Community Working Group
Calgary Arts Development is situated on Treaty 7 Territory, home of the Kainai, Piikani, Siksika, Tsuut’ina, Stoney-Nakoda Nations, and Métis Nation Region 3.
Calgary Arts Development is Calgary’s designated arts development authority. We provide grant investments to hundreds of arts organizations, individual artists, and groups. We value relationships, generosity, reciprocity, plain language, and curiosity.
We believe the arts have the power to build our city. Through the arts development strategy, Living a Creative Life, our vision is a creative, connected, prosperous Calgary where every resident has the opportunity to live a creative life. We foster a sustainable and resilient arts sector, and support arts-led city building.
Community Working Group on
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
Nominations Open: August 5, 2020
Nomination Deadline: August 14, 2020, 4:30pm MDT
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Background
As an organization, Calgary Arts Development has committed ourselves to bettering our work and our systems regarding equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA). To put movement on this intention we are doing the following steps:
- Hosting conversations and co-learning with members of the arts sector through town halls and other ways to discuss issues around the deep-seated racism that exists within our communities and systems, and how we can further develop anti-racist policies and practices governing our work.
- Establishing and working with a working group composed of members of our communities to help ground Calgary Arts Development’s work, structures, and strategies on EDIA and the realities of pursuing this in the context of Calgary.
Purpose
The community working group will work separately and together with Calgary Arts Development’s leadership and internal EDIA working group to help ground the organization’s work on the principles, values, and strategies of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
This includes helping co-design Calgary Arts Development’s EDIA procedures, policies, statements, granting requirements, and other various EDIA needs determined by the leadership and staff.
Composition
The group will be composed of up to 12 individuals. They are people who are practicing artists or arts workers (including organizational directors and or administration) and who are also deeply involved in social justice, change making, or equity organizing within their own communities.
Calgary Arts Development recognizes that EDIA work has been ongoing in the community and the working group can be an important step and opportunity to connect this work with our own institutional commitment to EDIA.
Establishing the Working Group
Calgary Arts Development will appoint members of the working group through a community nomination process. Artists and arts workers can be nominated by arts organizations and non-profit organizations, where an important part of their work involves using the arts and engaging artists to address social issues*. Artists and arts workers can also self-nominate.
*Examples of organizations who work with artists on social issues:
- Disability Action Hall
- ActionDignity
- Calgary Women’s Centre
- Basic Income Calgary
- CommunityWise/Anti-Racism Organizational Change
- Act2endracism
To nominate, fill out the appropriate form below or send a nomination letter to Calgary Arts Development at edia@calgaryartsdevelopment.com with the following information:
A Nomination from an Organization
- Name of the person they are nominating and the nominee’s connection to the organization.
- Brief background of the nominee that describes the person’s current and past work related to EDIA, social justice, community organizing or any related work.
- One (or more) important reason(s) why the person is being nominated.
- Attestation that the person has agreed to be nominated.
- Description of how the nominating organization can connect to or support the work of the working group (e.g. if the nominee is a staff of the organization, will the person’s participation in the working group be on paid time?).
- Your contact information and the best way to contact the nominee.
Self-Nominations
- Your name and background in the arts sector.
- Description of your current and past work related to EDIA, social justice, community organizing or any related work.
- One (or more) reasons why you want to be part of the working group.
- Your contact information.
Nominations will be reviewed by Calgary Arts Development (staff and leadership). Appointments will be made that reflect representation from a wide variety of communities and to ensure the group includes the necessary experiences and skills to meet the current EDIA needs of Calgary Arts Development.
The Cultural Instigators initiative, which includes organizing the Citizen Artists YYC, is doing parallel work in building community capacity for EDIA. This is a supported initiative but Calgary Arts Development is not leading it. To connect these two initiatives, two members of the Cultural Instigators group will be part of Calgary Arts Development’s community working group on equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
Nomination Forms
Time Commitment and Compensation
We anticipate that the working group will engage with Calgary Arts Development on short-term and medium-term work. Thus, Calgary Arts Development will be asking for a one-year commitment of about 10 to 12 hours per month. Working group members will be paid $500 a month if not employed by an organization willing to support this work.
Nomination Deadline
Nominations will be accepted until 4:30pm MDT on August 14, 2020 and the cohort will be announced on August 31, 2020. Contact edia@calgaryartsdevelopment.com with any questions.
