Watch our Report to Community on 2024

Watch our Report to Community on 2024

If you missed our in-person Report to Community event on June 19, 2025 at DJD Dance Centre, you can now view the presentation online. Watch the video to hear our President & CEO Patti Pon talk about our arts activities in 2024 and what’s needed next.

Each year, at least 75 per cent of our grant from The City is distributed into the community through our grant investment programs. In 2023, a total of $14.4 million was invested through 663 grants to organizations, individual artists and arts collectives, and total participation in arts activities produced by grantees was up 11 per cent to $4.96 million.

Read what we’ve learned about artists and arts organizations during 2024, and how we continue to support and champion the arts sector, in our 2024 Accountability + Impact Report at artsaction.ca.

You will also find other research and reports referred to in the presentation here.

Read the transcript of this year’s Report to Community below:

Patti Pon: All right. Thank you all, thank you, Sable and Kevin, for starting us off in a good way. I’m always so appreciative of that moment, because it is about learning and furthering our own journeys of truth and reconciliation, and it also lets us just kind of take a breath and be in space together. Of the many lessons that I’ve learned on my own journey of truth and reconciliation, the one that always sits with me the most is that whenever we are in a space, we are in circle, and everybody who is here is meant to be here. And so I’m just so grateful to all of you for joining us today. And I do want to acknowledge Cowboy Smith, who created our land acknowledgment, for coming in and joining the circle today and spending some time with us. For me personally, it’s been a while. For those of you who may not know, I had the opportunity to take a bit of a sabbatical, a residency, I was in Toronto March, April and May, in residence at OCAD University at the Cultural Policy Hub as Policy Fellow. And while the work was certainly work adjacent to what we do here at Calgary Arts Development, as we all know, being in a different space, different people having conversations and a variety of different contexts, is a really good thing. And again, I really felt like I was part of a great circle in that moment, and in the days and months ahead I’ll be looking for ways to share and include the community in.

The one thing for sure I wanted to make sure all of you knew and heard from me about, was Calgary and Calgary’s arts community are very much on the national radar. People are watching. People are paying attention. The kinds of activities and programs and ways in which we are in relationship with each other and with our fellow Calgarians and sister Calgarians, is unique. There’s something here that’s happening, and I get the great fortune of being one of the champions who has platforms and podiums and panels that I can speak from, and without fail I had people come to me and say, I want to come to Calgary. I want to see what you’re doing. And so I offer that to you to just, I want you to know you’re just really doing the work, and you’re fighting the fight and you’re keeping on, and I know there are those days where it is really hard. And I hope that today, and as we all move forward in our journey together, we’ll be able to keep continuing to encourage each other on that path and be an example to the rest of the country and in some instances, the rest of the world, for all that we are doing to ensure that the arts and culture are very present and very much a part of who we are as Calgary, as Alberta, and as Canada, and artists will lead the way in this.

So, you know, everyone’s, the first 18 days I was in Toronto, and we’re going to go so over an hour, Helen, I’m sorry. Buckle up, settle in folks. I hope you’ve got water with you. The first 18 days I was there Doug Ford’s government was elected by a landslide. Donald Trump, first day of his first round of tariffs. We had a liberal leadership election. Then there was a federal election announced. Then “elbows up,” and Canada sovereignty, and there was zero conversation about Alberta separatism. Zero. As a matter of fact, Quebec separatists were saying I’m willing to set aside my views in order to put Canada first. 18 days. All of that happened. And through all of it, I was like, artists have got to be at the front of that. They have to be at the front of that bus. This cannot only be about trade sovereignty. I was reminded people live, they don’t live in an economy, they live in a society. So if all we do is work towards a better economy and we do need one, by the way. If all we do is that and people are living better, affordability is at a better rate, we’re finding homes for folks who need it and good jobs and good pay, and then what? And if we’re not working absolutely in parallel from a cultural sovereignty, a society perspective, then all of that good economy stuff is for naught. What are you going to spend the money on? How are you going to gather and celebrate your good fortune? How are you going to be in space together and share messages and feel connected to one another? That’s artists. That’s those of you who are leading arts organizations and institutions. That’s cultural workers. That’s craftspeople. We are the storytellers. We are the meaning makers. We are the sense makers. You know, elbows up — an artist made that t-shirt and oh, by the way, it was an artist who promoted it on TV. Was it going to mean anything if some random CEO from one of the towers in Toronto had that t-shirt on and said elbows up? No. You are it. You are the ones. And so I really encourage you to, to keep on keepin’ on because we really need you right now. We need your voice, we need your vision, we need your courage.

And so, on that note, we’re going to talk a little bit about 2024 and all the good things, and some of the challenging things, that we discovered, through the work that we get to do with all of you. And then we’re going to have our Poet Laureate, Shone Thistle share some incredible words with us, and we’re going to have some Q&A, and then we’re gonna have an opportunity to catch up, and you can all let me know what’s been happening in the last four months while I was away.

So, there so, that’s what we’re going to do. So, think about any of the questions that you might have. The team is all here in it’s glory, so, we’ll do our best to answer any questions that you might have.

The slide you see here is just a very small variety and sample of arts experiences that were available for Calgarians to Calgarians with Calgarians by organizations that received grant investments from us. We do our best to ensure that our programs are able to reach to and respond to as wide a variety and diversity of organizations who are guided by equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. And most Calgarians, even those who are not highly engaged with the arts, value the role of the arts and creating a vibrant city and then making Calgary a better and more beautiful place to live. 86% of Calgarians actually reported that in our last citizen engagement survey, 2023/24. 23? Recently, recently, 24, because it’s in our annual report.

Measures, because we always like to measure, we always like to report to our stakeholders. We granted $14.9 million into the arts sector through 659 grants. You can see how that investment spreads out into the community, supporting more than 41,000 arts experiences that had a total participation of over 5.3 million. That’s a, when we share that with people across the country, they cannot believe it. And it’s like Greg and our team, Stephanie and the team, they scrub these numbers, so this isn’t like, you know, of which 2 million are people watching the Stampede parade because some group that we supported was marching in the parade. It’s not that. These are 5.3 million and a city of 1.4, 1.5 million? So that’s pretty great.

This slide and the next, you’ll see the list of our programs. And so the various ways that we take that $14.9 million and spread it out over a variety of programs from our very largest, the operating grant program, to the remaining, including the Project Grants for arts organizations and individual artists, the Future Focus program, which is being replicated in other jurisdictions, Toronto and I understand Winnipeg, that was a made in Calgary program that we started here, as well as, grants with specific focus on equity deserving artists as in the Original People’s Investment Program. And then, of course, we have Art Share, grant investment programs that promote cultural activation and tourism, like the Cultural Activation Fund and grants supporting art for social change like the Changemaker grants.

So as I said earlier, us really trying to find as wide array as possible of how we might invest the City, our dollars, public dollars, on behalf of citizens, to respond to a whole variety of interests that Calgarians might have. You know, it isn’t like everybody likes everything, everybody likes some things, and everybody doesn’t like some other things. And so it isn’t about any one program or any one project, it’s about looking at it on balance, on its whole. Are we providing an array of, or supporting an array of organizations and artistic activity and cultural activity that is about and for and with Calgarians? And I think these numbers show us that we are.

The arts contribute to…

Helen Moore-Parkhouse: The one, one up, go one more.

Patti: Thank you. Probably supposed to watch that. The arts contribute to a more vibrant downtown and enliven neighbourhoods in every ward of the city. There’s a chart that you’ll see later on that shows where people come from to experience the arts, and it is truly every ward of the city where in various parts of the city arts events that we are supporting take place. Every ward in the city. So, this isn’t just about downtown or just about the west side or the south side. It is everywhere.

And there you go. The arts provide jobs and generate revenue as part of the creative economy, which is the fastest growing economy in the world, continues to be. Total number of artists hired in 2024 was over 13,400, and the total number of full-time equivalent arts workers was 736. Arts organizations that we invested in had an accumulated revenue of over $159 million, and a direct economic output of almost $162 million.

So remember when I said we don’t live in an economy, we live in a society, it is not either or. The arts contribute to our economic well-being in meaningful ways. And so this whole question of nice to have, and need to have, all that kind of stuff. My invitation to you, if anyone asks you about that is the train has left the station on that one. If these kinds of images and numbers and stats, over time, by the way, because we’ve been monitoring this now for, I think almost ten years, is consistently, even through downtimes like COVID. So to say we’re not pulling our weight to say that, oh well, you get it special because you get grants, you get all these other things. Okay, go find somewhere else to generate economic output of $162 million, with an initial input of $14 (million). Go find somewhere else that provides 41,744 experiences for 5.3 million people, many of which were free or accessible events.

These are more economic impact numbers, diversity numbers, that I just mentioned. So which means that’s probably a slide behind, thank you very much. So they shouldn’t leave the clicker to me.

Access to the arts. We talked about 41,000 events. Of those, 7974 were for youth with an attendance of over 211,000 young people. Those artists and organizations, and I know many of you are in the room today, thank you for programing for youth who often hear stories about how arts experience, oh my goodness, boy, did I mix up this sentence. Those artists and organizations who do programming for youth often hear stories about how arts experiences contribute to learning, to confidence, to teamwork, to understanding and to generating a sense of belonging.

Artists, as I’ve said, are our storytellers and our meaning makers. The arts shape our identity for our city, which is the third most diverse city, major city, in Canada. And, I’m guessing, within ten years, probably on the earlier than ten-year side, we will be over 50% visible minority. Our arts ecosystem includes stories and arts experiences that are as varied as the people who live here. We need to pay attention to who is living in Calgary and who is coming to Calgary, which is why our work is guided by the values of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. And I would invite us all to consider we still have a ways to go. How many of our senior executive offices in the nonprofit or the for profit in Calgary look like Calgary in a representational way? When you’re hiring, how many people of visible minority or invisible minority for that matter, apply for your jobs? Why don’t they, if they don’t? And what are you doing well that you might share with others if they are applying? A question I’ve asked every year for many, many years now of the community, what do your offices look like? What are your stages look like? What are the books or the magazines or the materials that you publish? Who are they by? That’s how we make a difference here. And it isn’t right to leave it on the burden of those who are the minority to continue to have to carry that burden. And so it’s why we have those specific programs that we have.

Was I on the right slide?

I skipped to the articles. Art Equals Belonging is supposed to be somewhere here, right? Yeah. I’m just going to talk about art equals belonging anyway, because I can. Because I can. And so there’s a slide here that says Art Equals Belonging, and it’ll probably come up somewhere in the rotation.

As I said, we need artists now more than ever. Our artists, the arts respond to our times as the world becomes more fractured and polarized. Art is one place we can help close the gap and help people discover their own way of meaning making and sense making. You know, we celebrated Sable and a number of other people in our team work in a variety of capacities, both as arts workers as well as artists in their own right, particularly in the public art program that you’ll hear about, all of the work that I’ve seen is so resonant to our time. Sable’s play is so resonant to our time, and that’s an artist’s voice, and Sable’s been working on that play for years, by the way. So not only is it resonant today, it was resonant back then when she first put the first word to paper. And so there’s a longevity and there’s a, there’s a runway of meaning and sense making. That’s what the arts do. That’s how the arts can help us feel more connected and less lonely. And, you know, goodness knows, I think we need to feel less lonely in this moment, which is, which is what makes total sense to me, then, 41,000 events and 5.3 million attendees.

This slide is going to stay, and I’m going to talk now about the creative economy, the fastest growing economy in the world. Supporting initiatives like Rise Up and Chinook Blast in partnership with other city builders and civic partners like Tourism Calgary, Calgary Economic Development, the City of Calgary and the Calgary Hotel Association, we help support opportunities for Calgarians to experience events that range from small pop-up performances to large scale spectacle events like Chinook Blast that once again drew hundreds of thousands of people downtown. Additionally, in 2024, we launched a new brand for our city, the Blue Sky City, and one of the first ad campaigns that came out that we had the opportunity to collaborate on with Tourism Calgary was Blue Sky art, Blue Sky artists, and they featured local artists inside this series of ad campaigns, and Tourism Calgary and the ad agency who led that effort won an international advertising award for it, again, featuring artists from here. And so that’s the kind of lift that you are helping to create for our city.

Cultural spaces Infrastructure projects. So now we’re going to kind of jump into some of the more specific initiatives in ‘24 that revolved around some of the issues and items that the community raised, and spaces is always one that we talk about. This report was commissioned in 2024 and has just been published, last week, and findings included that there’s been landmark investment into anchor institution cultural spaces for the past 20 years, and we’re just now beginning, while we’ve seen the opening of the National Music Centre and the Public Central Library, we’re going to see Glenbow come onstream, the Werklund Centre, there is a huge concentration of arts infrastructure in the downtown that is really starting to, again, reassert arts and culture as part of the identity of Calgary.

There is ongoing unmet demand for small- to mid-size organizations and individual artists. And since 2016, Calgary has lost 212 cultural spaces, and many more are at risk. Our operating expenses for facilities are increasing due to inflation, like I’m telling you things that you all know, whether it’s that you have your own spaces you’re trying to keep afloat, or whether you’re always seeking space. The report by AEA Consulting recommends we support and leverage existing events or, sorry, investments in the ecosystem of both cultural consumption and production spaces across Calgary, and enable effective leadership, resources and partnerships in the development and operations of Calgary’s next generation of cultural facilities, and part of the work into cSPACE and the various projects and initiatives that they’re undertaking is all included and enveloped in that. cSPACE has recently signed an MOU with the City to explore the possibilities of an arts campus for Firehall No.1 and the Northwest Travelers Building. So again, another magnet in the downtown.

Oh, look, there’s Arts Equals Belonging. Note to self, check my notes for tomorrow, I get to do this again at City Council. So we talked about this, but I’ll let you see the image. Harmony the musical is a brand new, company, who, okay, who was, who produced this project, and it was just extraordinary. It was at the Bella Concert Hall, first time out, and again, when you see community come together and tell a story of people who look like them, who look like me, it has an incredible impact on folks.

All right, so with that, I’m going to stop talking because I knew this was going to take time and I was like, oh, I can’t stand up there, it’ll hurt people so bad, that I wanted you to also get to hear from the incredible members of our team who are also contributing along with those that that you won’t hear from today, necessarily, but I hope you’ll have a chance to speak with in the lobby later.

Kirsten Schrader is the Director of Public Art for us, and I’m going to invite Kirsten up to say a bit about public art.

Kirsten Schrader: Hi everybody. I’m going to raise this up a bit. As Patti said, I’m Kirsten Schrader, I’m the new Director of Public Art, probably new to all of you because I’m new to Calgary. I moved here about a year and a half ago from BC, I’m excited to be here, it’s a very thrilling organization to be a part of, and please do come introduce yourself to me if you want afterwards, I’d like to meet you.

Okay. I was hired last September, and in addition to our full-time team of five public art staff, we added ten project leads in 2024 and nine more in 2025 so far. We are committed to delivering a public art program that is engaging, relevant and accountable by creating new public art opportunities that reflect the diversity of our city and promote community development and belonging.

A priority for us is to work with communities that have historically been underserved as part of our pledge to Indigenous reconciliation, racial equity, disability justice and gender and sexual diversity. Through partnerships with each of the Treaty 7 Nations and Métis Nation Districts 5 and 6, we aim to tell the past, current and future stories of Mohkinsstsis.

The City has allocated funding for each of the Treaty 7 Nations and the Métis Nation of Alberta. Engagement for these projects is beginning, and CADA is working to ensure that the public art projects are guided by the needs of the Nations and stewarded by Indigenous project leads, some of whom are here today.

On this slide behind me here, you see one of the art busses, a public art project that commissions local artists to use Calgary city busses as their canvas. There were seven art busses last year, and we just launched, was it last week, seven new designs on 14 busses this year. They are fun because they’re like traveling art shows that go to every corner of the city.

Calgary Arts Development is focused on developing public art projects that can reach and engage communities in every ward, like Patti said, like the art busses I just spoke about. We have a large portfolio of over 40 public art projects on the go and are launching several more in the coming months. As many of these are capital projects, they’re scheduled over multiple years, so you’ll see year after year, we’ll have more photos to show you.

Our public art programs span a wide range, from activating the existing Civic Art Collection, such as the digital billboard project you might have seen, to commissioning new artworks such as the image on the slide behind me, which is Jarett Sitter’sthree mural panels in Chinatown called The Bison and the Dragon: Untold Tales.

We also offer educational opportunities for the public, including in elementary schools with our City Hall Schools Program. We are deeply committed to supporting artist development through robust programs such as mentorships and artist residencies to help artists grow, experiment and thrive in their practice. There’s so much more I could tell you about public art, but in the interest of time, I’ll leave it at that and invite you to check out our website.

Thank you.

Patti: Thanks very much, Kirsten. And again, do take her up on her offer of… I’m really glad it doesn’t say something bad. Whatever. Okay. So.

Again, I’m sorry, like, it’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to be with all of you. So now I’m just completely rambling but, Reconnecting to the Bow, I love that this is on this slide right now. We made these slides, I don’t know how many weeks ago, and then of course, today there’s a news item, we shouldn’t spend money on people going to listen to the Bow, and that project was a public art project, temporary, $65,000 out of $15.5 million that we spent. And what I said was, you know, again, we don’t invest in projects that where we have to say it has to be good for everybody, everybody has to like it. And what we invite you to do is think about the investment on balance. $15.5 million or, at, because I’m looking at the public art program in addition to the other investments and sponsorships, and $65,000 was to give people a chance to be reminded of the importance of water to not only Calgary, most especially Calgary, but to the world. And as we’re looking at these wildfires, as we’re thinking about First Nations reserves that still in 2025 don’t have access to clean water, I think it’s a pretty good investment if 4400 people took the time to call the number and hear what the beautiful Bow sounds like. I don’t see anything wrong with that, and I think it’s a wonderful way to invest public dollars for the public good and public benefit of learning how lucky we are to have water.

Well, and again, right, that was two artists who came up with that project. Wasn’t me. I just get to respond to it. But it’s artists who create that catalyst, right? That’s what you do. It’s really special. So rah-rah, Patti’s your cheerleader, I’m your champion, I will go to the, I will go to the mat, I will fight for you, and I will convince others. Nevertheless, I don’t forget the challenges and the conditions in which all of you are creating and making and sharing and expressing in. And what we learned in 2024 was that in spite of it all, the impact, the value of our grant investments, growing the overall state of the sector remains a concern. The gap between revenues and expenses is growing, 42% of annual operating grantees reporting deficits in both 2024 and 2023. Inflation and affordability have created a precarious and volatile financial environment. While the total amount of corporate and private funding has returned back to pre-pandemic amounts, the median funding amount has dropped, so people are given, but they’re not getting as much.

With more dollars going to fewer organizations, competitiveness and changing philanthropic priorities have made it increasingly difficult to diversify revenue streams. While the total audience numbers have increased from 2023, and you’ll hear more about that in a moment, how, when, and why audiences attend has shifted, making the predictability of budgeting for earned revenue more difficult. Federal and provincial grant funding has remained generally stagnant for operational grants and is losing ground to inflation. Organizations who own or operate facilities are significantly more likely to be at high financial risk, with many spending an average of 40% of their annual budget on facility operating costs alone.

So you’re doing all this great work. We managed to increase investments marginally, but these challenges still remain, and these challenges still remain, I fear, for the long haul. This is the long game. This is likely the next ten years. And so how do we work as a community to think about those different ways where we can continue to be the inspiration and have the impact that we do as a community for the benefit of our citizens and city broadly, knowing that we face these challenges.

And so, this is our current strategic framework. It’s inspired by a Treaty 7 World Indigenous view, folks like Kevin Littlelight were part of the creation of it. Our work over the current four-year plan focuses on purpose, people, community and resources. We are taking an ecosystem approach, recognizing the arts sector is a complex system that includes everything from individual artists to small and large organizations, venues, events, arts, education and many inputs and outputs at multiple scales.

Our work is guided by the values, as I said, of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility, and support City Council strategic priorities, particularly those related to economic resilience and social resilience. Also, though, climate resilience, as we explore ways to measure and help curtail the carbon footprints of various players in the arts ecosystem through the Creative Green Tools Program and other initiatives that we’re exploring through public art, like I just talked about Reconnecting with the Bow.

So, those two slides in particular, I want you to know we’re sharing with City Council tomorrow. So while we will celebrate the community and all that you have done in 2024 with, we hope, some help from us. It is a challenging road ahead and now is not the time to take their foot off the gas of supporting arts and culture in Calgary. As a matter of fact, we need to push down on the gas. As I said before, we have the Werklund Centre, we have the Glenbow coming on stream, we already have major cultural institutions, Firehall, Contemporary Calgary is looking at doing something, the National accessArts Centre is looking at building a new space, and they’re getting the money to do it. And the question I have is, to do what? So you build it, and then what? We cannot let our foot off the gas. And I would encourage you and I’ll say it again, at the end of our time here in the theatre, we have a municipal election coming up. We have generally low voter turnouts. If all 10,000 artists who identified as artists in the Statistics Canada Report vote, you will choose the next mayor for sure, you will choose the council that supports arts and culture. So I invite you to think about what you’re going to do on October 20th. I don’t, like, and it’s not about who you vote for, it’s that you vote. It’s really important that you do that. And if you do have candidates that you want to support, then support them. Knock on doors, make a donation if you can, design their posters, help them come up with campaign slogans. You can do that. It’s not hard and you will be richly rewarded in the next four years. So you know, Create Calgary is back up and running, they’re meeting with candidates, I see some in the audience tonight. They’re here to hear from you. So make sure they hear you, make sure they know all the stuff that we just put up here. All of this is public. It’ll be on our website, it’s on our website today as a matter of fact.

So, so that’s my soapbox moment and I’m now going to hand, thank you, we’re in the homestretch. There are, a few other pieces of information, again, based on what I just shared with you, that we want to be sure you hear from us on and that you kind of can ask more questions on.

So I’m going to ask Melissa and Greg to come up, Melissa Tuplin and Gregory Burbidge, from our team to share five things about the arts.

Gregory Burbidge: We went back a slide. This is going to be great, this is great, very entertaining. We went back a slide to the strategic direction, which is fine. We’re working right now at the Living a Creative Life ten-year strategy, we’re working on the renewal right now, we’re working with a citizen reference panel. So we sent out thousands of invitations to Calgarians, random Calgarians, very random Calgarians all over the city, we’re working with 40 to 50 of those folks, they represent Calgary, so this represents Calgary, not just demographically, but in the ways that they participate in the arts. We’ve got folks on there that participate in all ways in the arts, we’ve got folks in there that participate in no ways in the arts. So Monday night, I didn’t see any of you there, but Monday night we shared five things with them, we thought we’d share those things with you, too, so that when you’re in a dinner party with them, if you’ll run into them, you’ll have that same baseline level of arts data, dinner party conversation. I know, based on my dinner parties, generally revolve around arts data.

Melissa Tuplin: My role involves overseeing our investment programs, including our annual operating grant program where we collect so much information that’s critical to our understanding of the sector, so we’re going to start there. We’re going to start with the biggest numbers coming out of the program, and the ways that Calgarians most commonly participate in the arts in Calgary.

So last year, as you heard, organizations funded by Calgary Arts Development created 41,744 events. And we know there were hundreds more funded through our one-time project grant programs for organizations and individual artists, and there were even more in Calgary that we did not support. Bruce Springsteen was here. You’ll be shocked to hear we did not fund that. Broadway across Canada was here, and that’s not in the list.

This is just the number of events that we fund through operating grants because these organizations are Calgary based and primarily serving Calgarians. 41,744 events. This is everything from festivals to community theatre, from art gallery openings to youth programming in and out of schools. And we see that giant dip in 2021, we’re going to come back to that. 

During the peak of COVID there were about half as many events in Calgary as there are now, despite organizations turning to online programing and other ways of staying in touch with their audiences. And as you heard, these events were attended by 5,360,126 participants. Again, just the stuff we funded. Attendance levels are higher here than pre-pandemic numbers, but it’s not a full comeback across the board.

While some areas have recovered, others like movie theatres, museums and live music are still struggling. A big reason is cost, but the proliferation of other entertainment options like streaming and online content that are often more affordable and easier to access plays a role. Even though there’s those over 41,000 events with millions of attendees, Calgarians still report that it’s difficult to get information about the arts and that they don’t know what’s going on.

Hey! That’s fun. That’s a map. Greg, you love maps.

Gregory: I do love maps, I do love maps, that’s why I’m here. We just ran a pilot project, some of you know about this, we just ran a pilot project with 21 organizations, mapping where Calgarians come from to attend arts events we support. You know, we worked on making the map look good and mobile, and we didn’t think about, like, what the map would look like on a really big screen, so this is fun we should get one of these for the office. When you zoom in, someone came from almost every block in the city. When you zoom in on neighbourhoods, every block has coverage here. The only places that don’t have coverage, you’ll see parks like Nose Hill Park, not a lot of people coming from the arts, and industrial areas, also not a lot of coverage, everywhere else in the city, attendees coming from those places.

Melissa: When we survey over a thousand random Calgarians across all parts of the city, 89% are participating in the arts, either through observing, and so like listening to music at home, watching movies, reading books, attending things in person, or making their own art. Only 11% of Calgarians are not semi-regularly taking part in things.

Greg, is that because 11% of Calgarians don’t like the arts? Are they just curmudgeons?

Gregory: I am a curmudgeon, but I attend a lot of arts things. 11% are participating in the arts, now the numbers are up from 9% just a couple of years ago, it is not because they’re grumpy like me. Because the number increased, and a few more people aren’t participating, we asked them very specific questions about why they’re staying home, but none of these at least are tuning into Netflix like they’re not participating in the arts in any way. Rising costs, economic challenges affecting Calgarians and Canadians in general, it’s no shock that affordability is the biggest barrier, top two things, people have to be more selective about where they’re spending their money on their time. Money is not the only thing, time is another matter.

Four of our top reasons for not participating in the arts are time related. We did some recent research conducted last year by Stone Olafson lets us know that the average Albertan has 16 hours a week of discretionary time. As the number of entertainment options continues to proliferate, including those at home options we keep talking about, competition for people’s time becomes more fierce, and arts organizations have to offer real value for money, not just in terms of price, but the challenge isn’t just affordability, it’s proving that an arts experience is worth time and very limited attention.

Melissa: As you know, we also fund individual professional artists, and it’s not just an audience problem. In our recent survey of arts professionals, more time to create work was the top response when asked about additional resources that artists need. Not money, not space. Artists are also challenged by fitting everything into that arbitrary 24-hour day.

As you know, most of our funding we provide is to arts organizations and professional artists, but something that we are paying attention to is the rise to crafting a personal arts creation that is having potentially a massive impact on the overall arts landscape.

Living a Creative Life as an art strategy is about enabling all Calgarians to live creative lives, and increasingly, they’re doing that by making art themselves. We see this more and more every time we survey Calgarians. There are several data sets and research reports globally that have reported on the growth of crafting and personal arts creation in the last one-to-three years. Self-directed activities like crafting, personal artistic practice and DIY projects surged during the pandemic, but that’s over, and they haven’t faded away.

2022 was peak pandemic, people were in their homes, they had more time to learn guitar, or the bass, if you’re the Mayor, but personal creation is even higher now. These activities have become part of people’s routines, often as a way to relax, de-stress or even connect with others.

10% of people in Calgary played music for some sort of audience. 7% performed for an audience through theatre and dance.

Gregory: Yeah, I didn’t, obviously, but my neighbours, Ken and Maddie, just this week, they are not professional artists, they were in a dance recital. They’re my next-door neighbours. All kinds of people are participating in the arts.

Melissa: We’re getting to the homestretch here, folks. This is a great stand-up comedy routine. We will take notes.

I’m from Calgary. I can confidently say that Calgary is the best. The Peace Bridge is the most photographed piece of public art in Canada. 47% of Calgarians think our arts and culture was about the same as it has as it has been last year, and 46% has said it’s getting better. Only 7% of Calgarians think what’s going on in Calgary is getting worse, and with 11% not participating, it means even people who aren’t participating in the arts have a generally positive perception of what’s going on here. 48% of Calgarians think our arts and cultural offerings are of a world class caliber. Artists are on the same page, with 43% agreeing that Calgary’s arts and cultural offerings are world class. Greg’s, not from Calgary, do you agree?

Gregory: I do, Calgary’s the best! You know, it’s weird that they don’t get the research team time every year, because this routine is amazing. You’re putting me on the spot here, I’m not from Calgary. Calgary is the best, as long as you don’t compare it to anywhere else in the world.

It’s world class. Why is everywhere else better? When we asked Calgarians how Calgary compares to Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, there is not a single Canadian city that Calgarians think our arts offerings are better than that city. 45% of Calgarians say that our arts are better than Winnipeg in Edmonton. 20 to 24% say we’re better than Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto.

There’s a ways to go to connect the perception of our city as having world-class art to how we actually compare ourselves to other cities.

Melissa: And the last thing from that same survey that you should know today, we love the arts. 5 million attendees, 40,000 events, but we’re not so sure about artists’ experiences. Only half of Calgarians think Calgary is a good place to be an artist, and artists agree. 45% of artists in 2023 felt that Calgary was a good place to be an artist, less than half. After the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, the collective perception of Calgary as a place for artists declined significantly, undoubtedly due to the negative effects of the shutdown had on the well-being of artists in Canada.

Peak unemployment was 14% in May of 2020 during the pandemic. A year later it was 8%, almost half. If you think back to that first chart that we showed the number of events and how the number of events in Calgary dropped by 50% during the pandemic, this is the first year it’s back. It took five years to get back. That’s five years of lost opportunities for artists.

Gregory: That’s a downer. In that same year, it doesn’t get better, in that same survey, 25% of artists said they would like to leave Calgary with the next two years. I think a lot about that, I think a lot about that when Kirsten was speaking. The public art challenges, you know we have the most photographed piece of public art in Canada, and we talk a lot about making opportunities for Calgary artists, but if we don’t make this a good place to be an artist, and artists want to leave are there things we can do to make sure artists want to live here and make the most photographed piece of public , and to make that art that sells those 5 million tickets so we’re not losing those artists when we want local artists to make that art.

Melissa: So as Greg said, these were five things that we shared just as context setting for these 40 to 50 random Calgarians that we’ve convened to review of the Living a Creative Life Art Strategy. And they are five things that we’re also monitoring and considering as we look ahead to our next strategic framework and our program design for public art and granting. This data helps us understand how we can better support arts organizations to continue to serve millions of Calgarians with world class offerings that are celebrated by our communities, and to work with our collaborators, partners and the sector to continue to make Calgary a better place to be an artist.

Gregory: This was fun. But we’re committed to making our research available to our community, and in the next few months we’ll be publishing all of the reports we referenced today. I can hardly wait. So maybe if I go keep making charts. Can I leave you here? That’s great.

Thank you.

Melissa: That’s what we call living a creative life.

That’s not the one. All right. So on the screen now, you can just see the names of the folks and organizations who are pictured in this presentation today, and the photographers whose images we used.

And on an artistic note, and before we do our full closing, I would like to invite our dear friend and our current Poet Laureate, Shone Thistle, to come share a poem with us.

Shone Thistle: I started referring to this as my security blanket, and I think it’s about to die, so we’ll see how this goes.

I just want to say thank you to Sable and to Kevin and to Kirsten, welcome to Calgary, to Patti and to Melissa, and to Greg. It’s an honour to be here with all of you today. And I was thinking, Kevin, about being in the company of artists and listening to everything that was said today, and I thought, oh my God, I have, so, it’s so magnetic and there’s so much to talk about here, the energy is rich and the, the conversation after this is going to be amazing.

And I just wanted to say one thing before I share this poem, actually, too, I’m a liar. The first thing is that many years ago, someone asked me and I used still a fundraiser. But I used to fundraise in the social service sector, and somebody asked me one day, would you ever fundraise for the arts? And I said, under no circumstances would I fundraise for the arts. And they said, why? And I said, because I don’t feel there’s an urgency. And this was like, a long time ago. I’ve learned better. And what I’ve learned is that having worked in homelessness prevention and family violence prevention and, you know, at some of the intersections of some of society’s greatest challenges that fundraising for the arts is actually primary prevention, that by getting people engaged in the arts, by getting artists connected to community, we’re actually building resilience in a whole other way. That’s just so important.

So anyway, I just wanted to say that. Also, I had the opportunity this past weekend to go and share some poetry at the 30th anniversary of the HMCS Calgary. And if you’re not familiar, Calgary, HMCS Calgary is a navy ship that is named after our great city, and the naval officers on that ship, actually, as part of their dress uniform, wear a Smithbilt hat, which is a really interesting and wonderful thing to experience and see.

This was particularly meaningful for me because this was at CFB Esquimalt, and (indiscernible) Point, these are places that I visited as a child because my father spent 30, almost 30 years, serving on CFB Esquimalt when he wasn’t at sea. And the poem I’m about to share with you is the same poem I shared there.

And so water, Nipiy is the Cree word for water. It was shared with me by my good friend Walter Whitebear. I’aoueis the Patois word for water, andI’aoue is also, so, Guernésiaisis similar to Patois, it’s the language spoken on Guernsey, it’s where my family first immigrated from in the 1600s. Water is, of course, the old English word for water, and we are made up of course of water.

And so I share with you, Nipiy I’aoue Water We. I’m gonna shake it out because I was on a turbulent plane just before I got here. Okay.

Shone Thistle: (poem)

Before my feet splashed in salt Nipiy pools and tiny crabs tickled my toes, or child’s strong legs ran house to lakeshore and we swam into the deep, dark night. Before I learned raindrops warm surface water, storm static tall hair stands and swimming in the dark is much more fun.

Before the creek ice gave way and we rescued each other, swearing not to tell. My mother, she dipped and stroked horsehair, laid her soul bare in landscape. My father escaped school, enlisting in something much greater than himself. Before my grandfather lost the love of his life and boat he built with his own two hands. Long before my ancestors left Guernsey. 4.5 billion years or so ago, there was this current that was calling. 4.5 billion years. It whispered on wind announcing itself to the night sky. It set foot on. Masses still forming, flashed like floods, followed the path of least resistance, it babbled incessantly, hoping for connection, wandering from beautiful body to beautiful body to beautiful body, electric. Every language calls it something. Some call it many things, many call it Allah. Others sing Yahweh or Jehovah, praise Creator or Ganesha. Even atheists say things like they’ll believe in it when hell freezes over. Which leads me to wonder, does that process start with snow drifting water into flames? The Inuit have more than 50 names for snow, the Sami 180. But God, Allah, Creator, eternal Goddess Elijah(indiscernible) Vishnu. For them, there are thousands of sacred syllables spilled from lips in prayer, and no one argues over snow while we wage wars over religion. And I wonder if it occurs to any of us, and I wonder if it occurs to any of them. Nipiy, I’aoue, Water, Vishnu, Nature, Creator, are all the same East African river our greatest great grandmother drank from.

We have risen and rained on thirsty soil countless times, frozen and freed ourselves, toiled against sediment and stone, emerged from birth canals forming every continent, ancient and innocent. We squall across ocean floors. Lust in and out lungs sip and slip through veins under every colour, including forest and evergreen due grass grazed upon. Not one more drop exists than ever has than ever shall be.

And I wonder if the language of divinity gets in the way of finding it. Falling from skies, roaring to shores, rising roots and shoots to canopies stretching through branches and breath and words that sound like love, that sound like poetry. And I wonder if it occurs to any of us. We too whisper on wind, announce ourselves to the night sky, set foot on masses still forming. I don’t know about you, but I babble incessantly, hoping for connection. Wandering from beautiful body to beautiful body to beautiful body electric. Nipiy, I’aoue Water, Vishnu, Nature, Creator. We’re all the same. And that current, that same current from 4.5 billion years or so ago. That current is still calling.

(end poem)

Thank you. I forgot to thank Janice.

Patti: …to get off the plane and like, race over here to make it so we’re just so grateful. Thank you so much.

So, we kept you over time, and my apologies for that. I hope that you found what we had to share with you today meaningful and relevant to the good work that all of you are doing.

I do want to allow just a couple of minutes, if there are any questions that anybody has. I want to make sure that you get a chance. We’ll do a quick scan as I see, over here, hi.

Audience member: Yeah. So I have a comment. Yeah. The second last slide on the challenges, third bullet from the bottom, you say that federal and provincial funding hasn’t kept pace with inflation. Wonder why you haven’t included civic on there.

Patti: Sorry. So I’m going back and Melissa is going to answer the question or…

Melissa: And I’ll repeat the question for those who didn’t hear the question, is why we didn’t include municipal. It’s because we haven’t fallen behind quite yet, but we’re coming close. It’s just because of the significant increase that we received in 2019 and, that we were able to pass on to a program, on average, to 2023. We understand the individual organizations might be seeing that inflation, but on average, it hasn’t yet. And as we look ahead to our 2027 budget request, we’ll certainly be considering that. Yes, Kathi.

Audience member: If you’re presenting this to City Council, though, I would suggest as a recipient that we are all experiencing that our funding has not kept pace with inflation.

Melissa: Absolutely. Yeah.

Audience member: It would be an important message to present to Council.

Melissa: Yeah, we appreciate that feedback.

Patti: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Melissa. Thank you very much, Kathi. We will. What I want us to do, though, is be able to show that in evidence. And what we can’t show yet is that the City investment has not kept up. We know that maybe the distribution, there may be other reasons, and we’ll be sure to raise that. We want to be able to have the research to back it up.

And so that’s why we’ve referenced provincial and federal for now, and why we’ll share it in that respect. But rest assured, we will be going forward to the four-year budget case in the fall of 2026, seeking an increase. And we’ll be spending time between now and as we craft that four-year case, working with the community to get the specifics on the relevance about what those dollars should go to and how we continue to support the community, and the city and citizens in the good ways that we are.

Melissa: I’ll add one more comment, which is we’ve also gotten access to a new formula for inflation modeling. And so Greg and I are going to be spending some time over the summer digging into that, and that will also help us come up with that, kind of evidence base that we’ll be bringing forward to municipal council.

Audience member: Hi. Oksana. Your comment earlier about acknowledging Calgary is not a city, right now, that artists feel that it’s a good place for artists to be. Do you already, for 2025, have a target list of things to explore or are you still in the stage where you need to figure out what the things are to target.

Melissa: Specifically for artists’ experience? Not quite yet. One of the things that we’ve added is, we’re entering our second year of a five-year longitudinal study of 500 artists, because the thing that we’ve never been able to measure is whether or not artists are actually leaving. And so that allows us to follow the same 500 artists over five years, regardless of where they go, and actually understand where those shifts are happening, or really, if it’s just a ‘I’m mad, but people are going to stay anyways.’

So that is one of the things. And then we’ll be looking to the community as we start to develop our strategic framework to understand where the lever points might be to better those experiences. The arts professionals survey that will come out in a couple months or so will dig much further into what artists are telling us what could be better about their lives here in Calgary. Thank you.

So I saw Sue.

Sue: Yeah. I wonder if I might invite reconsideration of a term that has been used a couple of times, perhaps intentionally, but in the spirit of belonging and in the spirit of increasing diversity and honouring so many of our participants and artists and arts workers, I’d love for us to think really long and hard about whether the word citizen is the right word to use when we’re talking about people with whom we engage in the arts, because not only are some of the actions of the GOP administration that have a lot to do with belonging and papers and things like that, so I’d just like to invite a reconsideration of use of that term to represent diversity and the sense of belonging that we want to create for all the people we exist to serve.

Patti: Duly noted. And thank you for that. We’ll, absolutely. And I hear you around what we’re seeing in the south and the risk of having those kinds of actions and considerations make their way here, which is a very real concern.

So thanks for that Sue. One other thing, Oksana is, is around artists conditions, part of the creative economy work is also artists need to get more work. They need to be paid. They need to be paid better by all of us. You know, I invite you to consider what it means to pay an artist a living wage when they’re a gig worker. That’s one of the things we’re looking at. That’s part of the work that I looked at during my time at the Cultural Policy Hub. This issue of artists, artists are below the poverty line. So if we help increase the conditions for artists, we will increase the conditions for all people who are finding themselves in those circumstances for whatever reason.

So, yes, Melissa and I’ve talked about over and over, we can’t grant an artist out of poverty. And so we have to think about other ways. That’s the work in addition to the grant investment programs that we work on and why we work so hard to have our partnerships with economic development and tourism and other civic partners and, and for sure encourage that artists are at the table when we talk about affordability, when we’re thinking about housing, when we’re thinking about our identity, artists should be at those tables and they should be paid for the expertise that they bring.

So those are other ways we’re trying to encourage, or not encourage, create the conditions where artists might feel it’s good for them to stay.

Any other one more over here. So let’s do this as a last question and then we’ll, move to the lobby. Oh, there are two more questions, and then we’ll all move over to the lobby.

Hi.

Audience member: Cultural spaces that have been lost. 200 of them. Can you just name 4 or 5 of them to give us context.

Melissa: The Cultural Spaces Report indicates that the majority of those spaces are largely those private dance and music studios, that are those, in more commercial areas. Over the last ten years, we don’t exactly have a list, but I can certainly go back to our consultant and name those. But we do think that those are the most significant ones. Yeah.

Patti: And I’m sorry I didn’t see the raised, so I don’t know who asked the question. Oh, Jeromy. Hi. Welcome.

Jeromy Farkas: It’s a bit of follow to the last question in terms of some of the recommendations from the Cultural Spaces assessment, but we know a lot of key infrastructure like Evergreen we’re losing and whatnot. Is there a wish list or even a capital need yet that you’re prepared to bring a business case forward?

Melissa: That’s the next step of the of the report. Within the report from those two larger recommendations are eight strategies that then have a number of recommended actions attached. Joni Carroll, who you’re sitting directly next to, will be happy to talk about that more. From here, CADA will be working with our partners at the City of Calgary and other key partners and collaborators to identify which of those recommended actions should be prioritized and are really actionable to bring forward in our next budget ask, or within the City Arts and Culture departments on budget asks. So there are some very specific actions that are attached to capital and operating for facilities.

Patti: All right. So I invite us to all enjoy some food downstairs in the community living room, mingle with the CADA team and your colleagues from the arts community. There’s free punch and water. And if you want a different kind of beverage, the DJD cash bar is open. Many thanks, Kathi, to you and your team for hosting us here at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks. Thanks again so much for coming, for bearing with us. And we’ll see in the lobby and at this summer’s festivals.

So thanks again. Take care.

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