Watch the Virtual Town Hall

Patti Pon: 

Welcome, everybody. For those of you who I don’t have the pleasure of knowing or haven’t seen in a while, which is probably a lot of us, I’m Patti Pon, I’m the president and CEO with Calgary Arts Development. And as I said earlier, I’m coming to you from Calgary Arts Development’s new offices here in Calgary in the Edison Building, which is on the corner of First Street and Ninth Avenue Southwest on the 14th floor. So we are looking forward to welcoming people back again into our space and being able to get to see all of you in real life, as they say in computer lingo, and enjoy our time together again.

So before we begin the formal proceedings, well, actually, this is a part of our formal proceedings. I want to acknowledge that we are located, I’m coming to you from the ancestral home and territory of the people of Treaty 7 and the Niitsitapi, the Blackfoot people, comprised of the Siksika, Piikani and Kainai First Nations who joined in the Blackfoot Confederacy about 200 years ago with the Tsuut’ina people and the Stoney Nakoda people, comprised of the Wesley, Bearspaw and Chiniki First Nations. Of course Treaty 7 territories is also home to the Métis people of Region 3, and all of us who have the great honour and privilege of calling this place known as Mohkinsstsis, or Calgary, home.

I had a really great lesson from a colleague of ours, Sable Sweetgrass, who shared with me that, I asked the question because someone said to me, Oh, Indigenous people and elders in particular don’t do land acknowledgments. And I was like, Really? Because I’ve heard lots of Indigenous people and elders do land acknowledgments. And she said, Well, maybe the person was thinking about a First Nations acknowledgment, that that might not be necessarily something that someone of First Nations, Métis or Inuit descent may undertake. And I’ve been thinking about that actually for the last little while since I had that conversation with Sable. And I think it’s, again, on our own reconciliation journey, while it is about place, and I am honoured and so grateful to call Mohkinsstsis my home and share in the stewardship and the care of this place, when Sable said to me, you know that saying those names out loud, that this is the ancestral home of and has been for time immemorial of the Niitsitapi, the Blackfoot people, of being able to practice how to say Piikani, Siksika, Kainai, how to practice saying Tsuut’ina and Wesley, Bearspaw, Chiniki, Métis. That’s a good thing for those of us where maybe Blackfoot isn’t our home or our first language, to practice. You know, it’s like someone you know, I can’t tell you how many times my last name Pon, P-O-N, it’s three letters, which actually happened to be in sync in the English alphabet, just backwards, right. N-O-P. Pan, Poon, Pin, Pen, Pon, and like every single conceivable way to say my name, and it hurts me. And so it reminds us that words matter, names matter. And I’m always really thoughtful about our time together and being able to see all of you, be it in a virtual way, in this time, where as artists and as content creators and as storytellers, you remind us every day of how important it is to tell our stories and tell them in a good, accurate way.

So thank you again for all of that and for joining us today. The person that you see, if you’ve pinned her all or pinned them already, is our ASL interpreter for today’s town hall. And their name is, and I’m going to get this right, Sair Korb, I’m going to practice that. Thank you, Sair. And if you would like to access Sair’s interpretation, please pin them in the frame if you want to access that. As well, the town hall is being recorded and so that we can share it with folks who aren’t able to join us today. In addition to having the ASL interpretation in the recording, we will also provide an accurate transcript of the conversation today. So anybody who wants to check in again or remind themselves of something that we talked about or a question that’s asked, you can check the recording.

Many thanks to Savanna Harvey, who is our digital operator today. If you see that box that says virtual town hall, that’s Savanna. There’s a person behind that screen who’s going to help us with any technical issues that we may have over the course of today. If you’ve joined us before at our town halls, you’ll know that Calgary Arts Development uses group agreements. And by attending today’s town hall, we are asking that you agree to abide by our group agreements. There was a link included on the announcement page for this event and it also can be found in the chat for your reference and it’ll pop up in just a minute or so. We’re also going to have a Q&A session at the end of me talking a bit and Melissa talking, and so if you have any questions for today’s town hall, please submit them into the Q&A box. And if you look at the bottom of your screen, you’ll see a Q & A icon there. If you click on it, you’ll have an opportunity to ask any questions that you have for us today. And we will do our best to answer all of the questions at the end of our presentations.

Also, you can raise your hand and there’s a raise hand function at the bottom, I think under reactions, if you click on the reactions icon, you can raise your hand. And we’ve got members of the CADA team here who can who are keeping track of that stuff while Melissa and I are here. So I think that is everything, I’m just checking my notes. So when you see me looking over, I’m looking at my second screen here. So to begin today’s proceedings, I’m going to take about 15 minutes or so to talk a bit about Calgary Arts Development’s new strategic framework, Ákáakomatapoap, and what we found and what our priorities are over the next four years.

And then Melissa Tuplin, who is our director of Community Investment and Research, will spend some time talking about our grants investment programs for 2023. I’m sure many of you have already seen the announcement that we made on our website with the various dates and programs, and Melissa will be here to provide a little bit more insight into the programs and again, answer any questions that people may have.

So without further ado, I will start and ask that we put up the first slide, please, Savanna. So you heard me say a term earlier when I talked about our strategic framework, Ákáakomatapoap, that is the title of our strategic framework. It was gifted to us by Blackfoot elder Saa’kokoto, and in Blackfoot it means, we are now going to begin, and it is acknowledging and recognizing the transformational time that we believe the arts ecosystem in Calgary, in Mohkinsstsis, is heading into over not only the next four years, but likely the next 10 years and maybe even more.

This is year one, 2023 through 2026, of this four-year framework. And as you can see from the look of the cover page here and the name of our framework, we have adopted or have chosen to have a Treaty 7 Indigenous world view as we looked at our strategic framework, and in particular as you look to the left of your screen and you see that image that we commissioned artist Autumn Whiteway to create for us, our conversations about what the arts face in Calgary over the next four years, was one that we aligned to a vision or a concept of the natural world order, the natural system. And so in a moment or two, I’m going to ask Savanna to play a video for us that speaks to Autumn’s vision for how she came upon this particular insight. The one thing that I will say is you can see the buffalos that are sort of in a bit of a ghosted vision on that piece, just thinking about that as a bit of a metaphor and we’ll come back to it after the video. So if you could start that video, please, Savanna, that’d be great.

(video plays)

Autumn Whiteway:

(Greetings in many languages.) My name is Autumn Whiteway, and the spiritual name gifted to me by Blackfoot Elder Clarence Wolfleg is Night Singing Woman. I’m Saulteaux Métis and a member of Berens River First Nation in Manitoba. However, I was born and raised in Mohkinsstsis, also known as Calgary. I would like to acknowledge that I live on the traditional lands of the Blackfoot, Tsuu’tina and Stoney Nakoda peoples in addition to Métis Nation Region 3. Not only am I an artist, traditional craftsworker and curator, but I’m also an archeologist. I focus on the colourful woodland style of art with my painting and digital art, and I use my photographic practice as a form of activist art to highlight Indigenous issues.

I was given the incredible opportunity to create my artistic vision of a tree as an ecosystem for Calgary Arts Development’s Strategic Framework. In researching trees native to this area, I was immediately drawn to the balsam poplar. Just like how Calgary Arts Development supports our vibrant local arts ecosystem, the balsam poplar also supports its own beautiful ecosystem, therefore the balsam poplar is depicted supporting the finned ones, the four-legged ones, the winged ones, fungi, soils, water and air, which are all ultimately supported by Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon.

One of the most profound statements that I’ve ever heard was when Blackfoot Elder Saa’kokoto said that Na’a, or Mother Earth, is a great artist who paints a new picture four times per year. For this reason, the tree is shown in four different seasons, each representing a different year of Calgary Arts Development’s Strategic Framework. From left to right, it begins with winter, because I consider this the beginning of the new year with winter solstice. The spring and summer show growth as the Strategic Framework is implemented, while the fall represents a period of transition into the next Framework. Incorporating all the colours of the medicine wheel was also important to ensure that the Framework moves forward in a good way.

Balsam poplars are a large hearty prairie tree species that are often found along rivers and streams. They are known as a pioneering species for their ability to quickly grow and establish new canopies in areas that have been damaged by fire, flood and clearcutting. They provide an important ecological habitat for numerous species of mammals, birds, insects and fungi, and they provide cover and hunting opportunities. For millennia, they were used by Indigenous peoples in this area s indicators of water. In fact, the bark of the balsam poplar is deeply furrowed to direct rainwater down to its roots. Just like Calgary Arts Development does when funnelling funding down to artist and organizations. The balsam poplar provides several important medicines, for example, Métis Knowledge Keeper Kalyn Kodiak states that the tree produces resin for a medicine for itself. That resin is used by bees to build propolis, which is used as a coating to build their hives, and in turn, humans make use of propolis for its medicinal properties.

This is one example of the interconnectedness of everything in nature, which includes all of us, even Calgary Arts Development, who play a vital role in the arts ecosystem of this community, here in Treaty 7 territory. (Speaking in Indigenous language.) All my relations.

(video ends)

Patti Pon:

Thanks Savanna. If you can maybe go back to that first slide of the cover page, please. That would be great. Thank you. So that video, along with the full framework itself, are available online at calgaryartsdevelopment.com. Helen, if you can, there you go. Thanks Lisa Collins. We are going to put a link in the chat to the Framework. There it goes. And Autumn’s video can be watched again there so that you can see it. We’re really honoured that Autumn agreed to create this illustration for us and the process of creating this framework was sometimes unwieldy, required a great deal of humility and curiosity, and I’m just so pleased with where we’ve come.

And this brings me back to asking you to pay particular attention to the buffalo that are in the background that kind of are a little bit more shallower in the picture than the other animals. And this relates to a kind of alignment or affinity that we talk to, which is in the natural system, and for any of us who have undertaken a reconciliation journey and learned more about the role of buffalo in the First Nations communities and cultural ways of knowing and being, the destruction, the decimation of the buffalo did a great deal of harm to the natural system. Not only did it invite disease and a food shortage, it led to other plant species and animal species extinction. It led to an imbalance in the system. And when you talk to environmentalists, ecologists, animal specialists, they talk about how the buffalo is the keystone species in the natural order in this part of the world. And so if we think about the arts ecosystem in Calgary comprised of all of its many facets and parts, I would argue, and we did put forward that in the arts ecosystem, artists are the keystone species and that in this time of the last 10 years in particular, we have had a 100-year flood and economic downturn, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and a worldwide pandemic. And in every one of those instances, the impact on the arts sector and artists in particular was disproportionate relative to the impact in other parts of our communities and our cities. Thanks, Maureen. We’re restarting the screen share. And so when we have that conversation about a systems approach, looking at the arts in a way that was akin to the natural order, we saw the instant impact and the severe harm on artists. And if artists are our keystone species, then we have to focus and concentrate on the restoration, increasing the wellness and vibrancy of that keystone species like we are seeing with the return of the buffalo to this area, and the return of those plant species and some of those other animal species, and like when Autumn talks about the fungi, like right down to the smaller creatures among us. And that’s what that shift for the buffalo has done to that system. And we look to our work in the next four years, also emphasizing and looking to, as I said, the restoration reintroduction, if you will, in some instances of artists into our lives, in our communities at large.

Can we go to the next slide, please? So these are the four directions, we’ve called them. Sometimes, you know, for those of you who are familiar with strategic planning, we talk about priorities or pillars. Again in a Treaty 7 Indigenous world view, the circle is very, very important, and you heard Autumn talk about the start in the winter, and a purpose, that’s really centring equity, inclusion, diversity, accessibility as an essential element of a healthy arts ecosystem. You can’t have a vibrant ecosystem if you don’t look at that, if you don’t think about how we all fit in the circle.

Then you go to the right in a clockwise direction to people. Any system that we’re looking at when it comes to the arts in Calgary has to include the people. Organizations are comprised of people. And yes, there are venues and spaces and materials and other supplies, all those things that are also incorporated. But it starts with the people, it starts with the artist. And so we wanted to acknowledge that.

Then that, the way in which people come together, leads us to community, nourishing a vibrant arts ecosystem, ensuring that that arts ecosystem is contributing to a community. For those of you who’ve been with us at prior town halls, you may recall how I’ve talked about CADA as being a public agency, stewarding public dollars for the public good or for public benefit. And as far as the work of CADA is concerned, it will always include artists within that public good. Artists are citizens. Artists contribute to public benefit and should reap public benefits like all of us who live in this place. So that’s community.

And then we move into resources. And as we all know, leveraging and stabilizing resources to benefit the arts ecosystem is a critical component and a critical factor for us going forward. And is part of our four strategic directions in ’23 — ’26.

Next slide please. One more slide. There we go. This might be a more familiar or traditional layout. If you looked at our strategic framework from this past four years, it looks something closer to this, we called it the place map. Those four directions that I talked about, they appear in that red band that goes right across the centre and the descriptions thereof. But then you can see within the other layers that we flesh out a bit and we fill out more how we will address those four directions, or the ways in which we will focus our work going forward. And of course, four years is a long time. Look at everything that happened in 10 years, which isn’t in the whole grand scheme of things a super long time, but lots happens. And so contributing to our resiliency, our ability to respond to the changes, sometimes deep dramatic ones that happen in our community, really underlies all of this and really is at the heart of the circle and how we all work in this good way together.

So that’s the framework. As I said, the link is in the chat, so you’re welcome to look at it more and if you have any questions, I’m happy to address them at the end of Melissa’s presentation, but just wanted to give you some insight into where our priorities, our directions are leading us, as you listen to Melissa talk about the grant programs.

The one other thing I’ll just mention before I invite Melissa to the podium, so to speak, is many of you will recall that our budget for 2023 included an additional one-time investment from the city of $1 million in each of the next four years. So that’s $1 million in ’23, ’24, ’25 and ’26. That additional money is distinct, it is separate from our ongoing base funding. So that’s the money we get every year, year over year. That is the source of our granting funds and is specifically dedicated and allocated to city and civic partner strategies. So for example, in the September of this year, we will have, Calgary will be the host city for the World Petroleum Congress. And so part of that money is earmarked for how we will feature arts and culture, specifically from Calgary, on the stages while we have these 20,000 delegates from all over the world joining us for the Congress, and in particular will be looking and featuring the Indigenous artists of Treaty 7. So there are joint initiatives. We have a creative economy strategy that we’re working on with Calgary Economic Development. You may have heard of Rise Up, which was arts activities that we held during the pandemic and will continue to foster going forward.

Those initiatives are what will be supported with that additional one-time funding. And so while it won’t go to the granting programs per se, we do intend for it to go as much as possible into the hands of artists and into promoting the local arts ecosystems. Back to really amplifying and elevating artists as a keystone species in order to create stronger, more resilient communities and cities.

The World Petroleum Congress is in September of 2023. I think it starts on the 17th, but you can Google World Petroleum Congress to find out more information there. So that’s it for me. Over to you, Melissa.

Melissa Tuplin:

All right. Hi, everyone. I’m Melissa Tuplin, I’m the director of community investment and impact here at Calgary Arts Development. Savanna, you can start the presentation. I’ll ask the audience to bear with me as I am reading directly off a script to ensure that I capture everything I need to say and also to ensure that I speak slowly for our interpreter and for our captioning.

So today I, oh thank you for that. Let me just double-check my speaker.

Patti Pon:

I can hear you, Melissa.

Melissa Tuplin:

My input volume was quite low, so that should fix the problem for those whose speakers may not be picking me up. All right, so I will talk briefly today about each of the programs and highlight any major changes that have been made. As Patty said, we made an announcement on our website and each of the program pages has been updated with the information that we have available right now. I will also share some information about the number of grants we supported or success rates for those programs in 2022 where there is comparable information or where it provides context to changes that we’ve made to program budgets and processes.

The full program results for 2022 will be released on the website within the next couple of months. And of course are released each year in June as part of our accountability report to the community. I do want to share and emphasize that the percentage of successful applications in a program is not always the best measurement of the success of a program or the impact of a program.

In addition, increasing a program’s budget doesn’t necessarily translate to increased success rates. And every time we run a program, we learn more about what targeted funding is needed in the community and sometimes that means changing programs, their eligibility, their focus, or thinking differently about the way that we resource… As we heard from Patti earlier, as we come out of three years of these ongoing pandemic conditions and deepen our understanding of the impact of the pandemic, we are focusing the next four years of our research, evaluation and engagement work to be in relationship with you, our community, and to look critically at the granting system that we are a part of and to imagine and co-design the future of our grant-making practices. This is work that we had hoped to begin leading up to this next four-year budget in 2023, but as it became clear that the pandemic would continue for as long as it has, our focus for the next, sorry, for the past two years has been on relief leading up to thinking about recovery, maintaining investments where we could, directing relief funds and targeted investments into planning and sustaining capacity.

You’ll note the 2023 grant programs have not shifted significantly, and this is by design. This year as we focus our efforts on discovering what the new definitions of sustainability and resiliency might be, and work to develop an engagement strategy to reimagine grant programs with the community, we acknowledge the toll that the past three years has taken across the sector and are committed to continuing to develop our relationships with you without throwing too much change into the sector all at once. But we know that change is needed and the coming years will be spent generatively thinking about transformation for the betterment of the arts ecosystem and for the stewardship of our dollars on behalf of the public.

I want to note quickly a couple of changes to our policies and processes for the 2023 programs. The first is that you will note that we have moved our grant program deadlines, which had historically fallen on Mondays in past years, to mid-week. And this is to ensure that specialists are able to provide support for urgent technical issues and questions leading up until the deadline.

Our deadline is still 4:30pm MT on that date, and our program specialists must still receive requests for specific application feedback no later than 10 days prior to the deadline to ensure that they’re able to respond. But the team can answer general questions or assist with the application platform Smart Simple all the way up until the deadline.

In addition, as we indicated in our 2022 program guidelines, as of this year, grantees may not have more than four open grants with Calgary Arts Development at one time. This does not include operating grants. If a grantee has four open grants, they must complete the work funded and submit reporting before applying to any additional programs. Please note that our policies about outstanding and late reporting have not changed, you must still be in good standing in your reporting in order to be eligible for any of our programs.

If you have specific questions about these programs, please feel free to reach out to your program specialist or to our team in general at grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com. The grants@ email address is monitored by staff and is the best way to contact the team for assistance.

We have two policies: the Accommodation & Accessibility Policy and the Application Assistance Policy that are available to applicants who experience barriers to develop accommodations such as translation of written materials, transcription of meetings, language interpretation and grant writing assistance. The Application Assistance Policy provides financial support to applicants who are Deaf, hard of hearing, have a disability or are living with mental illness, or who face language, geographic and cultural barriers to compensate for transcription, editing, language translation and application development. And these programs are not just for applicants who are planning on submitting an application. They are available to anyone at any point in the process to ensure that you have all of the information and support that you need leading up to even deciding whether you not want to apply to a program. So please contact grants@ to learn more about this and to make a request as needed.

Any questions about our research and our impact work can be sent to impact@calgaryartsdevelopment.com, including questions about how we use the data that we collect through grant applications, assessment processes and reports.

We are also working with Sable Sweetgrass, who is our Director of Engagement and Reconciliation, and the Advisory Indigenous Advisory Group to guide our work on the Indigenous program portfolio. And I encourage you to reach out to Sable if you have any questions about that.

The community investment team is directly responsible both for the design administration and implementation of our grant investment programs, including answering all applicant questions, providing support and running assessment processes. Specialists can be reached through their email addresses using first name dot last name @calgaryartsdevelopment.com.

Please contact Allan Rosales, Community Investment Manager, with any questions about overall program processes, policies or to have a conversation about our approach to our program design and our grant making. Van Chu who is our grants coordinator will be able to provide any support or answer questions about our grant application platform, Smart Simple, or for questions about grant payments. Perpetual Atife is working on the Artist Development Microgrant and the Project Grant for Organizations in 2023, so you can contact Perpetual with any questions about those programs. Marta Ligocki is working on the Operating Grant and the Operating Grant New Client Intake Programs this year. Taylor Poitras is working on the Artist Development Microgrant and the Project Grant for Individuals and Collectives. And finally, Morgan Possberg is working on the Indigenous Artist Microgrant, the Honouring the Children Program and the Original Peoples Investment Program. This team is fantastic and they so look forward to spending time with you this year as we enter into our new office here, I know they’ll be excited to host you again for in-person meetings as needed, so please feel free to reach out to schedule an appointment with them at any time.

I’ll move on to speaking about our program portfolios now. So our programs for Indigenous artists and arts organizations, in 2023 we will continue running the Original Peoples Investment Program, the Indigenous Artist Microgrant and the Honouring the Children Program. These programs are open to First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists in Treaty 7 and Indigenous-led and Indigenous-centred non-profit arts organizations in Treaty 7.

The Original People’s Investment Program in 2022 supported 42 artists with over $650,000. In 2022, the Indigenous Artist Microgrant supported 11 projects with $54,000 and the Honouring the Children Program supported seven projects with $85,000.

The Original Peoples Investment Program is entering its fifth year this year, which is so thrilling. In 2023, we look forward to continuing our outreach with the community, to expanding our networks, and I know that Morgan and Sable are really looking forward to working more closely with the community this year. Each year, the program supports around 60 per cent of the grant requests that we receive. The program will open earlier this year, in June 2023, with the deadline in October to allow Morgan and Sable to connect with the community through the summer season and provide support on a longer term to develop applications. The total budget for the program is $650,000. Indigenous artists, individual artists, may receive up to $15,000. Indigenous-led and centred collectives may receive up to $20,000 and Indigenous-led and centred arts organizations may receive up to $25,000. And this is a project funding program for traditional and contemporary Indigenous arts and arts practices.

The Indigenous Artist Microgrant was piloted through 2021 and 2022 with the support of our Indigenous Advisory group, and it’s intended to support projects by Indigenous artists who are working on the preservation and maintenance of traditional Indigenous culture and craft. Applications are accepted and assessed on an ongoing basis until the grant pool has been expended for the year, and grant recommendations are made to staff by the Indigenous Advisory Group, who review applications and provide feedback and support for artists as they work through those. If the budget for this program is not fully spent, the remaining funds are allocated to the other two programs that are focused on Indigenous artists. So you’ll note that last year we expended $54,000 to the program, that remaining $20,000 was redirected to other programs in the portfolio.

The Honouring the Children Program was introduced in 2021 in response to the 215 children recovered at the Kamloops Residential School. As investigations continue to uncover unmarked grave sites, as in Saskatchewan earlier this year and near the Williams Lake First Nation yesterday, this program exists to honour the truth of the genocide and to support projects in memory of the loss of life, cultures, ceremony and language because of the residential school system. This program is undertaken in direct relationship and with the support of Indigenous program staff here at Calgary Arts Development. It doesn’t have specific guidelines and Morgan will work with applicants to talk about their projects and determine the funding amounts. So applications are accepted and assessed on an ongoing basis until the pool has been expended for the year.

So questions about these three programs for Indigenous artists and arts organizations again can be directed to Morgan Possberg, who is the Indigenous Program Specialist, or to Sable Sweetgrass, who is the Director of Engagement and Reconciliation. In addition, all of the members of the grant investment team are available to provide support and answer questions about applications from Indigenous artists and organizations to all of the other programs that we offer.

Moving on to our programs for individual artists and arts collectives, in 2023, we will continue running the Project Grant for Individuals and Collectives and the Artist Development Microgrant. These programs are open to artists in Calgary, Mohkinsstsis, pursuing a professional practice in any artistic discipline. Grant programs for individual artists continue to be our most highly sought after. We receive over 300 applications to each program per year, and we’re continuing to grow the budgets to these programs in response, particularly for the Project Grant Program. In 2022 the Project Grant supported 117 projects with over $1.6 million, and the Artist Development Microgrant supported 130 projects with over $500,000.

The original budget for the Artist Development Microgrant was $400,000, but we were grateful to receive an anonymous donation through the Calgary Arts Foundation in 2022, allowing us to increase the total budget for the program, as well as redirect funding from some other programs to respond to the high volume of requests that we received to the microgrant.

The Project Grant Program for Individuals and Collectives typically supports around 30 per cent of the grant requests that we receive. This grew to 37 per cent in 2022 with an increase to the budget. As I said, we receive over 300 applications to this program per year, which demonstrates how many wonderful artists live and work in Calgary and the vital need to support their artistic work, as Patti said, as keystone species in the ecosystem, and we will continue to work to consider and to address this need.

Applications to the program open in March with a deadline of May 10th. Applications will be assessed through the summer with the notification of results in August. The budget for the program has increased by $400,000 to a total of $2 million in 2023. Individuals may request up to $15,000 and artist collectives which are ad hoc or ongoing unregistered groups of artists who work together, may request up to $20,000.

The Artist Development Microgrant continues in 2023, but with a major shift. We have decided to move from four intakes through the year to two intakes through the year in 2023. Last year we received over 100 applications per intake and we were only able to fund around 25 per cent of grant requests. This volume of applications requires significant resource capacity on the part of the program specialists and on the assessment committee, and so shifting to two intakes is really intended to help a team to provide much better support for applicants through the process in what is a competitive program. The program opens at the end of February to applications for professional development, artistic skills development, and business and career skills development. This program is not intended to support projects that primarily focus on the creation and development of artistic work.

So to give an example, artists may apply to attend a residency program which might result in an outcome of artistic work, but the primary focus is on their learning, professional development and networking. Artists may not apply to create or develop a new body of work that will lead to presentation or production. Creation and development of work is a great fit for the Project Grant for Individuals and Collectives, and so we highly recommend that applicants reach out to program specialists in advance of submitting their application if they have questions about the eligibility of their potential activities.

The first intake deadline is April 5th, with results in May, and the second intake deadline is September 13th, with results in November. The program budget increases by $50,000 to $450,000. While this program does receive a high volume of applications, our recent Arts Professionals Survey and ongoing feedback from the community indicates that the highest priority for artists is access to project funding for the creation of work and all other activities that they might want to be undertaking. And so that is why the majority of the increase to individual artists has been directed to the project grant rather than to the microgrant.

Moving on to our programs for arts organizations in 2023, we will continue running the Operating Grant Program, the Project Grant for Organizations and the Future Focus Programs for non-profit arts organizations operating in Calgary. In 2023 we will open the operating grant program to new applicants for the next two-year operating grant cycle, which I know everybody’s very excited about. In 2022, the Operating Grant Program supported 163 organizations with around $6.7 million in base operating grants. Base grants are the annual grant amounts committed on a multi-year basis. In addition to these base grants in 2022, we did make one-time unrestricted grants to organizations in the program, but they are not included in the calculation as the nature of one-time funding does not accurately reflect total operational support to organizations on an ongoing annual basis, which is really the foundation of operating programs, that stable, predictable funding on an annual basis.

In 2023, new clients will be onboarded to the Operating Grant Program. As I said, the last time new clients were brought into the program was 2019. New clients will be brought into the same two-year cycle as our current clients for 2023 and 2024. The Project Grant for Organizations last year funded 38 projects with just over $725,000. The 2022 budget for the program was $500,000, however, due to shifts in program budgets, we were able to redirect funds to increase the pool for the program and support more projects.

The Future Focus Program, which is a joint initiative with the Rozsa Foundation and The Calgary Foundation, has its final intake on February 6th, which is a continuation of the 2022 program.

So current grantees, the 163 current grantees in the Operating Grant Program, have already been contacted by Marta and the grant investment team with instructions on how to access the application for the Operating Grant Program, and with information about their eligibility for funding increases. The program this year will recommit grant amounts for a multi-year cycle of 2023 and 2024. The application deadline is March 1st and the application will constitute organization’s reporting for the 2022 grant year, which makes up a significant portion of our own reporting to the City of Calgary and to the community in our annual report.

The impact and the grants team will review applications for completeness and accuracy right after they are submitted in March, and base grant amounts, the amount committed in the 2020 to 2022 grant agreements, will be released through the spring. After that, the applications will be brought to peer assessment through the late spring and notification of grant results will occur in June. At that point, the amount of the increase to the grants will be released and then added to the total sum of the grant for 2024. The total budget for this program is $7.8 million, which is just over $1 million additional in annual operational funding to this portfolio, which makes up almost half of Calgary Arts Development, our total budget for the year, our most significant program.

Operating Grant Clients are eligible for a formula-based increase to their grant, which is calculated as a percentage of their current grant. In addition, organizations that currently receive under $30,000 in annual funding will have the opportunity to apply for an increase that will make, bring their grant amount more closely in line with the amounts that the new clients are being onboarded at. These increases are intended to recognize the impact of inflation and increased operational costs post-pandemic. It’s a complex program, there’s a lot of calculations and formulas, and so I highly recommend looking at the guidelines on the website and reaching out to Marta if you have any questions.

The Operating Grant New Client Intake Program will commit annual funding for 2023 and 2024. Full program guidelines will be published in April and will assess potential grantees based on their artistic mandate and work, their impact on their communities and the way that they work with their communities, and their commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the way that they undertake their work. We will also consider gaps in representation, diversity and access to arts experiences in Calgary. The program opens to applications in May and has a deadline of June 21st. The total program budget will be $800,000, with grants of a minimum of $10,000 and a maximum of $30,000. This range of grants was established based on the current spectrum of grant amounts in the Operating Grant Program and brings organizations into the program in relation to the majority of grantees. And so at the end of 2023, this will bring our total investment into the operating grants to $8.6 million.

The program is open to non-profit organizations with arts-based mandates operating in Calgary. Again, we highly recommend reviewing the program page on the website for more detailed information about eligibility, and we recommend speaking with the program specialist prior to applying to discuss your organization and making a case for support.

The Project Grant for Organizations provides project funding to non-profit arts organizations. This program typically has around a 40 per cent success rate. While organizations will always need and seek funding for one-time projects, we acknowledge that the most significant priority for organizational funding is operational funding. We hear that from the community every year, and you can see that through the majority of our funds for organizations being directed through the Operating Program. This program will run through the summer with results in November, and the total budget is $600,000 and organizations may request up to $25,000.

And finally, the Future Focus Program is an iteration of the Organization Structural Change Program that we launched in 2021, which is funded in partnership with the Rozsa and the Calgary Foundations. The final intake is in February, which will expend the remainder of our allocated 2022 funds, which was $400,000. This program is not intended to support programming activities. The goal of the program is really to provide change capital to organizations who are seriously undertaking work that focuses on deep structural change, including lifecycle changes such as mergers, closures and long-term strategic partnerships.

The program prioritizes projects that explore and investigate organizations’ role within the ecosystem and strategic developments on new business models and how operational structures may shift into the future. After this final intake, the program will close briefly for evaluation, and based on those results, we will reassess and relaunch after Q2. This program has been undergoing long-term third-party evaluation which we began in 2020/2021, and I would recommend going to our publications page to learn more about this process and the ongoing case study about the ways in which funders might better support organizations looking to the future, or considering what significant change might be for their operations and what the role of the funder is in those challenging conversations.

In addition to these published programs, we are undertaking a number of other projects related to grant investment that I want to highlight. The first is, some of you might be familiar with the program called The Art Share Program, which is intended to support artists and organizations that self-identify as part of and serving equity-deserving communities or that experience barriers to access arts funding. This program has been operating as a staff-led proactive funding program, relational funding program, for the past years, and in 2023 we are excited to announce that it will be co-designed with our Staff Working Group on Equity and our Community Working Group, and relaunched as a public-facing program. So please stay tuned for more information on that process, and if you have any questions, please reach out to Allan.

Our partnership with the Trico Changemakers Studio and the Artist as Changemaker cohort continues into 2023. Alongside this program, we will be piloting a new Art for Social Change Grant Program. I have no information as of right now about what that will look like. We are just beginning our exploration process and research process on that, so please stay tuned for more information through the summer and fall.

We are excited to announce that we have partnered with the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts to pilot a set of carbon calculation and reporting tools that are developed specifically for arts and culture called Creative Green Tools. We’ll be releasing a call shortly for a pilot group of organizations to participate in this initiative. I would recommend going to the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts website to learn more about this initiative which developed out of the U.K., if you’re familiar with an organization called Jane’s Bicycle. We are the second organization in Canada to partner on these tools, the first being Calc in Quebec, yes, the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, and we’re just really excited to learn more about how the arts sector can be a part of conversations about climate justice, starting with really understanding what our contribution is to the conversation.

And finally, our program evaluation research and engagement work will continue in 2023 and beyond. The next phase of the New Experience Economy research led by Stone Olafson will be released in the coming months. Our Arts Professionals Survey will go out again this year and our Demographic Census Report will be released this year alongside a number of other shared initiatives that we’re really excited to be a part of that Patti spoke to earlier on.

So that was a lot. I’ll send it back to Patti and we will take questions at the end. But again, I really recommend reaching out to your program specialists who can share much more detail and provide much more support on these programs. Thank you so much.

Patti Pon:

Melissa, take a long drink of water. Thank you so much. As you can see, there has been very little downtime for the members of the Community Investment and Impact Team, along with the other members of Calgary Arts Development, but Melissa in particular, many, many thanks to you and the team for the great work that you’ve done in creating the detail. As Melissa said, all of this information is available on our website, calgaryartsdevelopment.com, and we’re happy to answer any questions that you may have.

We’ve got just shy of 20 minutes or so before the end of our time here. Thanks. If we can just have the link that Melissa just provided put into the chat for everybody, that would be awesome. Thanks, Maureen. So if you have questions again, please feel free to type them in the chat. Raise your hand or you can type them in the Q&A box. If you don’t have any questions, that’s totally fine too. I recognize there was a lot of information that we just downloaded on to you, and you may need some time to absorb or even wait until the recording comes back. The teams will be here waiting and happy to speak with you at any time at your convenience. And, you know, come on over to the office even and make an appointment with the team.

I hear you, brain overload, for sure. While we just take a breath and see if anyone has any questions that come to you, I’ll tell you a little bit more about public art. In March of 2021, Calgary Arts Development received the contract to lead the Public Art Program on behalf of the City of Calgary, and Brandy Dahrouge, Chelsea Boida, Heather Campbell, Helen Hu, Jaci Blackwood and team spent the year 2022 really wrapping our arms around the projects that were already underway in some form that we took on from the City of Calgary, worked to set up and hire a team, put some HR practices into place and policies, etc. related to public art specifically, and we’re now ready to engage with community. One of the big reasons why we put a bid forward to lead the program was because of the opportunity we feel there is to have a conversation broadly about the role of not only public art, but art generally in community, in the public realm, and invite artists, back to that keystone species in the ecosystem, well, that ecosystem covers the whole territory, not just the downtown or only one discipline. And so how might we use the voices of artists in this conversation with all Calgarians to talk about how art can impact our lives and contribute to all the things that we aspire for the communities and the cities that we all want to live in and be a part of?

And… where can you find the publication for the Future Focus Program? Melissa did you want to take that on or just address it specifically on the website?

Melissa Tuplin:

I’m just going to paste the link in the chat.

Patti Pon:

Thanks very much, Melissa. Melissa’s going to put the link, it’s on our website at calgaryartsdevelopment.com so you can find it there along with the publication about the ongoing evaluation of the program that’s been running concurrently with that.

In terms of networking events, that’s actually a really good question. And yes, and I think through the kind of engagement activity that we’re talking about, you heard Melissa speak to this conversation over the next long while, two years in terms of co-designing or looking at our granting programs, particularly the Operating Grant Program, will look to having all different types and ways of connecting. I think the one thing and maybe this is what prompted you, I don’t know Maria, about, networking is, you know, we’ve been apart, we’ve been isolated for three years. And so the events that I have had the great pleasure of being a part of have been really extraordinary to get to meet people and see people. So for those of you who were able to join us for our Holiday Open House back in December, it was so great to see all of you there and thank you so much for joining us. And so we will certainly be talking as a team looking to how we might contribute to facilitating those kinds of events.

And by the way, for others of you who maybe are part of organizations where you already do that, please be sure we know, because we can certainly also promote those kinds of events and activities through our YYC What’s On listings, through our newsletter, other ways that we speak with and communicate with the community.

Melissa?

Melissa Tuplin:

Yes, I am just responding to a couple of questions from Lexi. Lexi had questions that I saw. The first was a question about the breakdown of artistic disciplines within each of our programs. To date, we have not historically done ongoing tracking or published the data around artistic disciplines. However, our Research and Policy Manager Greg Burbidge and I are in conversation as a priority for this year about how we can share better data back to the community and be more transparent about things like that. One of the factors around collecting artistic discipline data over the years is that we actually haven’t done it in a very consistent way, which makes it challenging to measure year over year. In addition to needing to reach a critical mass of applicants in order to release data anonymously, we need to reach an aggregate amount that keeps it anonymous. But we are committed to finding better ways to share that with the community. And so I have made a note of your question and we’ll be looking to address that.

The second question that Lexi has was the involvement of Calgary Arts Development in Chinook Blast and how artists are included in that process. Patti, I wonder if you might address that.

Patti Pon:

Yeah, for sure. So there are four key partners in the blast: Calgary Arts Development, Calgary Economic Development, Tourism Calgary and the City of Calgary. In terms of the processes, I’m not, this might be a conversation that I’ll invite Lexi, if you want to have with Chinook Blast folks in particular. Franca Gualtieri is the executive director of Chinook Blast, and then we’ve engaged Bird Creatives to produce or production manage the festival. Keeping in mind that Chinook Blast is, the intention is that it is a platform that amplifies and accelerates and elevates projects that already are taking place. So examples are the Big music festival, the Ethnic Arts Festival during Black History Month, the High Performance Rodeo. Supplementing that is an invitation for other artists to take part and participate. And as we had last year, we did have the Friends of Chinook Blast granting program that was available for artists to apply to submit projects. Further, there were some other program experiences like the Asian Night Market, where the Asian Heritage Foundation is spearheading an Asian night market on February 3rd and 4th in the City Hall atrium, so the model is similar or the same as the last two years. But in terms of not as much artist participation, we have over 200 events and experiences scheduled. So it sounds to me like maybe there’s a more specific question that I can assist you in sort of putting in touch with the right person. And if you just want to, you can find my email address on the website or even go to the Chinook Blast website, there’s contact information there for folks and I’ll make sure to raise it at the next meeting that I’m a part of.

Melissa Tuplin:

Great. Thank you Patti. There was a question in the chat box about whether or not there are going to be tax workshops for artists. There are a number of activities that CARFAC Alberta offers that Nick had linked into the chat there, or the Q&A box, rather. But Sayonara Cunha, who is our community liaison, has reminded us that there is an upcoming financial management workshop for artists that is being offered in partnership with Momentum. I don’t believe it’s touching specifically on taxes, but that is a great opportunity that is coming up.

There was one question that I can answer very quickly. Yes, Micheline had asked if the Artist Development Microgrants for the final intake in December 2022 have been granted. Yes, that program did close. If you are curious about that process or have missed a notification, I’d recommend reaching out to grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com and they can provide more support on that.

And then there are a couple of questions here, Patti, about the additional opportunities with regard to the World Petroleum Congress, how people can submit applications or be part of committees to assist in that work.

Patti Pon:

Thanks. Thank you for the questions and I see them there. The World Petroleum Congress itself has its own separate steering committee, of which CADA is not a part. So we are working with the various committees that the World Petroleum Congress has already put in place and are identifying with them where there might be venues or other possibilities of programing that we can assist them with identifying and engaging. So once we’ve got that clarification and confirmation from the planning committees will be sure to share that out through our communication lines. So the best way to find out anything we know is through subscribing to our weekly newsletter. And you can., there’s a link that you can sign up for through the website and any information that we have will certainly share with the community broadly.

Melissa Tuplin:

Thank you, Patti. There’s a question here from Rebecca about funding applications and the amount of information that will be required. The full comment is in the webinar chat. Absolutely Rebecca. The amount of information and the length of grant applications has been top of mind for my team over the past few years in thinking about what information we’re requesting and why and how much information an assessment committee needs to effectively understand to have all of their questions answered, all of that. And you can imagine it’s a very fine tightrope to walk, but it is something that we are really conscious about. Because as you said, most organizations do not have dedicated grant writing staff. Many organizations that we fund are run entirely by volunteer boards or by committees or by part time staff. And as I referenced earlier in this session, we’re really conscious of the toll that the past years have taken on arts workers and artists in the community and that many, many of us are facing burnout conditions and we don’t want to contribute to that. And that’s something that Patti and I have talked about a lot. And so as we’re developing, in particular, the new Operating Grant Intake Program, we will be thinking about the volume of information that we are requesting. One change that we have made for our Operating Grant Program for our current clients is that we are allowing clients to submit information that they have submitted to other funders in place of creating a bespoke response specifically for Calgary Arts Development. So for example, a report that was submitted to another funder for operational funding, and that’s something that we’re going to be looking at piloting for our other programs as well, as long as it allows applicants and assessors to really understand the response to specific criteria. So we’re conscious of it and we are we are working on that.

Yes, Judy, if you, if an organization or an artist has received other types of funding, in many cases, you are still eligible to apply for our grant programs. The distinction is that you cannot receive more than one Calgary Arts Development grant for the same project. So you can’t double dip funding from Calgary Arts Development on the same project or project activities, that is our limit. And if you are currently holding more than four open grants, so for example, you received a grant in 2021 and 2022 and you have more than four, we do ask that you complete work before receiving further funding from us, and that is just so that we can ensure that funding is getting out into the community as quickly and efficiently as possible. But if you do have questions about your eligibility, please reach out to the program specialists.

Areum has a really great question that is about how the presentation-based assessment process for the one-time operating grant increase, and how that went last year. We, as you know, did a survey of our clients and their responses to that process, and actually overwhelmingly received pretty positive feedback from clients on that experience. We’re working right now on putting together a fieldnote or a blog post on what we learned so that we can share that information back to the community. We are also undertaking some deeper research with natural language processing on applications, assessment notes and reports for the Operating Grant Program and are looking at sharing some of those themes of what we’ve heard as part of our engagement process for re-imagining and co-designing, the Operating Grant Program with the community for 2025. The reason that we didn’t introduce it again this year for the full operating program, and I think I referenced this, is we didn’t feel we had enough time to really put a good plan together for that because it’s both a reporting and an application year that sets grant amounts for two years. But we are really interested in learning more from the community about if that is a process that is beneficial, supportive and meaningful. What I think we did discover from that is you learn much more about the heart of an organization through a verbal presentation, as well as it creates room to see each other as humans in this work. I know many of you who have been in the granting system and have participated in application and assessment processes know how cold it can feel. And so part of part of our thinking for the upcoming couple of years is going to be about reintroducing that and I’d love to hear if you have any other thoughts that you want to share on that process. I really, really welcome that.

We are at 4:59. I know we started about 10 minutes late and so we are happy to address any other questions. I think that I caught everything. Otherwise we’ll let everybody go. And yeah, it’s just been nice to share virtual space.

Patti Pon:

Thank you, Melissa. Many thanks to the team here at CADA, who helped us set up this town hall. As I mentioned at the beginning of our time together, we will look for a time to have everybody down to our new space here in the Edison, regardless, in the meantime, we love hearing from you, we’re always happy to answer questions and have great conversations with the community. This is a time, and I hope that it’s been reflected in the thoughtfulness around the grant investment programs and in our work around the strategic framework, we need artists more than ever in a time, when the forces that be appear to be pulling us apart, trying to find why we’re not together, why we shouldn’t belong and be a part of the circle, artists help us do that.

Art equals belonging. We know that. We have heard it over and over again from community, including Calgarians — 92 per cent of Calgarians engaged with the arts over the pandemic, and even before. We need artists to help us tell our story, to help us understand, to have empathy, to be generous, to be kind to each other in what are going to be some very turbulent times in the next 10 years. It’s been a hard three years, I know, it’s going to continue to be a challenging time going forward. So many, many thanks to all of you for spending time with us today.

The recordings will be made available as soon as we can get the editing and all that other magic technical stuff, I know nothing about. And I look forward to seeing you at the next events that will be in-person. Take in an art show this weekend why don’t ya? Take care everybody.

The transcript from the Virtual Town Hall chat on Zoom includes unedited public messages that were sent to everyone and to the hosts and panelists:

15:43:41 From Sandra Vida to Hosts and Panelists: Hi there!  Lots of folks joining it seems!

15:43:45 From Alicia White (she/her) – PCH: Patti – is that your new digs?

15:43:59 From Sandra Vida to Hosts and Panelists: Wow looks nice!

15:44:17 From Silvia Temis: how do I know my mic is off?

15:44:39 From Maureen McNamee: Your mic has been turned off by the host for now.

15:45:15 From Silvia Temis: excellent

15:45:18 From Silvia Temis: thank you

15:46:52 From Maureen McNamee: You’re welcome!

15:49:11 From Lia Pereira to Hosts and Panelists: Thank you for having us! 🙂 Happy to see you all again

15:49:28 From Maureen McNamee: We will be using the Q&A function for questions today. You will see this option in the bar along the bottom of your Zoom screen.

15:50:05 From CADA Town Hall: Hi everyone!

15:50:12 From Maureen McNamee: If you’re experiencing any problems, let us know in the chat!

15:58:43 From Helen MP: Group agreements https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dl-nu5WL7CGs8IydB-N0ZssWuVlVXKOoxE1NL8U2SeE/edit

15:59:11 From Helen MP: https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/strategic-framework-2023-2026/

16:01:41 From Maureen McNamee: We are going to restart the screen share, it will go away and come back again.

16:02:51 From Barry Morrisette: Kinikanic

16:09:11 From Brenda Lieberman to Hosts and Panelists: Sorry, when did you say the conference is?

16:09:36 From Helen MP: World Petroleum Conference is in September

16:10:26 From Lisa Collins: can barely hear you

16:10:43 From Taylor Poitras: I can hear you really well on my end

16:10:43 From Allara Gooliaff: REally? I’m not haveing any issues.

16:10:45 From Bethel Afework to Hosts and Panelists: It’s good an my end!

16:10:49 From Kriss Janik: Audio is fine on my end.

16:10:50 From Helen MP: Should be World Petroleum Congress, not Conference

16:10:51 From Peita Luti: I can hear you clearly

16:10:53 From Sayonara Cunha to Hosts and Panelists: I can hear you too Melissa

16:11:07 From Lisa Collins: thanks much better

16:40:01 From Bethel Afework: Centre for Sustainable Practice?

16:40:13 From Bethel Afework: Thank you!

16:40:32 From Brenda Lieberman to Hosts and Panelists: I have to sign off as CUFF has an event tonight, and need to go set up, but thank you!  If you are sending materials or recordings out afterwards, that’s great. Thanks again.

16:40:34 From Allara Gooliaff: Thank you for this leadership on Climate Action.

16:40:53 From Maureen McNamee: https://www.sustainablepractice.org/

16:41:58 From Maureen McNamee: Yes, a recording of this town hall will be posted on the website within the next two weeks.

16:42:11 From Maureen McNamee: https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/programs/

16:42:19 From Lesia Bear to Hosts and Panelists: Meegwetch

16:42:49 From Lesia Bear to Hosts and Panelists: Brain overload. Love it. Thank you.

16:44:10 From Lexie Angelo to Hosts and Panelists: what’s been the overall breakdown of disciplines that have been getting funding over the past two years? any shifts to other disciplines like literary arts, versus performance/dance/music?

16:44:23 From Janira Moncayo to Hosts and Panelists: Where can you find the publication for the future focus program?

16:45:03 From Maria Loaiza: Are there any networking events planned for this year?

16:45:19 From Lexie Angelo: What’s been the involvement of CAD in Chinook Blast? That event seems to have changed alot in terms of artists who are allowed to participate.

16:45:55 From Melissa Tuplin (CADA she/her): https://www.blveconsults.com/calgary-arts-live-case-study

16:45:55 From Maureen McNamee: https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/program_updates/future-focus-granting-program-february-intake/

16:46:14 From Melissa Tuplin (CADA she/her): https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/programs/organization-structural-change-grant/

16:47:46 From Maria Loaiza: Great to hear about connecting! Thank you.

16:48:27 From Sandra Neill to Hosts and Panelists: Can you tell us more about the additional opportunities (re: the Petroleum conference you mentioned in the beginning) and when those will be rolling out (deadlines)?

16:48:34 From Micheline Maylor-Kovitz to Hosts and Panelists: Have the micro grants ((Dec intake) been granted?

16:49:08 From Micheline Maylor-Kovitz to Hosts and Panelists: Also, thank you. You’re all amazing and your dedication to the arts is so valued and appreciated.

16:51:22 From Melissa Tuplin (CADA she/her): https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com/announcements/save-the-date-free-financial-management-workshop-for-artists/

16:52:12 From Rebecca O’Brien: I am curious about how onerous funding applications through CAD will be and what the supports will be? I ask this because I just spent 2 full weeks on an NRED (provincial ) application for a mural project. Many non profits (like BIAs) have 1-2 staff that cover huge territory. We just don’t have the time to commit to full time grant applications especially if we are working in silos.

16:53:00 From Savanna Harvey: Hey everyone, please use the Q&A function to ask your questions – not this Chat. We might miss a question if it’s posted in Chat because we can’t track them here. Thank you!

16:53:27 From Savanna Harvey: The Q&A Box is at the bottom of your screen <3

16:53:32 From Lexie Angelo: Rebecca, I can speak from experience – submit your draft for feedback from CAD staff. They are one of the only funding groups that give feedback to help you get your best chance of funding. I find the first time can be hard, but it gets easier over time. CAD is truly one of the best allies for artists.

16:55:1 From Judy Eng-Hum to Hosts and Panelists: If you received a project grant can an org still qualify for future focus grant program or who qualifies for the operating grant

17:00:02 From Judy Eng-Hum to Hosts and Panelists: Thank you for the info and presentation

17:00:04 From GRAND KOMANDA: Nice meeting everyone.

17:00:06 From Kriss Janik: Thank you all!

17:00:06 From Allara Gooliaff: Thank you for your time and thoughtfulness!

17:00:13 From Joe Slabe: Thanks everyone!

17:00:14 From Lisa Buck to Hosts and Panelists: Thank you for an excellent presentation.

17:00:16 From Keri Mitchell to Hosts and Panelists: Thanks, CADA! 🙂

17:00:23 From Laura O’Grady: Thank you everyone!

17:00:24 From Dick Averns: Thanks CADA for a great presentation!

17:00:25 From Karen Driedger to Hosts and Panelists: Thanks

17:00:29 From colleen to Hosts and Panelists: Thank you everyone

17:00:32 From Lesia Bear to Hosts and Panelists: Thank you for all your information.  I can’t thank you ENOUGH

17:00:38 From GRAND KOMANDA: It’s my first time here and it’s been amazing connecting.

17:00:49 From Leo Cripps to Hosts and Panelists: Thanks for sharing and enlightening us.

17:00:55 From Grace Lu: Thanks so much for this townhall 🙂

17:00:59 From Mike Lohaus: Thank you for your time! Looking forward to reconnecting with everyone at CADA and seeing the new space 🙂

17:01:03 From Alana Bartol to Hosts and Panelists: Thank you CADA!

17:01:14 From Alane Smith: thanks for all the work that you do to support the arts and artists in Calgary

17:01:15 From Ken Goosen: Thanks CADA for bringing us all together and for sharing the plans for going forward. Brava!

17:01:20 From Sarah Slaughter: THANK YOU for all of your work and care, Team. Beautiful organization and collective goals. ♥️

17:01:31 From Melissa Tuplin (CADA she/her): You can contact me at melissa.tuplin@calgaryartsdevelopment.com, and my team at grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com and impact@calgaryartsdevelopment.com

17:01:36 From Areum Kim to Hosts and Panelists: Thank you for the town hall and sharing!

17:01:37 From GRAND KOMANDA: Look forward to visiting the CADA office and connecting in-person

17:01:43 From Maureen McNamee: We will post the recording and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date!

17:01:43 From Leslie Forward: Thank you!

17:01:49 From Maria Loaiza: thank yo!!!

17:01:51 From Stacey Perlin: Thank you so much!

17:01:52 From Maria Loaiza: you