, we have been guided by the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and and have done quite a bit of work in our own reconciliation journey.

You will all, you may be aware we have the Original People’s Investment Program specifically intended for FNMI communities, First Nations Metis and Inuit communities, and so we have tried to implement our learnings as they’ve come along through these programs, and because over 80% of our budget is through the grant investment programs, that was the first place for us to try and ensure we were reducing and removing as many barriers as we could, knowing we still have work to do. So that’s what I’ll say there.

Just going through other questions. How are the influencing organizations and committees that are representing the culture and arts in our community bringing the awareness of diverse culture and beliefs.

I can speak to how CADA is doing it, but I don’t want to speak for other institutions or organizations and I know that some of you, many of you are on the call. So this might be a place where I hope we can create the conditions where you can maybe speak to that and ask questions.

You know, perfect, getting this perfect isn’t something we strive for. Always we strive to be better. Always we strive to ensure that everyone has a place in the circle. And that role, for those of us in the circle, that were clear what those what that role is and where that place is within the circle.

So, from CADA’s perspective, all of the things I said earlier, we’ll continue to do our own training and workshopping and professional development, our board is now undertaking a more formal approach to this and I know that Chima Nkemdirim is on the call with us and Chima, I’d certainly invite you to make any comments, if you’re able to I’m just kind of checking to see if I saw him on the call earlier and he is here. Chima, do you want to speak to anything from a board perspective in this regard?

Patti Pon: There you go!

Chima Nkemdirim: Can you hear me?

Patti Pon: Yep!

Chima Nkemdirim: Okay, fantastic. Hi everybody, my name is Chima, I’m a member of the CADA board, I’ve also been a long, longtime volunteer in the arts here in Calgary. I sit on the board of Alberta Theatre Projects, Arts Commons as well, and been also a big attendee of the arts. I have no artistic ability so I just go and enjoy the work of other people. This is a really, you know, just as a comment from a board perspective, and I’ll speak in my role here at CADA, is that diversity, and issues of diversity and equity and inclusion and access, have been really, it’s not a new conversation as we all know, and on this call. And it’s not a new conversation at CADA. I’ve only been on the board for CADA for a few months, but I can tell you when I was in my previous job, when I worked as Chief of Staff for the Mayor, I was, arts, was also my file. And the conversation about equity, inclusion, diversity and accessibility has been really fundamental at CADA, Calgary Arts Development for a long, long time. And certainly, there’s always things that need to be improved, but when you take a look at the Living a Creative Life strategy, diversity, in which I was fortunate enough to be on the committee that worked on that, on that strategy. Diversity and Inclusion was really fundamentally centred at it.

So I just wanted to say that I think he has been attuned to this certainly for a long time, but certainly there’s lots more work to do. And I think there are a lot of structures and a lot of systems that we continually have to look at and that’s one of the conversations that we have at the board level, at CADA we we know as a funder of arts we’ve been shifting. We’re trying to shift funds to support individual artists and make sure we’re supporting individual, more individual artists, you’ll know that a lot of our funds go to large organizations and we’ve also asked those organizations in our assessment processes to really explain and talk about, be transparent about the things that are doing. So I think this, I think, you know, events of the last few weeks of course for me as a Black man have been incredibly emotional. You know I think for many of us on this call it’s been, you know, this is a conversation that has, you know, people have been trying to have and, and a lot of frustration that people haven’t been listening. And I think, I think it’s a really good time for every institution and every organization to really look at what we are doing, and making sure we’re doing as much as we can.

I think I can tell you, just as a board member from CADA, we’re having those conversations, we’re really keen to hear what people have to say in this forum in other forums and really committed to know that nobody is perfect, and organizations aren’t perfect, and we’re quite committed to working hard to doing better. And I’ll say one more thing and then so I can stop talking about, you guys talk is that on the arts organizations that I’ve been on the board, so, this is also a conversation I know, it happens that we’ve had at Alberta Theatre Projects and we’ve had at Arts Commons, and I want to tell you that one of the biggest things that we’ve done in those those two other organizations, and also here at CADA is making sure we’ve hired a leadership at the top that actually understands these issues. And so, you know, both of ATP leadership or Darcy Evans and Alex Sarian our new leader at Arts Commons. Both have a really good, solid commitment to these issues, and I think we should be really proud that we have those kind of leaders in our community who are willing to listen and do more so that’s all I wanted to say but happy to answer any questions as they come up.

Patti Pon: Thanks so much, Chima, and again, welcoming any questions I’m scrolling and scrolling I’m looking through any of you who know me know I can fill up an hour, you really sure you want that? You sure you sure you want me talking? I’d love to hear from all of you.

Just checking our messages and welcoming any questions. I’m scanning, I’m scanning. I have a question here that’s being sent in by chat: Does CADA plan to work with all levels of funders to further embed requirements for equity, diversity and inclusion and the board level of organizations both articulating planned actions, and having board reporting on progress as part of the annual evaluation.

So, CADA as we work through our processes, yes, we are intending to undertake more work and request more information, particularly of our institutions. With respect to the work that you’re undertaking concerning equity, diversity inclusion and accessibility.

We wanted to undertake conversations, you know, you’ll now start to hear me talking, crediting JD who’s been a great accomplice and now like to me in terms of how I walk in this path with my identities and she always reminds me that we have to go to where people are. And so making assumptions that you’re going to reach a level or you’re going to hit a standard or a target or whatever, isn’t how you actually create meaning it’s not how you create real change. And so over the course of this time and going forward we want to undertake conversations with communities throughout our sort of roster of organizations that we work with, to ensure that you are equipped and have the capacity to make the kind of changes and understand why you’re making the changes that you are.

Three years ago we embarked on our first equity, diversity and inclusion survey, of the sector and particularly the companies we funded. We got tons of pushback. Lots of people really crabby at why you’re asking us and thinking that we were going to punish you somehow if you gave us the wrong answer.

We’re not going to presume that we know who is or who isn’t working in this realm, who does or doesn’t have relationships or is building relationships in this community. We want you to be able to tell us that in a true and authentic way and so we will begin to ask those questions and you will start to see it more intentionally in our work. Thank you very much to my team.

Ebony Gooden has a question, and I’m looking for Ebony in my screen or you may want to put it in the chat.

Kimberley Johnson: This is Kimberley here. Ebony I think is going to sign her questions so I just need to pin her video really quickly.

Patti Pon: Okay.

Kimberley Johnson: Thank you.

Ebony Gooden: Oh, I don’t have a question.I wanted to go back to the discussion of identity and the BIPOC phrase, and the AWD phrase.

I understand the comment that the person would rather use people as an identifier for all people but for myself as a Black female that is a strong part of my identity. I’m Black, deaf and female, and there’s a story behind that. It’s part of my experience in life, my history, my culture, my language, how I move through this world. So identifying those specifics is important and just a second. I’m just waiting for Landon here, who’s also in the chat. Just making sure that he can see me as well.

So getting back to that question, I think it should be up to the individual. Hang on a second.

Now I have to go back to the interpreter. Hang on one second, have to find the interpreter.

Okay, I’m sorry.

It’s really complex, I’m sorry I was just seeing the captions and watching the interpreter okay so let me go back.

So with the BIPOC and the AWD and just simply terming people as people I don’t agree with that at all. It’s up to the individual how they identify themselves how they prefer to be identified. And for me, I find if I identify as a Black female, there’s a whole history, culture and language attached to those identities and without that I feel my identity is not complete,

There are barriers and discriminations or discrimination on how I’ve moved through this world. So I think that it’s really important that we value how people choose to identify themselves and not remove those labels, as was requested.

And that’s all. Thank you.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much for your comments Ebony.

We have some questions now coming up in the chat box so I’m going to go through those.

I’m sorry it’s just taking me a minute here to scroll down.

Okay, so a comment about the opening statement I read from Calgary Arts Development. My questions are why now? I understand that you mentioned that this conversation is part of the work by inviting the community to speak. I’ve personally been raising this topic with CADA for years. What specific areas can you envision changing how many individuals on the board represent BIPOC communities.

So, let me break that down into the different questions.

In terms of why now, this is a continuing part, this is a continuation in our own journey around EDIA. Something that someone very wise who has also very generously offered their guidance and advice to us is a man named Cesar Cala and Cesar is a longtime social justice and activist in our community. He’s wise and has been a wonderful resource to us and something that he said to us earlier, is we don’t choose the moment, the moment chooses us.

So, and in the moment choosing us. It gives us the opportunity to speak. And to start something. And so, this is the start of this next part of our journey.

I understand that you mentioned this [garbled]…

We have attempted to have other forums where individuals may speak on a variety of issues not only what we’re talking about today. Citizen Artist YYC is one avenue, where individuals are welcome to be a part of that call it doesn’t necessarily include CADA although we have artists on our team who participate. We’re also undertaking other efforts like our, and Kimberley I’m sorry,  Aisinna’kiiks is a Blackfoot term for those who write, and draw. And it is a term that was gifted to us by an elder Saa’kokoto, and that is part of a reconciliation journey, of our reconciliation journey where we also engage artists and commissioned artists to help us understand what reconciliation means for us in this place in this time. So, we are trying to find different ways. It sounds to me like we have not found a way for you to be a part of this conversation or to take part in seeing what we’re doing. And so I’m very conscious of that, and if you’re comfortable, later on sharing who you are, I’m just seeing an anonymous message here, I would certainly have more conversation with you.

What specific areas do you envision changing? We know our grant investment programs will change for sure and continue to change from where they are now in our own work. It is related to our hiring practices which we have started to evolve and shape over the last couple of years. It is in our board recruitment, you have a question here about how many individuals on the board represent BIPOC communities. With regard to our board contingent, we currently have of 11, 1, 2, 3… Sorry, I’m having to go through in my head. Four out of 12 are… five. I’m sorry five out of twelve would be BIPOC, and AWD. Out of a total contingent of 12, going forward. And then we also have an even split between men and women.

We’re going through to the next question: Is there a timeline to when you will have the working group together and a timeline for their outcomes? We do not currently have a timeline specifically set. However, this is a priority for us. So we are looking to get underway as quickly as possible, as I’ve mentioned you’ve heard me talk about JD Derbyshire and Cesar Cala, they’ll be working with us and helping us with regard to how we undertake a process that is inclusive.

Suggestions for arts organization boards to consider as we plan for including diversity as a more sustained set of actions and outcomes for our group?

And again for any of you on the team or you may wish to respond in the chat box. The first lesson I learned, and I continue to learn it, today I made the mistake today, never assume, and never go after the low hanging fruit. And it sounds completely pejorative because it is.

Calgary, of all places where we’re all connected, like talk about six degrees, it’s often less. And our job as organizations particularly dominant culture organizations, is to ensure we reach out and we get, and we are hearing those communities, and those underserved and underrepresented individuals who would love, would welcome to be a part of the various organizations that are here in the room today.

You know, Patti loves to be asked for all kinds of things, but she’s one person. And I did exactly, I made exactly the same mistake today when I was talking about who to have join some other efforts and I instantly went to the first three people I can think of, who were the first three people that we all think of. And so it’s more work on your part, look at your distribution list, who’s missing, it’s going to be pretty obvious pretty quickly.

That’s the first step. And then, I hope that CADA can be a facilitator, a connector, a bridge to these kinds of questions.We want to work with other city organizations and service organizations like Propellus. They’ve been working for quite some time, that’s the formerly the Volunteer Centre Calgary, who are trying to also encourage BIPOC, and people with disabilities to think about their role as volunteers. And so there are many who are thinking this, but the real challenge? Don’t make those assumptions. Don’t go after the low hanging fruit and be step out, get out of your comfort zone and try, and ask, and you’ll be astonished at how welcoming and how inviting those questions, those kinds of inquiries will be.

Okay I think I’ve answered that question.

Amy Jo Espetveidt: Patti.

Patti Pon: Hi, Amy Jo,

Amy Jo Espetveidt: Just Amy Jo, you’ve got a hand raised from Jenna.

Patti Pon:  Okay, great. Thank you so much, Jenna and then Chima.

Jenna Shummoogum: I actually wanted to make the comment and if Chima feels free to comment on this, he can, but when I look across the artistic like ecosystem, especially in the arts and in theatre, I don’t see, like, BIPOC people at the helm, like, especially like the people at the top, like executive directors or artistic directors and I think that is a conversation that we need to start having because it’s fine, that like artists are advocating for themselves and that CADA is trying to have like diversity and like inclusion conversations, but nothing is going to change if like at the top, we don’t see ourselves represented, and, like if the people of power are always making the decisions to hire to like get those people in those positions that, like, determine our programming, determining what stories get told determining what artists get hired. Like, who gets to be on stages who gets to be into the major like theatre companies. I want to open up the conversation like a frank conversation about how do we address this problem?

Patti Pon: Thank you Jenna. Chima, do you want to address this question?

Chima Nkemdirim:  Sure.

Patti Pon: And then lead into your comments.

Chima Nkemdirim: Yeah, I think it’s a great question. I think it’s a big issue. I mean, I will tell you that I think recruitment for boards needs to be done very, very deliberately, and that conversation, so anyone who’s on a board on this call, you know, have this conversation with your board, because it, you know, it is critical. I mean, one of the things I’m really proud of at ATP is that we have a board that actually looks like Calgary, with People of Colour and, and, and gender equality on it. And that’s been done deliberately, and that’s been done, reaching out not for the usual suspects so I think that’s the first thing. I think the other thing is to those boards also have to ask the question about are we getting diverse pools of candidates for the top jobs in the art sector. And if you’re not, you know, go back and, you know, and on one of the boards I’ve been on where we did some searches we had, we went to our search firm and said look harder.

You know, you know, we want to see candidates coming forth for these top jobs, who are committed to equity, diversity, we want to see people from all different backgrounds. You know, coming into our mix. And so I think it’s something that just, you know, for me to be pushed at the board level by the boards, and I think if we do that, we can make a difference. You know, I go to a lot of stuff in Calgary and I have this joke with Patti. It’s like, I sometimes count the number of people who have brown skin in the audience. And often it’s not that many and I, and the city’s 33% visible minority, right.

So, and these organizations,  the organizations, by going to a play or going to performance of stuff, are receiving money public money, you know, to support this work and so it is my expectation that these organizations are thinking hard about who’s on their stage, who are their programming what stories they’re telling and making sure it’s relevant to our community. And I think you’ll, you’ll see that and, and I think one of the questions that Patti was asked is why now, I think, why not now. I mean, like suddenly you’re having, you know George Floyd’s murder has sparked a conversation amongst non racialized people that I have not seen before. And I think that’s, I think it’s now the opportunity when people are like, thinking about what they can do to be anti-racist and to provide opportunities for other people.

It’s—now —is the right time.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much Chima. We have Pamela, and Jacqueline. Pamela Tzeng, and Jacqueline Aquines.

So.

Pam Tzeng: Greetings. Um, so my… I’m gonna come from my body first. As an artist and a dancer where like there, I have a lot of deep frustration raging inside of me and I’m trying to find a way to constructively bring forward my questions and concerns. One of them is that, in response, I believe it was Susan speaking about board members, asking about wanting to see board members who are BIPOC, is that there’s a myth, there is, without leadership that is BIPOC, we lack trust and I think there’s a missing piece of having trust. And in order to garner the support of folks to volunteer to be on those boards because most BIPOC folks are spread so thin, trying to do work in their communities, trying to endlessly attend events so that they are present in white spaces so we are not forgotten. That is one thing.

There’s a lot of labour to it and we need to like outright acknowledge that. boards aren’t supposed to be paid. They can’t be paid. But like, it’s like how are we gonna address this? By having leadership and staff that are BIPOC and also like we need to, I’m gonna say the elephant in the room is like we have institutions that are operating with white supremacist culture, and that is just everywhere. And we need to find out, and perhaps CADA can have a meaningful role in this to ensure that this is being really addressed as Jaqs had mentioned somewhere in the chart like we need policies put in place a lot of organizations don’t have HR policies and don’t have other things put in place that are ensuring that if BIPOC, folks, arts professionals are working with them that they are safe and have a way to report discrimination, and that’s not okay anymore. It was never okay.

And another thing is just because we’re short on time I’m going to share something that Jenna shared with me and gave consent to ask, which is like how are we prioritizing funding the members of our community who are most hurting? Because again it’s like there’s disproportionate support for individuals like an institution’s and the individuals who are being actually like on the ground and relying on CERBS so that’s really clear the way that white supremacist culture exists for us in our community.

Less question, more statement, feel free to ask.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much Pamela. As Pamela mentioned we’re very close to five o’clock and I want to be mindful of the time. That said, I want to, Jacqueline you indicated that you had your hand raised so I want to be sure that you can share your comments so for those of you who might have to leave at five o’clock, thank you very much. But if you can stay on, and we’ll continue with Jacqueline, and talk about next steps. There are many many more questions here than our time has allocated today. However, I want us to continue this conversation and I want to answer every single question that’s been asked of us in a forum like this as one way for us to engage with communities.

So, we’ll commit to another time. But before we go there, Jacqueline, can I invite you to ask your question or make your comment. And when you come on and start to speak, can you please be sure to introduce yourself so that our guests who are using ASL know who you are.

Jacqueline Aquines: Yes, thank you. Patti, and thanks Pam for that great question.

My name is Jacqueline Aquines, I’m with the Anti Racist Organizational Change Project through Community Wise. And I’m also an artist here in Calgary, I’m on the board as well.

And speaking to what Pam was also mentioning as well with other people around accountability in the Black Lives Matter statement of solidarity, it says that you want to further develop anti racist policies and practices governing our work. But what type of public facing commitments to accountability from the recommendations from AROC are you willing to put out there because I know from the trainings that I’ve done with Thulasy Lettner from AROC, sorry my throat’s really dry.

There are recommendations after the six hour trainings I was there for the CADA one last year. But I’m wondering how, like after the trainings, what do you do with those recommendations and how does that change the culture within the organization from the inside out. Because it is organizational change that changes culture and shifts how funders respond to requests and create RFPs for the communities and pretty much dictate how artists will respond to what you put out there for what is defining equity.

Patti Pon: Thank you so much for the question Jacqueline.

So, with regard to what the work has been, I think you’re right it is about, you need to change inside the system and inside the organizational culture and with regard specifically to the workshop that we did with Thulasy, and we hope to continue with our own with our board and other organizations. It’s about formalizing those kinds of conversations within our own context within our own work, embedding the recommendations that have come through or come from AROC and applying it and, and always in the beginning, it feels very weird and it feels so, kind of foreign and it’s not intended to be.

But, you know, if ever there was a place, but in the arts where practice, practice, practice comes into play. It is around this, you know and what I said earlier about stepping out. You know we we undertook a hiring process and discovered partway through that we were only attracting those from a dominant culture and so we stopped the process we put a pause in place, and we undertook conversations with others in the community who we knew were connected to communities that we didn’t have connection to, particularly Indigenous communities. And we pause that process, and then subsequently reinvigorated or renewed the process on our way to hiring that role and then subsequently other roles and sure enough, people applied, who never ever thought they could ever get a job at CADA, or didn’t know that that was a possibility for them to have a job at CADA that wasn’t the most junior, lowest job in the organization.

I think it makes a difference that you see a CEO, who is a person of colour in the role, and speaking about these kinds of things so you know certainly both what Pamela and Jacqueline have said here is true like as much as we may have people who are allies and accomplices around EDIA, you know, and I’m sure you’re all saying it to yourself, until I see me on that stage, or in that office or around that board table, then this isn’t about me, ever. Until I see that, until I hear from those people, then this isn’t about me.

And that’s what we have to change and for those of you who are in systems where you know there is inequity. You know that there is a disparate proportion of white older men, you have to embrace that and understand that in your organization and understand why in your organization. And until you actively seek out others from other communities, this isn’t going to work.

So, that’s what you’re hearing from this CEO in this organization, knowing that this organization still has work to do.

So, I think, in that respect. We are at 5:06, and again, I see all kinds of questions here. One thing I will commit to you is we are documenting these questions, members of the team have been sending me all kinds of notes and questions that have been coming up in the chat. As I said earlier, we are recording this chat so we will send it out, or, sorry, we’ll we will post it to our website, minus the private chat questions, but we will track all of those questions. And as a team, July 2, which is a Thursday, we are going to reconvene for a Town Hall again and continue to go through the questions that people have here.There may be new questions and new faces that take part in that call. And we are calling upon JD and Cesar to work with us in how we might design a more inclusive process and format for July 2 and whatever subsequent future conversations we want to have that the community wishes to have with us.

So if July 2 we don’t get through all the questions, then we’ll schedule another one, and then we’ll do another one after that, and we’ll keep doing it until everybody’s questions get answered. In the meantime, we will be working forward with regard to the working group so please stay tuned as we work our way through how that group will form. And there was one other thing, and it just went out of my head so I’m kind of pausing and kind of delaying while I try to remember what it is. I’ll think of it.

But we want to always continue this conversation.

I’m just doing a quick scan of the chat and my teammates here if there’s anything that I missed. I’m looking in my notes to make sure, I feel like I missed something here but I it’s feeling like I got it. Is it possible to leave this room open for people to continue to chat with each other?

Amy Jo, can you help me with that one?

Amy Jo Espetveidt: Yes, I can. I just have to figure out how to make it so you guys can unmute yourselves and continue this conversation kind of self-driven. So give me a few minutes please.

Patti Pon: And Jenna is saying she thinks we can unmute ourselves, Terrence is raising a hand in the video. So, for those of you who are able to stay on and want to continue the conversation, do you want me to stay in the call and continue to be a part of this conversation? Because I will, I can. And it’s totally fine if you say no.

I got a yes. Okay, so I will stay in on the call and continue to have these conversations and again I’d invite all of you, I think that if I stay on the call I can unmute people, if we need to unmute people. And also, I would really welcome not me talking but you, like I would really like to know what you want CADA to hear and have it be a lot less of me kind of doing the talking, I can keep, I can try to do my best try and keep track of hands and as you can see I’m not super good at it but I will try, but I’d rather hear from you, if that’s okay.

Amy Jo Espetveidt: I’m just gonna interject with some tech stuff, you should be able to unmute yourselves now, I hope, can somebody test?

JD Derbyshire: Yeah, that works.

Amy Jo Espetveidt: Okay. And if anybody who still wants to join in, you still need to register just because we don’t want to get any Zoom bombers in here. So, if somebody is asking to get a link in just get them to register on that website that you registered on, and I will be approving them as they come in, as I’ve been going. So hopefully that helps you guys out a little bit more, technically.

Patti Pon: Okay, Amy Jo, thank you so much. So, if I can, well not if I can, I will. So I will formally end the proceedings of the Town Hall so that those of you who have to go can go. Please again accept my sincere thank you for joining us today in what is the beginning of this leg of the journey.

And I’m just checking in with Kimberley. I don’t know if you’re able to stay in the event that there may be members who still want to make use of ASL We will leave the otter.ai live-stream closed captioning still going, but that’s not always the best way.

Thanks Ebony he has to go. Landon maybe making use I don’t know Landon if you’re able to stay or not.

Landon had to go back on the road. Okay. So, is there anybody else who’s staying on the call who would like for us to continue to have our ASL interpreter? Just checking the chat box.

And not seeing anybody, am I missing anybody? No. Okay, then.

Kimberley if you’re still here. Thank you so much. And if you’re not here. I’m still thanking you anyway.

And, uh, okay, so we’re all still here. There’s still a lot of us. So let’s continue our question, and if we could, if I could maybe make a request that I maybe kind of step back for a bit and just hear from you. And listen from you about what you want CADA to hear, what do you need from CADA, that would be really helpful.

And if it’s more information about CADA that’s great but I’d like to hear all of those things if I might.

Tarrence Evans: Um, can you hear me?

Patti Pon:  Yeah, hi there. Just tell us who you are.

Tarrence Evans: Yeah. My name is Tarrence but I go by stage name DJ Stages. I’m new to Calgary, I actually moved out of a small town Pincher Creek, about a year ago. And so here I am. I just have a comment, a couple comments and also questions, you spoke about the Black community and coming out of Pincher Creek I didn’t even know there was a Black community because, as people who have been disenfranchised for a long time I didn’t even know I mean, I can only speak for myself I didn’t even know there was a Black community. And when I moved here I actually moved to a white neighborhood so every time a Black person walks by I’m going, oh there’s another of us.

Anyways, it’s, um, when you speak about communities there are established communities but there’s a lot of us who are independent artists and somehow struggling so much to just keep our heads above the water is, my question and comment is when you speak about a Black community are you talking about those that are already established, or are you also looking to work with those who, I know you are working with those are independent but what what would be in place to address the people who are not in a particular community or at least a non particular community. And then the other thing is that I’m a Black person but I also have a lot of diversities within me. Because as you know, the Black Lives Matter, the movement is so diverse, it’s got a lot of connotations. One of the things that I noticed about the few Black people that I know in Calgary, is that we are also totally different so I do a podcast to explain the diversity is called Ancient African Wisdom, which is a way of letting people know our ancient history that unites us. So, is there a way as Black artists or as people of African descent who can contribute to the, to the narrative of how we are perceived in a way that is so diverse because I think that me as a Black person I’m sometimes so different from another Black person but yet we share a common general treatment so those are my two comments and my questions as well.

Patti Pon: Thanks so much Tarrance. Um, I’ll try to answer these questions shortly so we can open up and, and hear more.

By virtue of you being here Tarrence I hope, I hope you will feel comfortable reaching to CADA at anytime you have questions about the community at large. And we will do our best to welcome you with open arms and connect you. If there are others who you know of who do not currently have a connection with us, please let us know.

And if there are other organizations, or other ways in which artists are coming together in the communities you travel in that we should be reaching out to please let us know. But we don’t have any particular way and we don’t have a particular definition of who the Black community is. We hope you tell us that.

So thank you very much. People are asking for your podcast link. So can you put it in the chat box, please?

Tarrence Evans: Sure, sure.

Patti Pon: Thanks so much. Um, I see I saw Jacqueline has her hand up, and I thought that Jenna did as well if, am I right on that Jacqueline and Jenna.

Pamela Tzeng: Jenna had to dip out.

Patti Pon: Okay. Jacqueline?I

Cesar Cala: I think, Anne was raising their hand a while ago.

Patti Pon: Who was? Anne?

Cesar Cala: Yes.

Patti Pon: Okay. So, Jacqueline and then Ann.

Anne Azucena: Um, my question is, what is the board’s and CADA’s leadership perspective on what the current inequities in the arts community are just because I’d like to know, have a basis of understanding about like whether the strategies are aligned with what you think are the inequities.

Patti Pon: Mm hmm. Thank you. Hey Jordan.

So, 2017 we undertook an equity, diversity, and inclusion survey, not a perfect instrument and a very blunt one, to be honest. But that was the beginning of us trying to get some sense or some kind of a baseline of where the community that we were particularly working with and so and the obvious example is granting to… fell. The art sec. So I’m just reading…

What I have noted here, the art sector is less ethnically diverse than the population of Calgary the representation of visible minorities, is 15% in the sector, which is less than half of the representation of visible minorities in Calgary, and I can send this to you or I can put it in the chat box, if that’s helpful.

Individuals who identify with impairments are underrepresented within the sector, individuals identifying as deaf or deaf or hard of hearing with a disability and or with a mental illness show lower rates of representation compared to local or national statistics. The LGBTTIQ2S + community is well represented in the art sector relative to national estimates of LGBTTIQ2S+, members of the population, gender, age and ethnicity, all show relationships to levels and sources of income significant differences in income are present, between transgender, gender fluid, gender non conforming and female respondents compared to male identified respondents. Visible minorities report lower levels of income, less income from arts work, and more likelihood of their arts earning coming from outside Calgary. Age is related to income with older respondents reporting higher income and more national or international income than those who are just beginning their careers.

So that was the starting point for us in terms of our work on the equity, diversity, and inclusion survey in 2017 included within that as well. We had asked that respondents also send the survey out to their volunteers and that included board and non board volunteers. And again we saw a deep inequity with regard to the comparison to the representation in Calgary, or the makeup of Calgary, So we also know that at a board level there is an inequity of representation happening there. And then, I don’t think we asked this question specifically but we know that anecdotally, if you were to look at the leadership in organizations across the sector, there is an inequity. There is not a representation equivalent to Calgary and I’m using that as one measure. It doesn’t have to be the only measure, but I think as we particularly as we’re working with institutions who maybe find themselves in this situation, you need to start somewhere and ask yourself, something about relative to x, how are we, as y. And that’s one measure, you can use.

And then as we continue through the intersectionality and the many different identities that any one of us carries with us in time, those come into play as well.

Greg is reminding me that in the surveys of board and leadership positions, they skew significantly male and white.

So these are the kinds of things that we have to raise and someone asked earlier about, are we working with other levels of funders, and I’m happy to say yes.

Do I feel like they are as intentional as we are in trying to say this out loud, trying to have this conversation that includes all of us who may find ourselves in those skewed situations? I’m not so sure.

We continue to have the talk. We continue to work on many fronts. And then, where we can break through. We break through.

So does that answer your question Anne?

Anne Azucena: Yeah, it’s a good start.

Patti Pon: Okay, thanks.

Jacqueline…

Jacqueline Aquines: Thanks for the question Anne, and I’m just wondering when was the last time that the strat plan and the, the mission statement and values were revisited to speak to the training or recommendations, just like from AROC because if, if we’re starting with the solidarity statements like to launch into this new vision of a future that’s going to shift the culture. It has to start from the values that CADA is going to share and dictate any programming, any reflection in communications and hiring.

And I’m just wondering if that’s going to be shifted in the near future. Because we all understand organizational change, and I’m seeing here, I’m just going to say one more thing here because I’m also seeing in some of these chat notes and comments from people that, there still is a resistance in understanding that systemic racism is a thing. And that white supremacy is actually a thing because I was also in talks with Mark Neufeld yesterday with the CPS, the Chief, who’s still on the fence about white supremacy being actually equivalent to racism.

So I don’t know if there’s all, not just internally, is that going to be examined, but also in capacity building, because we can go through our entire grade K to 12 education in Calgary and not ever talk about white supremacy. And I know it’s not that responsibility of CADA but, I mean, if you’re giving money to people who don’t understand what you stand for it might be a challenge , buy in from the community.

Patti Pon: Mm hmm.

Thanks. Jacqueline for the question. When you see me looking the other way it’s because my notes are that way and I’m just typing so that I can remember things, and Teresa, Teresa Woo-Paw I see your hand is up as well. In terms of revising our strategy so we have a four year strategy. Every year we come up with the work plan so every year we re-review that strategy. With regard to the values and principles that we have, there are three that we don’t currently have listed in the strategy that supersede everything that we do and my hope is that with the working group, as we put our statement, our commitment to equity, diversity inclusion and accessibility, those three principles will be featured in that one size fits one, not about us without us, perpetuating virtuous cycles not vicious cycles. And so those three working principles. While we haven’t published them and we intend to, they are present in how we make decisions, and how we undertake our work.

As you said yourself Jacqueline, the conversation that you had with Mark Neufeld yesterday is exactly the conversations that I often have with other leaders in the community. And, and we keep having those conversations. You know, I appreciate you saying it’s not that all CADA that CADA has to do this or that it’s our responsibility, I think, however, as we learn more and as we increase our understanding, it does have to become our responsibility. We can’t learn all of this, and then not do anything with it, and not try to institute that very change that you’re speaking to.

So, I think that as we continue to review our strategic and working plans that all of this comes into play. One change that we’ve made with our board of directors, for example, our board meetings used to be Patti’s CEO report, she would talk about the EDIA stuff. Well, EDIA will now have its own agenda item for all of our board meetings going forward, right after our, starting with the meeting after our AGM on June 23. So, again formalizing and embedding these practices into our own work and our own practices is one way that we can show how we’re trying to change our own way in which we work so it’s the walk the walk piece right and not just talk the talk.

Does that answer your question Jacqueline? Yeah, we’ve got work to do, and I would welcome your continued advice.

Teresa Woo-Paw, you wanted to make a statement or ask a question?

Teresa Woo-Paw: Ah, if I may just say a few words I would appreciate it.

I’m hearing, I think today’s conversation, mostly from people who are ready for a higher level of work in this area.

Patti Pon: Oops, sorry, how did we lose you.

There we go. Try again.

Teresa Woo-Paw: Did that work? Okay. Is it okay now. There we go. Sorry. Thank you. So I just like to say that I applaud the work of CADA and also the leadership that CADA have been taking. I don’t know whether CADA is going to move forward on this work alone or with the City because you know you do have a relationship with the City if we look at what Montreal did yesterday with, with the City Council, you know making a statement with a very extensive report called the Montreal Racism Report that most of the racialized community support, which is very rare. And I don’t know whether CADA would be moving forward alone or with the City or with other people. What I would like to say is, as you, as we move forward, we need to build on our previous work, our previous experience and learnings. And, and like I said in the very beginning I’m hearing that most people here are talking about not from starting from, you know, building understanding doing diversity training, I’m so glad. And so what our previous work I saw David S was here earlier.

I started co-facilitating the cross-cultural training for police in Calgary in 1986. 1986. And I was doing presentations for the Calgary Board of Education in 1985. And I was part of the United Way multicultural We Drop Anti Racism, organizational change process, 1991. The Calgary Health Region did an analysis, 1993. Calgary had our social experiment of the Diversity Calgary Leadership Council 2000. And that was with everybody, police, school board, United Way, the City of Calgary, the province. Sustainable Calgary report, every time they report, under representation of racialized Canadians, Calgarians. We have a Fair Calgary Policy. We have a Welcome and Inclusive Community Policy at the municipal and provincial level that most people don’t know about people never talk about maybe never even reference to. And so I think that I challenged those who actually say that, anything that’s more than two years old or five years old is outdated. We spend millions of dollars on those initiatives. We need to learn why they did not work, and what did work. And, and why is it that we did not see a lot of change and how can we do things differently, learning from those attempts, and I still think that many of those were good attempts, but I think that we need to actually talk about them.  A lot of these organizations don’t even want to mention. I want to ask why. So I think that I think that we need to actually learn and build on our previous work as we move forward. So that’s what I have to say today. Thank you Patti.

Patti Pon: Thank you so much, Teresa.

And I just saw in the chat box people are asking who is that speaking so again when you make your comments if you wouldn’t mind just telling us who you are, if you’re comfortable doing that, I’d appreciate that.

I’m scanning through scanning scanning…. Someone can tell me if there’s a hand up that I haven’t seen yet.

Um, have I missed anybody in the chat so far? I’m looking at the chat.

You know, I’m wondering if CADA could share the ways it is formalizing and embedding EDIA into its own practices, lessons learned on an ongoing basis going forward so other organizations can learn from the process.

Cesar Cala: There’s a hand up, it’s, Mpoe. Yeah.

Patti Pon: Thank you, Mpoe… you want to speak.

And am I pronouncing it right?

Mpoe M: Yes No that’s not correct, but that’s all right.

Patti Pon: It’s not actually. Please tell me.

Mpoe M: That’s totally fine so my name is Mpoe. Um, and I’ve done work in EDIA, a for a very long time and I’ve noticed trends, where this is a comment, but it will, the question will come after. So I’ve noticed trends where there are moments, such as these times right now. And there’s a response from our communities and everything. However, that dies down after a while. So, like, Teresa just mentioned right now, the various initiatives that have been built upon over years, but nothing really, like the fact that we have to come after a couple of years to have meetings such as this, is quite frustrating, especially those like, I do not wait for a moment like this to experience racism, right? It’s everyday in my life so it’s quite frustrating that it comes to the gaze of white folks at particular times, and then it fades away.

So what my question is, is around accountability, and what is going to be different this time because I would hate for another George Floyd, to be killed, another Regis Paquet to be killed for us to be here again. So I’m wondering with CADA, what will be different this time? This survey was helpful and everything, so, how do we continue this momentum. And in terms of community, so it was mentioned that the community will be the ones that inform how we move forward. I’m wondering how that community, is not like we don’t continuously extract from communities, and we go to them to revisit, we revisit them to ask, are we on the right path.

That is something that I often see missing in EDIA is that we start, we extract, but don’t necessarily follow through with the community and check if Hey, is this working out or not? So, that is my question, it’s around, accountability, and I just wanted to reiterate it again. Thank you.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much, Mpoe, did I say it right? Yeah, boy, okay I’m gonna practice that. Thank you. I’m at the risk of having this sound like a cop out, with regard to accountability, and what’s going to be different this time, I guess one thing I would, I would say is in order, in the context of trying to make it different this time, rather than I assume. I know what the signs of accountability would look like to you. I’d like to ask you, what should those things be that we can be held accountable to right because I can come up with a plan. And it just becomes another plan in a vacuum with one perspective in a silo. And to your point about extracting from the communities, right, that the same hundred people get called upon, and then they never see the follow through.

That for sure is something I’ve heard, and so we need to be sure that we always come back to those communities we’ve called upon, and make sure they know what we’re doing, how we’re progressing or regressing as the case may be.

But I would welcome others to tell if there are things that you want to see that you know right now, I would welcome that. You know, I’m hearing for sure a change in the makeup of who we fund, and how we grant. I’m hearing, certainly, our board makeup and our staff contingent to continue to be representative of our communities that we are here to serve.

Um, what else?

JD Derbyshire: There’s in the chat here from Jacqueline to publish the recommendations from AROC and commit to them with a timeline.

Patti Pon: Okay. Thanks Jacqueline.

Um, there’s a question in the chat, asking if anyone on this call has been successful in getting predominantly white boards of directors to examine white supremacy and institutional racism and actually change the makeup of our boards.

And so, and this person’s asked to remain anonymous.

I’m throwing that out to the group.

That’s a pretty deafening silence, hey?

Jacqueline Aquines: Next board call I’d recommend having the only like a major requirement, either lived experience of equity seeking, like being an equity seeking person, whether it’s a, AWD or as a BIPOC person, and also doing the work have like a person who has been doing the work in anti racism in equity in EDI, and not just diversity inclusion because I find that rather harmful. If you’ve seen the COCo from Montreal, excellent standard of anti racism. If you’ve seen the “Problem” Woman of Colour, just diagram, if you just Google that right now COCo. I’m going to just put it in there, COCo, “Problem” Woman of Colour, where you have one racialized either Black or Indigenous person in an organization who has to drag an organization towards equity or speak to any of their lenses. And then they get burned out because it’s always a push against a system that is not made safe for them.

So, start fresh. Wipe your boards clean so that you have everybody speaking in the same shared language around equity, around anti racism and who everybody understands what you’re up against because this system isn’t going to change without tearing it down first. Like, literally, you can’t rebuild the system with the masters tools. It has to be wiped clean so that you can start with people who speak this, like, who understand this and see that the people who are seeking equity are not just looking for diversity, they’re not just looking for a wedge to open up for them to fit into it has to be a place where they’re safe, where everybody else is supporting them from the leadership and out to the frontlines.

That’s my recommendation.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much and as Jacqueline has indicated earlier, the workshops of AROC are really great. There are resources available to organizations who want to get on this path, who want to learn more. We’re seeing in the chat box, Bow Valley College Diversity on Board can offer capacity. Having taken part in the anti racism workshops, of AROC, they’re really great. You, excuse me, there are resources like White Fragility, and Me and White Supremacy that people in the dominant culture can read and work through. This is a learning journey.

And I know a question has come up from Alex, and thank you for your question. How do you address pushback when introducing diversity inclusion equity and accessibility in your organizations, specifically accusations of performative diversity. It’s been suggested in my organization that the best form of inclusion is not showing particularly to a particular group. This was brought up specifically in regards to Pride, but I think it can be applied elsewhere. Absolutely it can. And, I mean, for those of us in the BIPOC like let’s just be real here. We know, we know when it’s tokenistic, when it’s performative, and when it’s real. And as you know, someone who guided us in our work here, your actions will show your leadership, your actions will show your intention. And so, you know, I think we are living in a time and for those of you who may be affiliated with organizations who are finding yourselves in this place of absence of representation, I don’t know, someone else tell me if you’re seeing the signs differently than me, but you are going to get called out, someone is going to call you out. And that may be CADA. We are going to question and ask you.

And I know that my community investment team is, you know, working very hard to find the ways for us to do that, we’ve been talking about this for years. And it, you know, I keep describing CADA as a public steward of public dollars for the interest of the public good, and that includes all Calgarians, not some. And right now, you can see in our systems that they favour some Calgarians, not all. And so as a public agency if I can’t commit to that, if we can’t do that then there’s something really wrong.

And guess what, here we are, two years later as Mpoe said, still going to practice that, two years to have this conversation. I’ve been in the gig since 2013. If anybody can have the conversation it should be me. And I can’t, I didn’t. So, I would really encourage those of you who are finding yourselves at these crossroads or finding yourselves in positions of leadership, whether it’s on the board or the staff to challenge yourself and to not make those assumptions, and to know that, I believe, as public funders, we will be changing our practices in the days to come. And you don’t want to be left behind.

I don’t know how much more honest I can be. Somebody else has their hand up?

Cesar Cala: Two hands, Pamela and Mpoe.

Patti Pon: Thank you so we’ll go to Pamela, and then Mpoe.

Pamela Tzeng: Hi everyone again, and thanks for holding space for my thoughts.

So, I’m just thinking about actionable items that might be able to be crafted by the EDIA group working group, hopefully they’re paid is my

Patti Pon: Yes they will be.

Pamela Tzeng: Is the best practice in engaging with BIPOC artists because I think that the reality unfortunate and is my personal experience is, as I mentioned, there’s so much emotional labour and trying to communicate, communicate what is problematic. That it’s exhausting, and there should just be something be like if you want to consult with a BIPOC artist about what is problematic then this is a standard fee that you should be paying them to consultant with.

Just like that’s really kind of a dramatic thing but I think there are possibilities to set a standard by having a living document that CADA might be able to play a role and just kind of like an advocacy or service organization which we don’t have here like we have you, which is. I also want to say that like as an artist here I feel like CADA has done some really incredible work and that is, it’s singular in Canada, really. And so that’s exceptional in that these conversations of holding account, CADA account and just pushing forward is just wanting more. We all want more to do better and be better, and be resilient and. and so I just want to say that.

Patti Pon: Thank you Pamela, and then Mpoe, man, I got to work on that. I’m sorry.

Did you have a comment?

Mpoe M: No, sorry, I must have raised my hand accidentally I do not have anything to say

Patti Pon: Oh, okay, thank you.

To Pamela’s comment about a fee with regard to the working group, the EDIA group, we will commission and compensate. We certainly as independent contractors, for many of you, and, and as I said in other avenues, if I’m asking, if I’m calling upon your expertise, I pay for that. Like I pay for a lawyer or a doctor or anybody else who is offering us the expertise that they have garnered from their practice.

So that’s what we’re going to be asking, that it has to be equitable with what white consultants make, not an honorarium. So, JD has just had a comment there about this,

JD Derbyshire: I just want to say it’s not a particularly difficult thing to figure out. The consulting industry has been around forever. I’m a consultant. There are fees they vary from nonprofit to profit but they are pretty standard across there, this is not difficult.

Patti Pon: Thank you.

Do we have Cesar you’re doing a better job than I am of keeping track of people who got hands raised. Are you seeing…

Cesar Cala: I know I know that’s why…

Patti Pon: Anybody, I’m scanning. Yeah, scanning.

Cesar Cala: I’m scanning us well.

Patti Pon: I’m looking in the chat.

Cesar Cala: I do have a short comment though.

I’m going back to the discussion around accountability measurability and change. And there are many suggestions like looking at board membership, and HR and so on. It might be good to really look at what are incremental and what are transformational, because often times when when people talk about what can we do, oftentimes people talk about incremental things with the assumption that if you do enough incremental stuff, they may eventually be transformational, which probably is not the case. Right. So what are some of the transformational changes that we can look at and these are not a lot but in themselves, like deep enough to transform both an organization, an institution, or a particular situation, right.

So part of our, part of our thinking in probably in the next little while, is through zero in on the transformational stuff. Right. The second thing I want to say, as well, is that you know CADA is still a public institution attached to the municipality, attached to other established institutions, right. So the question is how far can you push CADA without also transforming where CADA gets its money, where CADA gets its mandate and we’re CADA gets its kind of contextual location in Calgary. Right. So, so I think we shouldn’t kind of what the point i’m saying is that if we’re really looking for transformational change, then, we need to look at the bigger picture. Right. So that’s why I think the work that we do, both as activists and artists, is also quite, looking at the comprehensive picture. How do we help transform the political kind of culture and institutions that surround CADA. Right. That’s a bigger deal, so that’s why I think solidarity is so important, with others who are doing similar work, targeting other institutions and other contexts. Anyway, I’ll stop there.

Patti Pon: Thank you very much Cesar. And I think, to say Cesar’s comment and to a question that Teresa asked earlier about will CADA work with the City, some of you may be aware that Monday night, because it’s Wednesday, the City Council passed a motion concerning anti racism and the work that they would be doing inside City Hall. And I would encourage any opportunity that you may have as the City rolls out its activities to participate.

CADA will certainly be trying to share the information and we are bringing back our learnings. As we report to our shareholder, City Council, so that’s an ongoing relationship that we are trying to continue to foster and where we can influence, we will try.

Thank you and, as all of you are already seeing and likely already knew Cesar is so wise, and he is such a wonderful treasure in our community I wish that Canada was like, Korea, where, Korea, South Korea identifies artists in particular, as national treasures of their country. And I think Cesar should be a national treasure for our city. For all that he does in our community and there are so many like him, many who are on this call today. So thank you so much for that.

Are there other questions, other comments that people want to share? Maybe there’s advice that you might be seeking from others similar to the question we got from the individual about how do I have this conversation with my board? Or how do I make the distinction between one thing or the other, and I hope that CADA might be a place where you can ask us those questions, anytime, not just on calls like this. I hope that we can be that. Col. You have your hand up.

Col Cseke: Hey everyone. Hello.

Hi Patti, thanks. I actually just want to start by sharing just a little appreciation, over the last few months actually I’ve grown to so deeply appreciate the work of so many people including and it’s so evident in this call, Pam and Jaqs for just, I’m constantly inspired by by your commitment, and your work. Cesar as well, particularly for the insights I’ve gotten into the interdependence of the communities that you work with, and JD as always.

But hey, Patti, so I’m curious, as we get into evening time, I’m curious what you feel like CADA’s ceilings are like where do you feel like you’ll get pushback from this work because I do sincerely believe in your belief and your willingness and dedication to this work. But I also know that you know you have folks above you that may push back or that may respond or folks that we know that may try to go over you, to curtail some of these efforts.

I know I’ve appreciated in our  grant correspondence that you do open doors for arts organizations to be vulnerable and to talk about challenges and failures. And I’m curious from a CADA perspective, where you see those challenges for yourself. What you see your limitations are and how we as a broader coalition and community can have a part in, in furthering that work.

Patti Pon: Well thank you for that question.

As I said earlier, I think that, by virtue of who we are as an organization, and that I am sitting in this role in this time in this chair, CADA has an opportunity to be that kind of organization that I think all of us are all talking about in a variety of ways.

I will say that the challenges I face probably aren’t big surprises to you, they are as, particularly as an organization we have a spectrum of understanding and learning when it comes to EDIA work, particularly on our board where we see turnover. We’re always bringing in new people and new voices and new perspectives and I think somebody said it earlier about you know getting extracted from right that, that you get tired of hearing your own voice say the same things over and over again. And what I forget is, well it’s not always the same audience, or it isn’t always the same group of people that we’re having these conversations about or with.

So, the challenges are, you know, 95%+ of our funds come from The City of Calgary, as approved by City Council through a process that is with administration in a different department of arts and culture and civic partners and other areas, and a set of directors and the City Manager and a Deputy Manager, and a Mayor. And so, who all are all, and as they commented in the council meeting on Monday, I don’t know if any of you had a chance to watch it, they’re on their own place in the spectrum, and it ain’t way far down the road. And many of them know that. So, we are working within a system that they have now acknowledged has systemic racism has bias, and is really rooted in, we have to know. And, and we can’t rely on trusting others to know. And tell us that they know. And so, we work, so working within a large civic institution like that is, is a ceiling for us, within our own organization, there are ceilings, there are different levels of understanding on the board in particular that we are now formalizing and I’m really, I’m really grateful to those on our board who are really working with us to expand that understanding and that knowledge.

I think some of them are still on the call here. I think that within our granting, you all know, you know there are some institutions that have been receiving grants from us for over 60 years in terms of municipal funds right, and that isn’t to say that they should or shouldn’t continue to receive grants, but those companies have had to undertake a variety of changes in systems all over the place, and have still had the opportunity to continue to receive their Operating Grant over 60 years.

And there are those who have been waiting 15 years, 20 years, 25 years to get on the roster, because we hadn’t seen increases significant enough to, to have those organizations come in so I know I have systems. I have embedded expectations. I’m saying all these things in the spirit of being open and transparent. We have entitlement. And we have this much, when we know there’s this much need, and demand in the community. And so, as much as we try to work in the spirit of abundance, I would argue, and I, please someone contradict me, disagree with me, I believe by and large the sector operates in a place of scarcity. And it’s been imposed on you, on us, in many ways. But back to, if perpetuating a virtuous cycle is what we want to do, then I’d invite you to consider that, thinking of who we are and where we live today, and what we have before us as a city, there is abundance.

Granted, there’s a big gap between those who have way more abundance and those who have virtually none. But as a sector, I think we have to change, there’s a mindset in the sector. And we that we got to change that that’s where I call upon those like you, Col, and others that to help me understand because I don’t know how to do that and CADA for sure can’t do that alone.

Those are the things that come off the top my head.

We’re at 6:02 so I just want to do a check in, that’s two hours. How about we go 15 more minutes to six, well, I guess 13 more minutes. And, and then we could probably all use a (breather) after this conversation.

Many thanks to all of you who are having to sign off, I know people have to go so I want to make sure that we we do that, know that again July 2 we will resume our conversations and we’ll, we’ll get the information out to you sooner I appreciate all of you who had to change your days, change your plans in order to join us. I appreciate that. Does anybody else have a hand up. Any comments any closing comments you want to make anything you want to make sure I hear that we hear at CADA. You can see that I’ve had a number of our CADA teammates still stay with us on the call so we’ll be sure to be sharing our notes with each other after today.

Cesar Cala: Col has his hand up. I’m not sure if that was the previous one but

Patti Pon: I think he forgot to lower his hand

Cesar Cala: And Ann Flynn as well.

Patti Pon: All right, so well let’s go to Ann Flynn and then Col can either lower his hand or keep it up if he still has another comment.

Ann Flynn: Thanks. Cool. And where are you, unmuted. There we go. Hello. Let me, I’m sorry I was gonna try to find my camera. Let me oh here we go start video.

Oh, hi. Hi everyone, thank you so much for organizing this I just found out about it at the last minute and I’m really so grateful that I was able to just hear these conversations I just think they’re so important, and I just want to loop back to something that Teresa said, because, as someone of her generation clearly by the dates that she mentioned, who’s done, you know so much work that we really reach back into the processes that have already like she said so many millions of dollars were invested in these processes, and she had multi sector participation in these things. I think that, you know, failure is such a great teacher. And so I think, not to go backwards to be able to look at what were the kinds of things that worked and what were the kinds of things that didn’t work so that we’re not experimenting, when people have already learned so much from those processes that we just don’t need to waste our time doing that again, and that we just bring forward that work, rather than not doing that work and you know because I was of a generation, you know who was fighting for the inclusion of women, so that’s that’s really where I come into, you know, the inclusion, that you probably, it’s hard to even remember a time, even though there’s obviously still struggles, but there’s, it gets hard to remember a time when women weren’t weren’t allowed to be invited to the table.

In the 1970s, the American Psychological Association put out a policy statement saying you must use gender neutral language. And that was the end of the use of He as the term that stood for all of humankind. Now people don’t remember that, but when you make a, like that’s the kind of transformative step i think that that Cesar was talking about, that meant that anyone getting a graduate degree anyone in undergraduate education was simply no longer able to get away with using He for representation of everyone, and gender neutral language became a standard codified part of the APA manual, the MLA manual, and that’s it and everyone just got with the program and mankind went away and humankind came in, and those kinds of changes so that was only, what, 50 years ago that that kind of thing happened and I feel like we’re just, like, I guess my comment is to learn, I feel like we have an you know incessant thing of thinking that we have to make everything up all over again.

But there’s really good foundational work that’s been done, and again to work, and the things that didn’t work so I would suggest getting Teresa on those on that task force to be able to come in and talk about what they learned right to just eliminate a whole bunch of brainstorming strategies that people may come up with now that she can say yeah that really wasn’t very effective. So that’s my comment.

Patti Pon: Thanks so much Ann and and you’re right, I think there is a lot that we can learn from those who have undertaken this work and who’ve come before us.

I would invite that, I would love for someone like Teresa to be at the table, because new voices, there’s a different context for how people think about even gender, or even identity in 2020, while there are lessons to be learned, we know that there is adaptation, right, even as we talked about language earlier on, the language is evolving. And so how do we take those foundational ideas that have been developed in the 70s and the 80s and the 90s, and on, and really, and try and build on that and apply it in a current context. And in a context that we aspire to whatever that possibility is that we have for you know Patti’s about everybody has a place in the circle, what does that look like, what does that mean. Others of you will have different speculative futures. That, that you identify so, I think that, but to not negate what’s already been done by many many, we stand on the shoulders of some wonderful people who’ve done amazing work. Teresa’d be another treasure. She’s be another treasure of the city I’d identify.

Okay, so we’re at, just coming up to 6:10. Are there any last comments in the chat box Ann, you had a question with regard to the larger institutions and community assessment I think Marta and Melissa have been providing more comment and context on that, so, I won’t kind of dwell on what they’ve already said.

Then feminism. Yeah, to always address race, class and gender, navigate with an intersectional lens.

Can the resource list and video archive be shared with those who RSVP’d.

Yes, because we will have the list. Is it okay, Pam left, what we do is, we’ll let you know that the link is up. And then we’re posting the link to our website.

With regard to the resources in the chat, I think there’s been a group of us who have been trying to keep track of all those various links and resources that people have been noting so we’ll find a way to make sure that, for those of you who RSVP’d that you have them. And then I know that Amy Jo for a long time has been encouraging us to start to have resources available on our website, concerning EDIA so this is as good a time as any for us to think about how we might do that.

I see, good point Natasha, but I’m afraid I didn’t get to see [garbled]…

Yes. Natasha I would agree. So, there is a, back to understanding the complexity, right, that Cesar referenced in regard to CADA but there is also complexity and many connections, connectivity points in that regard.

Thank you very much. Okay so Cesar you seeing any hands, I’m scrolling through I’m not seeing any hands, I just see your hands.

Cesar Cala: I can’t see any hands.

Patti Pon: So I think what I will do is close the proceedings, on that note, again, many thanks to all of you for staying on longer and taking the time.

I’ve been writing down as well as members of our team in response to what is it you want us to hear. Please stay tuned in the days and weeks to come as we regroup again on July, 2, and again, as I said earlier as the work proceeds with regard to the working group.

If you haven’t been a part of the Citizen Artists YYC conversations, you can check our classifieds on our website calgaryartsdevelopment.com. There’s a register link there that you can go to. I believe the group gets together on Tuesdays, Tuesday afternoons.

And, and we’ll continue this conversation. So, many thanks to all of you please have a lovely evening. Please take care of yourselves and be well, and we’ll talk soon. Bye.

00:30:28 CADA – Gregory Burbidge: – Not interrupting others and on this zoom call we ask that everyone keeps their mic on mute unless they are speaking. When we open the floor to conversation, comments, and questions, we will use the “raise hand” function and get to as many people as possible.

– Being mindful of how much time and space we each take up in discussions and making time and space for others to speak.

– Using “I” statements (“I feel,” “I think,” “I wonder,” etc.).

– Respecting those who wish to listen silently, and

– Recognizing that vulnerable interactions can occur, and creating space to acknowledge and discuss hurt or offense if it does.

00:30:34 Trevor Rueger APN (he/him): Hello everyone from Alberta Playwrights Network. I’m also a proxy for Shari Wattling at Lunchbox Theatre who is on another call.

00:30:34 CADA – Gregory Burbidge: – We will honour the knowledge and experience others share.

– We will acknowledge the experiences and values that may make each of us biased.

– We will allow others to help us check in with our biases in a respectful and productive way.

– We acknowledge that we are all learning and may be at different places on our journeys. We will be patient with ourselves and others as we remain open to continued learning.

00:30:52 CADA Lesley (she/her): Hi all! FYI we are recording this meeting for future reference and to share with folks who couldn’t make this time work. We will post the recording on our website. If you are using private chat, please be aware that when we download the recording we might be able to see all chat including private chats so keep that in mind. We will not share the private chat in any recordings we upload to our website.

00:31:02 CADA Lesley (she/her): We are using an app called otter.ai. You’ll see a red box at the top of your screen which is a transcription service. It’s only english for the time being but can be used to follow along today’s conversation.

00:31:14 CADA Lesley (she/her): We have an ASL interpreter with us today. If you open your participants tab and find Kimberley Johnson you can pin her as your main video by hovering over her video and clicking pin video under the three dotted menu.

00:31:16 CADA Patti Pon (she/her/hers): Hey Trevor welcome and give my best to Shari

00:31:24 CADA Lesley (she/her): You can also use the menu beside your name under the three dots to update your name and add your pronouns.

00:31:25 Wunmi Idowu: Good afternoon everyone, this is Wunmi Idowu; Director of Woezo Africa Music & Dance Theatre Inc.

00:31:37 Xstine Cook: Greetings from Xstine at CAOS

00:31:53 Peter Hemminger: Hello from Peter at Quickdraw

00:32:16 CADA Kaley Beisiegel (She/Her): Hi Wunmi, Xstine and Peter!

00:35:17 Lucia Juliao: Hi from Lucia at CIFF

00:36:35 Jeanne Kwong: Hi Jeanne from Artslink on CJSW

00:37:13 Landon Krentz: hey Taylor I am using my phone, doesn’t work that way it seens

00:37:57 CADA Taylor (she/her): I will find out how to pin a video using phone instead of laptop. One moment.

00:39:04 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Landon – does your phone have any speaker view options?

00:40:27 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Wonderful to see different type of accessibilities

00:42:48 CADA Melissa Tuplin (she/her): CADA’s GROUP AGREEMENTS

 CADA works with group agreements – not going to read full group agreements but here are some key points that we commit to in all of our meetings and assessments and that we are committed to today:

We commit to creating a safe space for everyone by:

- Respecting each person regardless of how they identify, including their gender, sexuality, age, class, religion, beliefs, nation, physical, neurological, cognitive, and Mad identities.

- Sharing language that respects everyone. 

- Speaking from our own perspective, and avoiding making generalized claims or assumptions about others’ identities.

00:43:02 CADA Melissa Tuplin (she/her): – Not interrupting others and on this zoom call we ask that everyone keeps their mic on mute unless they are speaking. When we open the floor to conversation, comments, and questions, we will use the “raise hand” function and get to as many people as possible.

- Being mindful of how much time and space we each take up in discussions and making time and space for others to speak.

- Using “I” statements (“I feel,” “I think,” “I wonder,” etc.).

- Respecting those who wish to listen silently, and

- Recognizing that vulnerable interactions can occur, and creating space to acknowledge and discuss hurt or offense if it does.

00:43:18 CADA Melissa Tuplin (she/her): – We will honour the knowledge and experience others share.

- We will acknowledge the experiences and values that may make each of us biased.

- We will allow others to help us check in with our biases in a respectful and productive way.

- We acknowledge that we are all learning and may be at different places on our journeys. We will be patient with ourselves and others as we remain open to continued learning.

00:44:23 CADA Melissa Tuplin (she/her): These have been adapted for today from the Group Agreements shared through our Assessor Terms of Reference: https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CADA-GroupAgreements-2020.pdf

00:55:42 Landon Krentz: 7 pages of what?

00:55:59 CADA Helen (she/her): 7 pages of participants

00:56:08 Pamela Tzeng: Hi Landon, 7 pages of participant names to scroll through.

00:56:08 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): For people using the gallery view, there are 7 pages of participants

01:05:58 Landon Krentz: Which CADA staff is best to ask questions for clarification? Some are not answering me

01:07:20 Mitzi Murray: Sorry, I came late. Is there a timeline as to when you will have the working group together and a timeline for their outcomes?

01:10:35 Landon Krentz: Im lost lol I need the asl

01:12:28 Pamela Tzeng: Thank you Ebony.

01:12:29 Maimuna (she/her): Agreed, Ebony

01:12:31 Maimuna (she/her): Thank you

01:12:39 Anne Azucena (she/her/siya): What is CADA’s board and/or leadership perspective on what the current inequities in the arts community actually are?

01:12:44 Jacqueline Aquines: What does furthering to “develop anti-racist policies and practices governing our work” look like in the immediate future?

01:12:45 Mpoe M (they/them): agreed

01:12:50 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Thanks Ebony!

01:13:08 Wunmi Idowu: Thank you Ebony

01:13:08 CADA Helen (she/her): Thank you Ebony

01:13:27 Jodi Green: Thank you Ebony!

01:15:30 Elizabeth Smith: hello everyone

01:15:33 CADA Helen (she/her): Aisinna’kiiks

01:15:40 CADA Helen (she/her): Saa’kokoto

01:16:01 Madin Kanayeva: Does CADA embark on conversations around microagressions within their own staff and how people can engage in more inclusive conversations with each other?

01:16:51 Elizabeth Smith: yes when we have reconciliation we carry this gift to help others out of the sea of suffering

01:17:19 Susan Forest: I attended a CADA meeting about diversity a few years ago, as my organization has long been interested in increasing the diversity of our board (we have some ability/orientation/ethnic diversity, but want more). Where we were stuck was how to recruit for diversity. It was suggested to me at that CADA meeting that I could use the CADA electronic newsletter to post a diversity-specific volunteer position. We had no response. Is there anything CADA can do to facilitate diverse artists connecting with boards seeking more diversity?

01:18:43 Elizabeth Smith: I am a Caucasian single mom of 4 living with disability and poverty I am an invisible visual artist

01:20:04 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: q- from participant What does furthering to “develop anti-racist policies and practices governing our work” look like in the immediate future?

01:20:07 Elizabeth Smith: tears right now gratitude for the invite art means life to me

01:20:13 Anne Azucena (she/her/siya): What is CADA’s board and/or leadership perspective on what the current inequities in the arts community actually are?

01:20:26 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Welcome Elizabeth

01:21:26 Jacqueline Aquines: Aside from the working groups, what does furthering to “develop anti-racist policies and practices governing our work” look like in the immediate future internally?

01:21:38 Elizabeth Smith: ty

01:22:05 Mpoe M (they/them): how does accountability to these commitments look like? I believe we were here before a couple of years ago; and am interested in what will be different this time around? ty

01:22:26 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Great question Mpoe

01:22:51 Pamela Tzeng: Yesss Jenna

01:23:07 Elaine Weryshko (she/her): Double Yeeeeessssss Jenna

01:23:10 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you Jenna – great comments

01:23:14 Jenna Rodgers (she/her): Great question, Jenna!!!!

01:23:24 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Open this up to a frank conversation. Great!

01:23:38 Landon Krentz: Who is speaking

01:23:50 Jodi Green: Chima

01:24:04 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Chima is speaking. HE is on the CADA board

01:24:25 CADA Patti Pon (she/her/hers): Chima Nkemdirim is a CADA Board member and also serves on the board of ATP and Arts Commons. He is former Chief of Staff to Mayor Nenshi

01:24:48 Pamela Tzeng: Does this meeting end at 5pm? If so, a request for it to extend longer.

01:24:57 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Will be helpful to know who is speaking like to introduce yourself before speaking for Deaf viewers because we are pinned to interpreter

01:25:04 Landon Krentz: agreed

01:25:09 CADA Patti Pon (she/her/hers): Thanks Brian K…the CADA team is streaming the questions to me that I can’t see and also the hands raised that I am missing

01:25:09 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Please try to say your name before you start speaking so we know who is speaking. Thank you

01:25:13 (CIFF) Lucia Juliao (she/her): Great suggestion Ebony!

01:25:16 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you Ebony

01:25:18 Landon Krentz: We’re chasing for information like dogs

01:25:38 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Thank you so much

01:25:44 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Ebony. Think we were typing at the same time.

01:25:50 Wunmi Idowu: That’s true

01:25:55 Allison Moore, artsvest Alberta: boardlink is a national Business/Arts program that matches young business professionals with arts organizations to find volunteer board and committee roles in the arts. http://www.businessandarts.org/abx/boardlink/

01:26:27 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Will grant requirements be tied in some way to increased equity? Q from participan

01:26:32 Elizabeth Smith: I was there in 1991 when stockwell day said let’s cut art out of the budget because it is not a necessity of life n how we gathered at the Mc Dougal building I made signs save the arts the spirit you save maybe your own

01:26:44 Julie Harris: Thank you for this!

01:27:04 Jenna Rodgers (she/her): How do we prioritize funding the members of our community who are most hurting? Because right now it’s difficult for everyone – and institutions are getting disproportionate support while individuals are being told to wait and rely on CERB. … and white supremacy culture has made clear: I believe every cornerstone institution is this city is predominantly white.

01:27:10 Landon Krentz: Whhooo is talkingggggg

01:27:19 CADA Taylor (she/her): Pamela Tzeng

01:27:21 Jenna Rodgers (she/her): Pam Tzeng is talking

01:27:23 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: PAm Tzeng

01:27:31 CADA Patti Pon (she/her/hers): Pamela Tzeng..is speaking. I’m sorry Landon I’ll ask people to introduce themselves from her on

01:27:32 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Pam Tzeng is speaking

01:27:46 teresa woo-paw: please put me on speaker’s list thx

01:27:51 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: I will try to keep up on this

01:29:15 Elizabeth Smith: I have no artist friends…why

01:29:38 Joey Stewart: Please don’t forget people over 65 who are filled with wisdom and time that we freely give that can empower organizations like CADA

01:29:47 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you Pam and Jenna.

01:29:49 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thank you for your thoughts Pam

01:30:03 CADA Amy Jo (she/her): Patti is speaking

01:30:12 Wunmi Idowu: Thanks Pam

01:30:51 Susan Forest: Thanks, Allison, for the link.

01:30:55 Pamela Tzeng: Sorry about that Landon.

01:31:33 teresa woo-paw: we need to move forward building on “our” previous work, experiences and learnings.

01:31:35 Elizabeth Smith: Calgary artists first see tons of money going outside Calgary

01:32:22 REVV52 Ken Wilson: Thanks for calling, organizing and holding this meeting. A very good meeting and a great start. I have to leave. Thanks again.

01:32:36 Melissa Monteros: We are interested in whether or not any working groups will be formed? As individual artists, we recognize that change also comes with education, ,opportunity, and has to address socio economic status. . As a small organization we are looking to have a real impact on change. I also believe that recruiting for diversity is a place that we could all use support. As a person who identifies as BIPOC, I also used to count the people with brown skin not just at performances but at meetings, in the workplace…on the street…AND, at the same time, we want to stay committed to the idea of creating work that speaks, that moves, and that makes a connection to the humanity in all of us.

01:32:42 Pamela Tzeng: Thank you Jaqs.

01:32:45 Wunmi Idowu: Thanks Jaqs

01:32:50 CADA Taylor (she/her): Great questions Jaqs.

01:33:41 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Jaq

01:33:45 Elizabeth Smith: corpus salvi amanti

01:34:36 Skye Louis: Thank you Jenna 1, Jenna 2, Pam, Jaqs for your questions and comments, especially re accountability. Just want to underscore these observations, and ways to measure progress moving forward.

01:34:43 Elizabeth Smith: I have no groups no friends no family to support me…I am white.

01:35:17 Cesar Cala (he/him/siya): Thank you for those questions around accountability and measurability

01:35:48 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Elizabeth please reach out to Taylor and JD at CADA for some resources and connections to other ARTISTS WITH DISABILITIES

01:36:13 CADA Amy Jo (she/her): Lots of questions are coming in and we’re keeping track of everything. We will be sharing this recording and transcripts in the next few days. And we’re going to do our best to make sure nothing is missed in this very messy platform. Thank you all for your patience as we figure out how to do this in Zoom.

01:36:23 Lourdes Juan: Thanks for the discussions everyone.

01:36:25 Anne Azucena (she/her/siya): What is CADA’s board and/or leadership perspective on what the current inequities in the arts community actually are?

01:37:02 Miguel Cortines: thank you for the great work of Patty and CADA team.

01:37:11 Walt DeBoni: Thanks for organizing this town hall – very helpful and timely.

01:37:16 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Anne. Hear you

01:37:16 Jacqueline Aquines: it’s not only about hiring BIPOC and AWD but also folkx who have equitable and anti-racist lenses and have been doing this work, as there are boards who are QTBIPOC but subscribe to and PROTECT white supremacist culture

01:37:25 Melissa Monteros: Thank you, Patti, for being such a great listener and so articulate.

01:37:38 Pamela Tzeng: Second Jaqs comment.

01:37:50 CADA Taylor (she/her): Anne I know you shared your questions 3 times – our apologies for not getting to it in the proper order.

01:37:54 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Jaq

01:38:07 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Thank you all for wonderful questions and discussion

01:38:28 Col Cseke: Is it possible to leave this room open for people to chat with each other?

01:38:37 Pamela Tzeng: Yes that would be productive

01:38:56 Elizabeth Smith: one love everyone my heart is full

01:38:58 Ayla Stephen: It looks like Tarrence Evans is raising a hand in the video.

01:39:01 Jenna Shummoogum: We can unmute ourselves

01:39:09 Col Cseke: Thank you!

01:39:19 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Col

01:39:36 Pamela Tzeng: Yes.

01:39:37 Toyin Oladele: Yes Patti, stay!

01:39:39 Madin Kanayeva: Yes

01:39:39 Colin Martin: Sure! If you want to!

01:39:43 Tarrence Evans: yes

01:39:44 Erin MacLean-Berko: Yes!

01:39:50 Wunmi Idowu: Yes

01:40:21 Joe Slabe-Forte Musical Theatre (he/him): Thanks for this!

01:40:21 Wunmi Idowu: Will it be recorded?

01:40:25 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Where can we watch the recording if we want to watch it again?

01:40:50 CADA Nick Heazell (He/Him): Yes Wunmi it is being recorded.

01:40:53 Chima Nkemdirim: Unfortunately, I have to go to another meeting. Thanks for the great conversation.

01:40:53 Elizabeth Smith: yes

01:41:05 jacquie walker: Thank you 😊

01:41:08 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Chima

01:41:08 CADA Patti Pon (she/her/hers): Thanks so much Chima!

01:41:18 Wunmi Idowu: Thanks Nick for confirming

01:41:21 CADA Taylor (she/her): Yes it will be recorded Wunmi and posted on our website

01:41:30 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Thanks so much Chima

01:41:39 Omatta Udalor: Great conversation folks, sadly I have a script reading so I have to run.

01:41:41 Steven Gallant (Beakerhead): Thanks, CADA et al. Great discussion and preview. Looking forward to next time.

01:41:52 Deeter Schurig: Thanks Patti and team for facilitating this important work and conversation for the betterment of our community!

01:42:00 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Thanks Interpreter. Looking forward to the next one as I have to go.

01:42:05 Linda Ford: Thank you Patti & CADA team!

01:42:05 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you Ebony

01:42:14 CADA Taylor (she/her): Landon has left already

01:42:16 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Landon went back on the road

01:42:52 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Thanks Kimberly!

01:43:02 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you Kimberly

01:43:02 Ebony Goooden (Deaf/she/her): Thanks Kimberley!

01:43:07 CADA Lesley (she/her): Thank you Kimberley!

01:43:12 CADA Helen (she/her): Thank you Kimberley

01:43:33 CADA Stephanie Solomon (She/ Her/ Hers): I do have to go but thank you

01:44:25 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Thanks Stephanie!

01:45:16 Elizabeth Smith: I live in the n.e. I am now a minority and I am white, my son says at school yrs ago to be white is to be hated.

01:45:50 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Podcast link?

01:46:11 Toyin Oladele: Thank you Tarrence

01:46:16 Lindsay Schonfelder: yes podcast link please!

01:46:21 Monda: I would love to Tarrance!

01:46:27 Toyin Oladele: podcast link please

01:46:43 Pamela Tzeng: Thank you Tarrance,please share podcast!

01:46:48 Elizabeth Smith: bin doing art in Calgary since 1976 no support ever

01:46:49 Trevor Rueger APN (he/him): Thank you CADA and everyone!

01:46:50 jacquie walker: thank you, podcast link!

01:50:22 Elizabeth Smith: we rallied back in the day for funding n I observed it not even being applied for for many yrs now tons of funds built for yrs but the money does not go to artists it goes to paying wages to city staff

01:50:40 Tarrence Evans: Google “Ancient African Wisdom Podcast” My podcasts are available wherever podcasts are streamed. My Youtube channel is Ancient African Wisdom. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8nwJCPldMQ

01:50:49 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Terrance

01:51:05 Elizabeth Smith: ty Terrance best wishes

01:51:22 Lindsay Schonfelder: thank you!

01:51:28 Desiree Nault: Yay! Thanks for sharing Tarrence!

01:51:52 teresa woo-paw: like to get on speaker’s list

01:52:17 Tarrence Evans: https://www.spreaker.com/search?query=ancient%20African%20wisdom

01:52:19 Elizabeth Smith: I want to paint along side other artists

01:53:15 Cesar Cala (he/him/siya): Thank you Anne

01:53:21 Elizabeth Smith: every time I shared my ideas other people did them but did not include me

01:53:21 Pamela Tzeng: Thanks Anne!

01:53:29 CADA Melissa Tuplin (she/her): Hi Elizabeth, it would be beneficial to book some time with Taylor Poitras our Specialist for Individual Artists. Our team would be very happy to discuss your practice and experiences with you.

01:54:25 Elizabeth Smith: I have applied for a grant before but was declined the funds too low to support so many applicants

01:54:58 Xstine Cook (she/her) CAOS: Elizabeth Smith, Gorilla House Live Art is a fantastic place to paint alongside other artists. https://www.facebook.com/GorillaHouseLiveArt/

01:55:33 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Jaqs

01:56:21 Elizabeth Smith: my art is valuable I am a treasure places want art for free or very little

01:56:23 CADA Taylor (she/her): I have shared my email privately to a few folks but I am happy to share it here as well: Taylor.poitras@calgaryartsdevelopment.com – I run the grant programs for Individuals and Collectives and would love to continue the convo with any and all of you 🙂

01:56:46 Elizabeth Smith: ty Taylor we have emailed before

01:57:10 Pamela Tzeng: Hi Everyone. There is a letter campaign to urge the Alberta Government to commit to adding Black Canadian History and Anti-racism curriculum in Alberta program of study. Please consider helping by contacting the Minister of Education and your MLA:

01:57:11 Pamela Tzeng: https://albertantiracismedu.carrd.co/

01:57:14 Elizabeth Smith: I have volunteered many places

01:57:15 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Taylor

01:57:52 Savanna Harvey she/her: Thanks for the link to the letter campaign, Pam!

01:58:07 Elizabeth Smith: ty everyone yrs ago there was nothing like this for artists

01:58:13 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thanks again Pam

01:58:27 Ayla Stephen: Thanks for that link, Pam!

01:58:43 Cesar Cala (he/him/siya): Thanks Pam

01:58:55 Jacqueline Aquines: thank you Pam

01:59:25 Joshua Dalledonne (he/him): Thank you Pam!

01:59:27 Jacqueline Aquines: Here are AROC’s resources http://communitywise.net/aroc/

01:59:28 Kat Carson (she/her/hers): Thank you for this link, Pamela!

01:59:52 Joshua Dalledonne (he/him): Thank you Jacqueline

02:00:29 Elizabeth Smith: some cultures really team up n get together I observed this as a volunteer in my community

02:01:26 Jacqueline Aquines: Anti-Racist Organizational Change project through CommunityWise Resource Centre

02:01:59 Melissa Monteros: Can anyone tell me who is speaking…I missed her introduction.,

02:02:03 Jacqueline Aquines: there’s also a link to a podcast that raises critical awareness to white supremacy there called the Unlearning Channel

02:02:09 Pamela Tzeng: Its Teresa Woo Paw

02:02:10 Elizabeth Smith: studies are a cash cow not real representation of artists

02:02:19 CADA Patti Pon (she/her/hers): Teresa Woo Paw is currently Speaking

02:02:21 Melissa Monteros: Thank you!

02:02:35 clare preuss: Thanks so much for this conversation. I look forward to much more growth in our community. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Yvette Nolan, Jivesh Parasram and Cole Alvis are AD HOC ASSEMBLY “Dedicated to the sustained forward movement of ethno-cultural and socially diverse performance works, processes and traditions.” They have created an open source document to support growth in policies and pracitces: Voluntary Addendum to Engagement. “PURPOSE: To expand the protections implicit in PACT/CAEA’s Not In Our Space program to artists who experience a behaviour or environment which, while equally harmful, is not explicitly addressed under the rubric of “sexual harassment and bullying” or “questionable behaviour”. This encompasses hostile workplace environments arising from racism, discrimination, violence, exclusion, intimidation, demeaning or diminishment on the basis of cultural or other identity.” https://adhocassembly.wordpress.com/voluntary-addendum/

02:02:37 Melissa Monteros: Teresa, This is great information.

02:02:54 Lindsay Schonfelder: I’m wondering if CADA could share the ways it is formalizing and embedding EDIA into its own practices, lessons learned, etc, on an ongoing basis going forward, so other organizations can learn from the process

02:03:03 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Clare

02:03:52 Elizabeth Smith: if you have the time n energy to go after these funds…see the same people n groups at the trough

02:06:00 Pamela Tzeng: Solid question Mpoe. Thank you

02:06:01 Wunmi Idowu: Thanks Mpoe

02:06:12 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you for sharing Mpoe and for asking about accountability.

02:06:48 Jacqueline Aquines: publish the recommendations from AROC and commit to them with a timeline

02:06:58 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Mpoe

02:07:41 Elizabeth Smith: I did an art project for my community n it got thrown out by the cleaner after he knew it was to be displayed

02:08:19 Elizabeth Smith: I offered to teach art for free at my kids school declined but now they pay artists to come in

02:09:27 Alex Chumley (He/Him): I have a question but I am not comfortable speaking. How do you address pushback when introducing diversity inclusion equity and accessibility in your organization, specifically accusations of “performative” diversity? It has been suggested in my organization that the best form of inclusion is “not showing particularity to a particular group”. this was brought up specifically in regards to Pride, but I think it can be applied elsewhere.

02:09:27 Elizabeth Smith: I wanted to do paint nights at my community but was declined now they do paint nights

02:10:25 CADA Taylor (she/her): https://coco-net.org/problem-woman-colour-nonprofit-organizations/#:~:text=The%20%E2%80%9CProblem%E2%80%9D%20Woman%20of%20Colour%20in%20the%20Workplace,United%20States%2C%20really%20struck%20us.

02:10:26 Dean Bareham, Green Fools (he/him): Green Fools. Yes, we worked with Bow Valley College Diversity on Board.

02:11:14 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks Jaq

02:11:20 Elizabeth Smith: I feel discrimination as a white person

02:12:07 Elizabeth Smith: I don’t see colour I don’t feel like a racist

02:12:44 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Hi Elizabeth, that’s not really a helpful comment here. Not seeing color often means that you don’t see patterns that are only visible when we look through these lenses as well.

02:13:35 CADA Taylor (she/her): Elizabeth – would you be comfortable if I shared some resources with you over email after this town hall? Taylor.poitras@calgaryartsdevelopment.com

02:13:43 Brigitte von Rothemburg: CommunityWise also provides learning

02:13:56 Elizabeth Smith: see that is not correct to assume I don’t understand because syntax is difficult

02:14:28 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Discrimination and racism is also directly tied to power and authority more power than other people. Systemically, the white community has significantly more power than others, even if it isn’t always felt at the individual level. A great starting point might be reading “unpacking the invisible backpack”

02:14:50 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

02:15:06 Elizabeth Smith: whites are a minority in Canada now

02:16:54 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Yes. Consultant Fees

02:17:05 Elizabeth Smith: we are all humans on this planet

02:17:26 Sarah M: I absolutely agree with Pamela because it is a very emotionally, mentally and physically taxing work.

02:17:37 Ayla Stephen: A fee standard would be so helpful.

02:17:38 Elizabeth Smith: pay to play

02:18:12 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Yes But this consulting fee has to be equitable to what white consultants make. Not an honorium

02:18:23 Elizabeth Smith: so now I am not welcome on this chat

02:20:00 Elizabeth Smith: because I am white

02:20:36 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: What is incremental and what is transformational?

02:22:34 Elizabeth Smith: my son was the only white person in his class no 66.5% white there

02:22:43 Jacqueline Aquines: thank you cesar

02:22:51 Pamela Tzeng: Thank you Cesar for your wisdom and kindness

02:22:56 Michelle Brandenburg (she/her/hers): Teresa brought up a number of civic policies and I was trying to catch policy names/titles and was unsuccessful at documenting and listening. Does anyway recall the ones that weren’t necessarily designed for private organizations?

02:22:59 Joshua Dalledonne (he/him): Thank you Cesar

02:22:59 Elizabeth Smith: I am listening

02:23:03 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks you Cesar

02:23:11 jacquie walker: thanks Cesar 😊

02:23:12 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Thanks, as always, Cesar!

02:23:27 Pamela Tzeng: Thank you JD for your comments before

02:23:32 Lindsay Schonfelder: love that thought Cesar, thank you for sharing

02:23:46 Wunmi Idowu: Thanks JD and Cesar

02:24:56 Kimberley Cooper: I have to run to another meeting, thank you all

02:25:00 Djaka Blais-Amare (she/her) – Calgary Foundation: Let’s hold other funders accountable the way CADA is open to being accountable.

02:25:18 CADA Patti Pon (she/her/hers): Thank you Kimberly!!

02:25:35 Joshua Dalledonne (he/him): YES. Pam and Jacqs. Thank you.

02:25:35 Elizabeth Smith: I have a lived experience of being discriminated against constantly

02:25:42 Rose Brow: who is the best person to contact at CADA for that council

02:26:11 Scott Carey: Following Cesar’s point, issues like guaranteed income, affordable housing, free public transit, etc. are not outside the realm of the arts and artist livelihoods in Calgary.

02:26:33 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: Thanks for that comment Scott

02:26:33 Cesar Cala (he/him/siya): Artists as movement builders

02:26:50 Cesar Cala (he/him/siya): And art as movement building

02:27:21 Elizabeth Smith: I wrote casa about an art hub in the n.e. like the one in the s.w.

02:27:24 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Great comment Scott – I was on a webinar this week about public policy, and how the arts intersect all those things you’re talking about. Super relevant conversation right now.

02:27:30 Anne Azucena (she/her/siya): following Cesar’s point – defund the police?

02:28:11 CADA Helen (she/her): Rose, send your questions about the working group to edia@calgaryartsdevelopment.com

02:28:23 JD Derbyshire she/her they/them: I need to leave the call for another one. Thank you everyone

02:28:31 Joshua Dalledonne (he/him): Thank you JD

02:28:31 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you JD

02:28:32 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Thanks JD!

02:28:36 CADA Helen (she/her): Thanks JD!

02:28:44 Col Cseke: Thank you and love you JD

02:31:37 Anne Azucena (she/her/siya): Before we waffle on should they be funded or shouldn’t they, have any of those large white institutions ever been community-assessed?

02:32:06 Wunmi Idowu: Thank you to the CADA team and everyone for joining this insightful discussion

02:32:10 Rose Brow: Big thanks to CADA for creating space for this conversation. it is only the beginning but greatly appreciated.

02:32:19 Sabrina Mueller: thank you to everyone for providing great thoughts for action and consideration in moving forward to make changes to this inequitable environment. Have a good night everyone.

02:32:42 Jeanne Kwong: I have learned a lot as well

02:33:02 clare preuss: Thanks everyone for this discussion as we move forward. I’m gonna go get ready for tonight’s board meeting.

02:33:07 Jacqueline Aquines: you’re right. capacity building around anti-racism by CADA is a responsibility. as cultural change, often created by art, can precede policy change

02:33:21 Brigitte von Rothemburg: Thanks so much Patti and Team!

02:33:37 Pamela Tzeng: Thanks Col! appreciate you ongoing work and solidarity too.

02:33:42 CADA Marta (she/her): Hi Anne – most of CADA’s granting programs are peer-assessed. So yes, large organizations are subject to community assessment when they apply for different grants. Our upcoming Operating Grant Increase process will be peer-assessed

02:34:21 Jacqueline Aquines: great question Anne Azucena

02:35:39 Kathryn Smith (they/them or she/her): Thank you so much to everyone who shared today. Great appreciation.

02:36:01 Beng – ActionDignity (She/Her): This has been a great session! Thank you!

02:36:39 Melissa Monteros: Yes, Anne Flynn….we don’t have to reinvent the wheel but to build on that knowledge. This is not a new issue for any of us..

02:38:04 CADA Melissa Tuplin (she/her): I will follow up to Marta’s comment, Anne. The programs are peer assessed, however we are aware that historically these committees have been representative of diverse perspectives, particularly BIPOC perspectives. This is something that we have begun to shift over the years, but we recognize that we have a lot further to go in ensuring that our assessment committees are employing anti-racist practices.

02:38:19 CADA Melissa Tuplin (she/her): I’m sorry, have NOT been representative of diverse perspectives.

02:38:27 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): I forgot to post this earlier. Someone asked about board diversity resources. Arts Workers Equity Portland has developed self assessment tools for arts organizations. They’re also helping organizations work to be more culturally responsive.

02:38:30 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): https://awepdx.tumblr.com/learningcircle

02:38:33 Jacqueline Aquines: it’s necessary for feminism to always address race, class and gender…navigate with an intersectional lens. (kimberle Crenshaw)

02:38:58 Ayla Stephen: Thanks so much to everyone who spoke today. Really appreciate the time and knowledge.

02:39:07 CADA Taylor (she/her): Agreed Jaqs

02:39:10 Natasha Chaykowski: I don’t think second wave feminism and its gains are so easily mapped onto issues around anti-racism here, given that many of those gains explicitly excluded BIPOC women

02:39:19 Pamela Tzeng: Can the resource list and video archive be shared with those who RSVP’d

02:39:48 CADA Taylor (she/her): Thank you Natasha

02:39:54 Pamela Tzeng: Great! Thank you!

02:40:04 Djaka Blais-Amare (she/her) – Calgary Foundation: Good point Natasha

02:40:06 Jacqueline Aquines: 100% natasha. thank you

02:40:44 Anne Azucena (she/her/siya): thank you jacqs and natasha <3

02:40:48 Lindsay Schonfelder: Thank you all for sharing these experiences, insights and resources today, and to CADA for making this space for it. I appreciate the opportunity to participate.

02:41:08 Pamela Tzeng: Yes thank you Natasha and jaqs

02:41:17 Madin Kanayeva: Thank you everyone for sharing

02:41:24 Pamela Tzeng: Thank you team CADA and everyone who attended.

02:41:31 CADA Amy Jo (she/her): It will take us a few to days to get the video and transcripts up but we will be sure to let you know. Thanks everyone.

02:41:36 Djaka Blais-Amare (she/her) – Calgary Foundation: Thank you for this space for this conversation

02:41:37 jacquie walker: thank you! 😊

02:41:43 CADA – Gregory Burbidge (he/him): Thanks Amy Jo!

02:41:44 Peter Hemminger: Thank you everyone for a very thoughtful conversation.

02:41:50 Mpoe M (they/them): thanks CADA! looking forward to the actions following this conversation. have a great evening all!

02:41:54 Michelle Brandenburg (she/her/hers): Thank you to everyone who shared and to CADA for bringing us all into this space today.

02:41:54 Joshua Dalledonne (he/him): Thank you for this today. Grateful for the conversation.

02:41:58 Jacqueline Aquines: Thank YOU Pam, Anne A, Cesar, and CADA team

02:42:00 Jeanne Kwong: Thanks to everyone

02:42:03 Kat Carson (she/her/hers): Thank you to everyone for sharing and for the conversation

02:42:03 Melissa Monteros: I have a quick last comment….that I see many groups looking for education on Unconscious Bias and generally education I the arts—I think the institutions (such as U of C) could use an artist resource base!

02:42:03 Megan Fox: I second what Lindsay is saying. Thank you for all the resources, insights and the conversation!

02:42:05 Pamela Tzeng: Thank you!!!

02:42:10 Melissa Monteros: ThankYOU!

02:42:12 Alane Smith: thank you!

02:42:12 Cesar Cala (he/him/siya): Thanks everyone

02:42:13 Xstine Cook (she/her) CAOS: Thank you

02:42:13 Desiree Nault: Thanks everyone. Take care!

02:42:18 Rose Brow: thanks everyone.

02:42:20 Natasha Chaykowski: Thank you all

02:42:23 Ginger Carlson: Thank you all, looking forward to further conversation and action on behalf of CADA and the greater arts community 🙂

02:42:34 Xstine Cook (she/her) CAOS: It will send you a download of it

02:43:04 Joshua Dalledonne (he/him): And a thank you to YOU Cesar!

02:43:22 CADA Taylor (she/her): YAAAY

Download as a PDF

Contact for More Information
edia@calgaryartsdevelopment.com

Calgary Arts Development Group Agreements PDF
calgaryartsdevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CADA-GroupAgreements-2020.pdf

Business / Arts boardlink
businessandarts.org/abx/boardlink

Introduction to Ancient African Wisdom
youtube.com/watch?v=U8nwJCPldMQ

Dj Stagez’ Ancient African Wisdom Podcast
spreaker.com/search?query=ancient%20African%20wisdom

Gorilla House LIVE ART on Facebook
facebook.com/GorillaHouseLiveArt

Add Black Canadian History and Anti-Racism Curriculum to Alberta Programs of Study
albertantiracismedu.carrd.co

Anti-Racist Organizational Change at CommunityWise 
communitywise.net/aroc

Ad Hoc Assembly’s Voluntary Addendum to Engagement 
adhocassembly.wordpress.com/voluntary-addendum

The “Problem” Woman of Colour in NonProfit Organizations
coco-net.org/problem-woman-colour-nonprofit-organizations

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh PDF
racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

Citizen Artists YYC Chat & Chew Zoom Meetings
calgaryartsdevelopment.com/classifieds/chat-chew-zoom-meetings