As announced in our statement on Black Lives Matter, this virtual town hall discussed issues around anti-Blackness, 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.

Read the June 17, 2020 Anti-Racism Virtual Town Hall Transcript

We invited a few people from the community to speak about their experiences to start things off but asked everyone to consider the following questions and share thoughts. Do you see yourself in our programs? Have you experienced a barrier in reaching out or engaging with Calgary Arts Development?

• Have you had an experience where a barrier was removed, that gave you better access to our programs?
• If we were starting a new granting organization from scratch, what would you want to see?
• What would you like to see us prioritize in our work?
• Where should our energy be applied, knowing that we have finite resources?

Read the July 15, 2020 Anti-Racism Town Hall Transcript

On July 29, Calgary Arts Development hosted this town hall focused on vocabulary (words and their underlying concepts and examined experiences) as a response to suggestions and recommendations from the previous sessions.

They were then used to create starting points for a deeper collective discussion and actions to build EDIA in the arts sector and in Calgary moving forward. The conversation was lead by Dr. Brea Heidelberg and Ruby Lopez Harper to help build our understanding of race and anti-racist vocabulary with a focus on how these concepts apply in the arts.

Read the July 29, 2020 Anti-Racism Virtual Town Hall Transcript

This town hall was hosted on August 12 with a focus on how anti-racism work is currently being pursued and sustained in Calgary, especially from the vantage points of BIPOC communities.

For this purpose, panelists from ActionDignity and Anti-Racist Organizational Change (AROC)/Black Caucus talked about the work they are doing and shared important learnings and discussions on what they see as opportunities and challenges in deepening and expanding this work in Calgary. They shared about what allyship and accomplice work looks like and how the current movements and initiatives can be supported.

Read the August 12, 2020 Anti-Racism Virtual Town Hall Transcript

The August 26 town hall explored the relational complexities of anti-racist change. Advisory group members from the Anti-Racist Organizational Change (AROC) project Tyson Bankert and jaqs gallos aquines facilitated on the distinction of allyship versus accompliceship, and community care.

Read the August 26, 2020 Anti-Racism Town Hall Transcript

The work to confront and dismantle racism falls on everyone of us as we try to build equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in our institutions, systems, communities, and networks.

Continuing this conversation, the town hall took place on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. It acted as a wrap-up to the series of conversations we hosted over the summer, with reflections on what we heard, what we learned, and what we are thinking about as we move forward.

Read the October 7, 2020 Anti-Racism Town Hall Transcript