2024 Congress Recap
Art-making, panel discussions, artist presentations and more
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the 2024 Living a Creative Life Congress on December 4 and 5. This year focused once again on Art for Social Change, exploring that topic through the lens of our city’s new branding, Blue Sky City, and how Calgary can live up to that promise and potential.
Over the two days, people contributed to community art projects, heard from artists who are practising art for social change and learned about the opportunities and the challenges, took part in breakout room conversations and art-making activities, and enjoyed an evening featuring award-winning writer and speaker Jesse Wente, chair of board for the Canada Council for the Arts, in conversation with Patti Pon.
Unfortunately, the online portion of the event did not run smoothly, in large part due to the recent cybersecurity attack at the Calgary Public Library and related issues with the wifi connection. The online portion of the event started late on the first day, and streaming was not available on the second day. We are sorry for the frustration and disappointment experienced by online registrants. As promised, for those who are interested, we you can find video recordings of the daytime sessions here.
Guest speaker Jesse Wente’s presentation was a highlight of the event and left the in-person and online audience with a lot to think about. We ran out of time and were not able to get to all the questions during the Q&A portion of the evening, but he sent his responses via email and we’ve shared them below.
Kelly: When trying to get an organization to build a bigger table for community to come sit at to be a part of the process, what words do you have for them to get the buy-in and over the fear?
Hi Kelly, this is a great question, and like so many great questions, there isn’t one, or an easy, answer. A lot will be determined by context. I believe these sorts of things require strategic communication, which means you’re going to choose language that fits the moment, that will be understood in the moment. The language is also determined by the approach and the venue of communication. Key to strategic communication is a couple of things, understanding your own goals and understanding the goals of those you wish to influence. Finding the alignment in those things, will start to help shape the language you will want to use. For art organizations, this often aligns around audience and impact, as those are often key metrics for those organizations. Speaking to those goals will allow them to see your position as benefiting them as well, and while i would like to say that people will do the right things just because it’s the right thing, in honestly, we have to help them identify the incentives that make doing the right thing also a step closer to their goals.
Jaqs: Thank you so much for the important work you do. Even in the relational connection, the work on policy development in seeing only Indigenous-led production companies and only Indigenous above-the-line crew get greenlit to share their stories is vital to revitalization and cultural reconnection. How do we as Indigenous, Black racialized folks respectfully challenge the entitlement of those outside of our own communities trying to tell our stories?
Hi Jaqs, thanks for the question. I’ve used a few approaches. One is the intellectual, where we can discuss narrative sovereignty and the reason why communities should assert it, and why it’s important for it to be respected, namely that stories have power to shape real world outcomes and thus we need the space for communities to express themselves to influence those outcomes. Another is far more pragmatic, which is that you end up with better stories if you seek out authentic storytellers. I’m attaching this clip from Denzel Washington that I think gets at this point very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ayf8Iny9Eg. In short, you will get better art, better stories, that are more meaningful and more impactful; and more enduring, if you seek out the story as close to the source as you can. If they’re desire is to tell the best story, then that means they have to engage with the communities these stories are placed in and about and it means they should ask themselves if they are the best person to tell that story? And if they answer yes, and the story exists outside their own experience, then they should be asking themselves why they think that? Is it important that they tell the story, or is it important that the story be told? I hope that helps.
Tasha: How is the Canada Council adjusting its application process to be inclusive of oral cultures?
Hi Tasha, I wanted to make sure I got this answer direct from the council itself, so here you go:
The Council is exploring and piloting the use of alternative application formats, such as video or audio recordings. From January to March 2024, the Council undertook a project to learn more about organizations providing alternative formats to their applicants. This included interviewing and gaining insights from other public funders, along with internal focus groups. In 2025, the Council will undertake two pilots, which will include piloting oral applications in the Small Scale Activities component of Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.
The 2024 Congress was the second of three focusing on Art for Social Change — sign up for our weekly newsletter stay informed and to find out how this topic will be explored in 2025.
