Plowing The Road: Enhancing Opportunities For Pluralism in Performing Arts in Ontario Charles C. Smith Consulting

1.
Introduction:
The Community Cultural Impresarios (CCI) has been on an intense and adventurous journey since its inception in 1999. Starting with sparse resources and members, CCI has become a significant force for development and change within the performing arts community across Ontario and nationally. Beginning with an annual budget of $8,093.00 in 2001, CCI has grown steadily to a current budget of $743,948.00 and with numerous projects and initiatives. At the same time, CCI maintains a small administrative core and has developed an organizational structure that benefits from its volunteer component, principally its board of directors, and several contracted project leads. While some of these project leads are engaged in core CCI projects (i.e., Block Booking, Ontario Contact and Fresh Start), other project leads are engaged in time-limited initiatives, e.g., Values and Benefits Study, Cultural Pluralism in the Performing Arts Movement Ontario, Healthy Arts Leadership and Municipal Cultural Planning. Other CCI initiatives are annual engagements that happen at various times during the year, e.g, the annual retreat and the arts leadership institute. Given the balance needed to support core programming as well as to address timely issues, CCI (like many small organizations) appears to be in a perpetual state of creative tension. In this regard, CCIs administrative model may be seen as entrepreneurial, a structural form that allows it to respond to emerging opportunities and threats in the field of cultural performance and outcomes of cultural policy changes. Also, while many nonprofit cultural organizations face similar circumstances, CCI is unique because of its origins, its role and its membership. The reasons for this will be discussed further on in this report. For now, however, it is important to note CCIs vision is to ensure access to A live performance for everyone in Ontario. Its mission is To lead and develop leadership in the performing arts and its values which value the participation of our artists, artist representatives, professional and volunteer presenters and business consultants by: encouraging, supporting and developing those responsible for the presentation of professional performing arts in the communities of Ontario; fostering networking, professional development, advocacy and access to resources; supporting our members curatorial visions; fostering and encouraging collegiality, trust, and openness within the membership; encouraging the presentation of new art forms and the appreciation of quality and engaging performing arts performances; and developing strong and healthy leadership1. CCIs vision, mission and values guide and set it apart as a unique entity in the
1
See CCI Website www.ccio.on.ca
Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009
performing arts community as it assumes the role of an arts services organization that engages in strategic partnerships with other arts and social networks and with a singular purpose to ensure full access to live performing arts. This vision is perfectly amenable to notions of pluralism, equity and diversity 2 in the arts as it provides CCI with opportunities to consider the relationship of performances to audiences and the public and the rapidly changing communities of Ontario. It also provides CCI with the opportunity to explore and assess cultural standards in the historical context of a particular selective tradition that has established normative values in cultural productions, norms that are being challenged and changed in the performing arts and across other fields, e.g., literature and visual arts. This report examines CCIs efforts to address the challenges and changes to normative values in performing arts across Ontario. In this context, the report reviews CCIs structure, projects, resources and capacities. It also examines CCIs work to promote pluralism, equity and diversity, in particular what CCI has done in the past, is engaged in now and plans to undertake in the future. The report is organized to provide: 1) A summary of CCIs history and development; 2) A summary of CCIs work in the areas of pluralism; 3) A review and assessment of the demographic changes in Ontario and their implications for performers, presenters, communities and audiences; 4) A discussion on the challenges and opportunities CCI faces in addressing pluralism; 5) A discussion on the important role CCI can play in promoting pluralism in performing arts across Ontario and nationally; and 6) Identification of the practical steps CCI seeks to take to promote pluralism in performing arts across Ontario and nationally. The methodology for this report has been to:
A. review documentation about CCI as well as other relevant literature3;

B. meet with and interview all project leads and the CCI Executive Director; C. work with CCI Executive Director and project leads to refine strategies for integrating pluralism, equity and diversity into CCI projects; and D. receive comments from the project leads and Executive Director on a draft of this report.
2
See Roopchand B. Seebaran et al Culturally Diverse Arts Programs: A Guide to Planning & Presentation, 2005, and Charles C. Smith Planning Inclusion for Now and Tomorrow: A Report and Action Plans on Equity and Diversity for Arts Etobicoke and Lakeshore Arts 2003 3 A full list of references is included at the end of this report.
2. Background:
As noted above, CCI has grown considerably. This section of the report chronicles CCIs growth However, before discussing CCIs development, it is important to briefly review the history of presenters in Ontario. This will give some context to the growth, impact and importance of CCI to the performing arts community in Ontario today. Following this, CCIs emergence will be highlighted in terms of the issues it has addressed over the years, the projects it has developed and either implemented or is in the process of doing so.
2.1 Presenters in Ontario A Brief History:

From the mid-to-late 1940s to early 1970s, most community presenting in Ontario was linked with Columbia Artists of New York through a program called Community Concert Associations. In 1973 the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) set-up a touring office to disseminate Toronto-based touring productions of opera, theatre, ballet and symphonic repertoire. The purpose of this was to encourage local community concert associations to book Ontario-based artists. The OAC closed its touring office in 1996. At the time, this office had three central staff in Toronto and five regional staff across the province. This office provided support to local presenters and funded performance initiatives through a budget of $1.4 million with $1 million in community presenter grants. When the office was disbanded, a tremendous support vacuum was created in the provincial touring and presenting sector. To begin to address this, in 1997 the OAC created a system of funding through its Touring and Collaborations office with a staff of two people. The bulk of the funding for touring was diverted to performing ensembles and artists whose mandates were explicit to tour Ontario communities. This program was just recently replaced with the OACs National & International Touring; Northern Ontario; Ontario Arts Presenters; and Ontario Touring programs. In June 2001, The federal Department of Canadian Heritage launched the Arts Presentation Canada program as part of its 5-year, $500-million Tomorrow Starts Today cultural initiative. This was the first time the department provided federal funds for presenters. While these developments of the OAC are instrumental in maintaining some support to local presenters, there has still been a significant gap in the support required to nurture the continuous growth of this vital sector of the cultural community that contributes to Ontarios cultural vitality. This vacuum has led to the growth of CCI.
2.2 The Emergence of CCI:

CCI as an entity came into being in 1988. It started with 7 members who were community and university-based performing arts venues. It was legally incorporated as Ontario Campus and Community Impresarios. CCI operated for a decade with the voluntary support and activity of its members. In 1999, the organization commissioned a business planning study to investigate CCIs future possibilities. Through that process, the membership (up to 23 venues) determined that it was willing to expand its
membership to include volunteer community presenters and extend its resources to the same. At that time, CCI operated with no administrative structure/secretariat and had an annual operating budget of $8,093 (Ministry of Culture 2000/01 grant application). In short succession, CCI implemented an earned revenue program of commissions on block booking and engaged Judy Harquail on a part-time basis to coordinate this project. At the same time, CCI applied for and received a 3-year $100K project grant from the Ontario Trilllium Foundation to conduct a needs assessment of the performing arts sector and establish a secretariat. CCI also applied to the Ministry of Cultures Arts Service Organization program and, in 2000/01, hired its first Executive Director, Warren Garrett. The secretariat operated from the executive directors home office. In February 2003 and again in September 2005 Jane Marsland was engaged to facilitate two planning retreats with the CCI board to help it further develop the organization and its membership. From these retreats an organizational vision, mission and set of values were established. According to its 2007/08 audited financial statements, CCI operates with a budget of $743,948 and employs three full-time persons in a small administrative unit located within the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. It is led by its Executive Director and supported by two other program staff, an administrator and program assistant. These staff manage the day-to-day administrative work of CCI and support, where appropriate, CCIs Board, its projects and project leads. CCI also engages several project leads. These leads are well-known, knowledgeable and experienced individuals who bring a wealth of expertise to CCI and its members. At the same time, these project leads have significant credibility within the performing arts community and amongst funders. This has increased CCIs profile and provided the organization and its members with invaluable knowledge, commitment to and passion for the arts. These project leads are complemented with two U.S. based firms, Wolf/Brown Inc. and Meaning Matters LLC (Jerry Yoshitomi) who are involved in some of the CCI projects discussed below. Two project leads manage three ongoing CCI programs: Ontario Contact, Fresh Start and Block Booking. The other project leads are engaged in time-limited initiatives or in annual educational events for CCI members. While the work varies by project lead, CCI has engaged and developed strong relationships with these professionals over a period of time.
2.3 CCI Membership:

In 1999, CCI had a membership of 23 organizations that included university and community-based performing arts venue managers across Ontario. As a result of discussions at their annual retreat in Hockley Valley that year, members determined that CCI had an opportunity to create an Ontario-based network of arts presenters similar to those in other provinces and in the U.S. The organizations board of directors shortly thereafter expanded categories of membership to include voluntary community presenters in addition to the two existing categories of performing arts venue managers (under 500 seats and over 500 seats). CCI now has a membership of 153 that includes the categories of: presenter; agent/artist manager; business service consultant; artist; and student
At the end of its first decade, CCI was a tightly-knit and highly collaborative network. This level of collaboration was attributed to members working and communicating frequently with one another, enabling a trust to form among the members that, in turn, compelled them to collaborate on other projects such as research, advocacy and professional development. Capitalizing on this collaboration, CCI has chosen facilitated processes to engage and assist in the development of its members.
2.4 CCI Projects and Initiatives:

CCI developed its current programs and services in an process that can best be described as evolutionary,. Part of this development is attributable to CCIs responsiveness to the needs of its members; another part is based on CCIs leadership as an arts services organization. CCI is well positioned to receive information from its members that identity their issues, challenges and needs. At the same time, CCI works with highly regarded consultants in the arts field and maintains ongoing dialogue with funders and representatives of other networks. These sources of information provide CCI with contemporary research and valuable connections in a variety of disciplines that can and do inform developments within the arts, e.g., the network mapping initiative which is discussed briefly later on in this report. CCI began to develop the resources for its services in the following way: In 2000, CCI received a three-year grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The purpose of this grant was to conduct a needs assessment, develop a website and support its secretariat functions; The Block Booking Program was set up in 2000 as a collaborative project with earned revenue derived from commissions charged for the professional administration of this service. This program is administered by Judy Harquail; Funding was received for the first time in 2000/01 from the Ontario Ministry of Culture through its Arts Services Organization program; The federal Department of Canadian Heritage launched the Arts Presentation Canada program and CCI received its first APC funding in 2001/02; CCI presented John Killacky as its keynote speaker at its 2002 Annual Retreat. Killacky had been actively involved in the American advocacy movement to defend and support the National Endowment for the Arts which had become embattled in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Killackys topic at the 2002 retreat was 11 Lessons Learned From the Life of An Arts Activist and his conversation with CCI members signaled a turning point for Ontario presenters who recognized the important role and responsibility that presenters played and held in building stronger, healthier communities through a vibrant and contemporary engagement in the arts; From 1999 to 2000 the OAC continued to host and produce Ontario Contact, an annual booking/showcasing conference for the performing arts.
In 2001 and 2002 OAC partnered with CCI in producing this event and in 2003 the OAC turned it completely over to CCI manage; From 2000/01 to 2003/04 CCIs budget grew from $94,879 to $515,733; In 2003 the Fresh Start Program was created by the Federal Department of Canadian Heritage as an agreement with CCI to provide funds to emerging presenters. This program is managed by Judy Harquail; In 2003 CCI diversified its membership to include agents and artists; In 2004, the CCI annual retreat focused on pluralism and involved the Collective of Black Artists (COBA) and the Menaka Thakker Dance Company; In 2004, CCI collaborated with the Centre for Cultural Management at the University of Waterloo to develop the Municipal Cultural Planning project. This project is facilitated by William Poole of the Centre for Cultural Management; In 2005, CCI initiated a pilot test of its new Healthy Arts Leadership Program facilitated by Jane Marsland and Judy Harquail; In 2005-06 Jane Marsland facilitated a second strategic review of Ontario Contact and CCI; In 2006, CCI supported the development of the Ontario Classical Music Network now co-led by Val MacElravy, Stan Passfield and Bob Johnston; In 2006, CCI launched the Arts Education Forums project in partnership with Prologue to the Performing Arts and eyeGO To the Arts; In 2006 Marion Paquet facilitated a 2-day think-tank on re-energizing Ontario Contact; In 2007, CCI initiated its Values and Benefits Study led by Ken Coulter of the Oakville Centre for Performing Arts and project managed by Cheryl Ewing with support by WolfBrown and Associates and the Major University Presenters Consortium (US); In 2008 CCI began working with Charles C. Smith to develop CPPAMO. Smith made a presentation to CCIs annual retreat in Chatham and Heidi McKenzie later joined CPPAMO as a resource to assist its development; In 2008, CCI initiated Ontario Dances, developing competencies in dance curation, with assistance by the Ontario Arts Councils dance office. The 3year project is managed by Judy Harquail; In 2009, CCI initiated its Network Mapping initiative as a participant in a MetaMapping Community of Practice led by Liz Rykart of MetaStrategies;
In 2009, CCI will engage in a third strategic review to be held in the early fall. In addition to the above, CCI holds an annual retreat and offers Arts Leadership Institutes. It also works with other National and Regional Presenting Network (NRPN) Executive Directors in developing national and regional strategies for arts presentation. Brief descriptions of these CCI projects and initiatives are provided below.
2.4.1
Fresh Start:
This is a third party granting program administered by CCI on behalf of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The program disperses approximately $170K in grants each year to emergent culturally diverse and non-incorporated performing arts presenters and festivals that are otherwise not eligible to apply to Arts Presentation Canadas main funding program. While the funds were originally targeted to Aboriginal and diverse ethnoracial communities, the purpose of program is to enable emerging presenters to have the capacities to approach the Department of Canadian Heritage for funding as a mature presenting organization and has expanded to go beyond funding these primary communities. The program has three-to-four intakes each year and funding is awarded on average between $1,500 and $5,000 for activities that range from a single event to a weekend of activities. Interested organizations are informed through the Department of Canadian Heritage, through CCIs e-newsletter, through Community Arts Ontario, and through regional and local offices of provincial ministries involved in arts and/or heritage. All of these sources refer potential applicants for consideration. There are approximately 40 applicants per year and the application process is supported by a jury with members from diverse communities and those recommended by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Over the years, this program has funded 187 organizations for a total of $732,660.00. Of these, 83 recipients have been Aboriginal and ethnoracial organizations with 31 Aboriginal and 52 ethnoracial. While these organizations comprise just less than 50% of the total grant recipients, it is notable to see the decrease in funding of Aboriginal and ethnoracial organizations following the programs first two years. For example, in 200304 and in 2004-05, a total of 22 Aboriginal organizations (11 each year) received funding while a total of 28 culturally diverse organizations (14 each year) received funding. For the following years, from 2005-2009, only 9 Aboriginal and 24 ethnoracial organizations received funding.
2.4.2
Healthy Arts Leadership:
This initiative is a facilitated leadership strengthening program based on the U.S. body of work developed by Arts Action Research (AAR). AAR works to connect an organizations core principles with healthy organizational functioning, professional leadership and a healthy professional leadership-board relationship. AAR works with arts organizations to enable them to increase their ability to articulate artistic values and to function within an arts-based process, e.g., using creative processes inherent in the
artistic process4. In Toronto, the AAR approach was used in the Arts For Change initiative that occurred between 1996-99. The aim of this initiative was to enable Toronto-based, mid-size performing arts organizations to get out of debt and stabilize themselves. It also aimed to support these groups in sharing resources. Some twenty-five organizations were involved in integrating the key values of the Arts for Change initiative, i.e., being adaptive, relevant and ready for change. Centred within the arts community, the initiative prepared its members to be able to respond to the OAC Endowment Program (1999-2001) that promoted sharing amongst artists. OAC funding assisted these organizations in understanding and respecting each other and supported them to work together in fundraising. This initiative later transformed itself into the Creative Trust Working Capital for the Arts. CCI adapted the technical assistance component of The Creative Trust for its members, launched a pilot test phase with four member sites in 2005-06 and rolled out the entire program in 2006/07. CCI member organizations involved in this initiative are: Oakville, Sarnia, Markham, Chatham, North Bay, Brampton, Owen Sound, Peterborough, Orillia, Parry Sound and Meadowvale (Mississauga). Some of these members are municipallybased performance venues. These differ significantly from other members because of their hierarchical decision-making reporting structures and processes. Some CCI members involved in this initiative are stand-alone non-profit organizations. Based on complexity theory5, the Healthy Arts Leadership (HAL) approach suggests the following processes are most effective to enabling arts organizations: a) using discovery and co-learning which embeds organizational development in the acknowledgement that each organization has a unique vision, perspective and way of working; b) designing without engineering which requires working with an arts organization on the basis of its strengths; c) identifylng continuity and the strength an organization can derive from it;
d) valuing variety and diversity of experiences as both learning and teaching

opportunities6 In working with the aforementioned organizations, the Healthy Arts Leadership ( HAL)
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An Elegant Process: The Artistic Process/The Planning Process (2007); Growing Audiences: Creating Value, Meaning and Energy (2005); Leading Arts Boards: An Arts Professionals Guide (2005), Nello McDaniel and George Thom, ARTS Action Issues New York 5 Complexity theory has been defined as a mode of thought which suggests that that critically interacting components self-organize to form potentially evolving structures exhibiting a hierarchy of emergent system properties. This theory takes the view that systems are best regarded as wholes, and studied as such, rejecting the traditional emphasis on simplification and reduction as inadequate techniques on which to base this sort of scientific work. Quantifying Complexity Theory, Chris Lucas at 2. See also Complexity Theory and Management Practice, Jonathan Rosenhead 6 The Arts Action Research Process of Work, no date, Nello McDaniel and George Thom
project, as it was named, set five goals. Some of these included: 1) 2) helping the organizations leadership articulate the goals, opportunities, problems, etc., they want to address; needs,
designing a planning approach that is organic and appropriate; keeping the working accordance with timelines.7 process focused, realistic and in
3)
As a result of this process, the members involved are learning how to: i. ii. iii. embed planning processes to take care of the organization and not just the show; learning to work as leaders, not simply as managers; and deal with risk averse environments, e.g., municipal entities, changing funding levels and fluctuations in audience numbers.
The process takes time and the organizations have been actively engaged in this for the past four years. During this time, some of the organizations involved are developing viable models that recognize that their venues are not exclusive clubs for privileged members but are entities that belong to the community. In this regard, some of these organizations have begun to refocus their activities that seem to be unreflective of their communities, tend to be white and older and have challenges with inclusion of diverse communities and artistic forms of expression. Some organizations operate in an old school fashion with a traditional hierarchical structure more suited for non-arts organizations, e.g., reports to the board from an executive director using antiquated models of recommendations and approvals as opposed to considering the healthy arts approach that values the competencies of artists and the artistic vision of the organizations management staff.
2.4.3
Values and Benefits Study:
This study is a three-year investigation aimed at identifying and revealing the intrinsic impact of live performing arts experiences on audiences. As an associate in the larger US MUPS study, CCIs study provides local presenters with protocols and survey tools to gather evidence from their audiences and discern a variety of intrinsic impacts at play. The next phase of the study will produce a segmentation analysis to produce identifiable values-motivated audience clusters to shape programming, messaging and audience service engagement practices. This study grew out of a professional development opportunity offered by CCI featuring Jerry Yoshitmi who suggested discussing this matter with WolfBrown Consultants who were doing similar research in the U.S.A. CCI was interested in a made in Canada study and began to work with six communities: Oakville, Peterborough, Parry Sound, St. Catherines, Markham and Waterloo Region.
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CCI Healthy Arts Leader (HAL) Final Report, no date
In exploring how people value culture at an intrinsic level, this study is a departure from the notions of economic benefits of the performing arts that have become so prevalent. The concept of this study is to understand the audience and their interests as a springboard to assist presenters in developing more inclusive language in their relationship with audiences. The response to the survey has been excellent and has used a two-pronged approach: i. ii. A form is filled out in the theatre by audience members after a performance; and Follow-up interviews are held within 24 hours with those who filled out the survey. These in-depth interviews take about 1 hour and are done by trained volunteers.
The study was implemented in the Spring 2008 and surveyed 4-6 performances in each venue or approximately 200 per venue. The in-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of existing audiences as a means to develop an understanding of them. A total of 189 interviews were conducted with 127 of these specific to presenter audiences. While those surveyed were able to identify their country of origin as a survey response, there have been some challenges regarding the diversity of audiences surveyed and interviewed. Aside from the aforementioned category, it is not possible to determine the Aboriginal or ethnoracial composition of the audiences surveyed and interviewed and there is a strong perception that audiences were fairly homogenous.
2.4.4
Ontario Contact:
This is an annual booking and showcase conference serving touring artists as well as presenters from across Ontario and outside the province and agents/managers. Essentially a showcase/networking opportunity for presenters and artists, Ontario Contact offers showcase opportunities where artists perform for presenters who are considering what to place in their venues. There is an application process for performers/artists and applications are accepted in the spring for the fall event. A jury meets in May to deliberate on the applications received. Usually 150-200 applications are received and the jury may select 40 50. The selection criteria are based on artistic excellence and the impact on a performer/artists career. The jury tends to prefer newcomers so that it can expand performance opportunities for audiences across Ontario. Selections ensure a balance between music, theatre, dance and other performing arts disciplines. There are four people on the jury and the following qualities are considered in selecting the jury: someone from the previous year; a volunteer; some one with a classical music background; knowledge of young audience; and experience in theatre/music/dance. The jury makes selections and a back-up list in the event of cancellations.
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Ontario Contact lasts 3-4 days and there are usually about 40 showcases for 15-18 minutes each. Theatre and dance are given 30 minutes per performance as they need more technical support. Many presenters come to Ontario Contact on a voluntary basis, watch the artists/performers and make recommendations to their organization. Based on the observations of the event manager/project lead, there is some diversity amongst the performers/artists involved. For example: Of 149 applications in 2008, 10% were from ethnoracial performers (i.e., the lead singer or composition of the act was ethnoracial) and, of these, 16% were successful in gaining a showcase spot; In 2009, there have been 159 applications with 12% from ethnoracial performers and with 15% successful in gaining a showcase. This is despite the fact that the number of showcases has decreased from 49 to 40 from the previous year. One issue now being considered is how to assist the performing artist in understanding what presenters are looking for. There have also been challenges related to classical music and young audience venues that are usually run by volunteers who have access to limited budgets and want all showcase activities on a single day as they have to take time off work to attend. As well, cross-over opportunities are limited and in 2008 the classical and young audience venues were programmed against each other which will not happen in 2009
2.4.5
Ontario Dances:
This is a threeyear pilot project developed in partnership with OAC to cultivate contemporary dance curatorial competencies and audiences at eight multi-disciplinary presenting venues across Ontario. It includes funding assistance for presenters to attend dance performances and professional development opportunities with leading, contemporary dance artists, artistic directors and presenters who provide arts education in their communities. Now in its second year, the program aims to increase dance performances in venues outside of the Greater Toronto Area and to break down the perception that dance is an urban phenomenon. The program uses a juried process where each presenter selects one dance program for each of the projects three years. CCI receives funds to do follow-up work with the presenters and performers. Each presenter is progressing in different stages and developing curatorial competencies. It is anticipated that this approach may be transferable to curatorial competency development in other performing arts disciplines such as theatre and music. In the projects first year, three presenters were involved along with two dance companies, KaHa-Wa Dance, led by Aboriginal dancer and choreographer Sante Smith, and Dreamwalker, led by Asian dancer and choreographer Andrea Nann. Currently, there are seven presenting communities involved Oakville, North Bay, Orillia, Chatham, St. Catharines, Kitchener and Guelph. However, aside from the audience education work in North Bay being led by South Asian dancer and
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choreographer, Nova Bhattacharya, there are no diverse dance programs being presented in the projects second year.
2.4.6
Block Booking:
A curatorial learning and tour coordination service provided to presenting members, this project supports presenters who wish to engage in collaborative buying of performances as a way to reduce costs and to coordinate promotion, publicity and contractual arrangements with performers. This program also helps to develop the curatorial competencies of presenters as well as the collegiality of CCI members who share performers/performances and the contractual logistics to engage them. In 2006-07, 35 tours were booked and 11 of these were of artists from Aboriginal and ethno-racial communities. In 2007-08, of the 44 tours booked, 11 were from diverse communities and in 2008, of the 45 tours booked, 12 were from diverse communities.
2.4.7
Ontario Classical Music Network:
This is a network-forming initiative aimed at bringing specialized presenters of classical music together to strengthen their presenting and audience engagement practices. The Netwok is now in its incubation stage and has been in a developmental process as a result of the interests of classical music presenters across Ontario. As a result of the transitions described earlier in terms of the demise of both the Columbia Artists Community Concert Association and the OAC Touring Office, these presenters began to experience a significant reduction of presenting opportunities and volunteers in their communities as there was no longer a focal point to coordinate their activities and, also, valuable resources were no longer available to assist them. In the past, the OAC Touring Offices five regional touring consultants assisted volunteer community presenters with information, resources and connections with the OACs Touring Office. When the OAC Touring Office closed, this service to regional presenters was discontinued. Subsequently, the volunteer resources needed to run communitybased presenting organizations under the existing volunteer-run models developed in the late 1970s suffered. Following the closure of the OAC Touring Office, presenters were without critical resource support and, as a result, retreated into survival mode and learned helplessness as there was no advocate for their group and their activities. It was also evident that fewer and fewer classical presenters were attending Ontario Contact. In discussions with CCI, classical presenters articulated their desire to return Ontario Contact to a functional format that served their specific needs, i.e., showcases, advocacy, training and education as well as a focal point for connections and networking. In 2004, the OAC and CCI initiated discussions on this issue and in 2006, Jane Marsland facilitated an early meeting that resulted in CCI assuming a lead role in bringing classical music back to Ontario Contact in 2006. Following this, the Network developed the following vision and mission statements:
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VISION: The Ontario Classical Music Network envisions all people having the opportunity to experience the transformative power of live classical music MISSION: The mission of the Ontario Classical Music Network is to foster and promote classical music by strengthening and supporting leadership in classical music presenting.
2.4.8
Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership:
The Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership (MCPP) was established in 2006 following a series of successful forums on Municipal Cultural Planning (MCP) in Ontario. These forums were held in Orillia, Peterborough, Sudbury, Mississauga, Cambridge, StrathroyCaradoc, Kenora and Perth. The audience for these forums included: mayors and other elected officials, senior municipal staff, as well as community, cultural and business leaders. To continue the development of MCP, the Centre for Cultural Management at the University of Waterloo and CCI entered into a collaborative agreement in order to secure project funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. CCIs interest in MCPP stems from the fact that many of its members are running municipally-owned facilities and the practice of MCP calls for their involvement and leadership. CCM has obtained a number of grants from the Ministry of Cultures Cultural Strategic Investment Fund. CCI obtained funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation in 2005 and in 2007. These funds supported the establishment and maintenance of project office at the University of Waterloo and numerous projects that raise awareness of and capacity for MCP. MCPP raises awareness of MCP by hosting workshops and forums and delivering presentations at conferences and meetings. MCPP provides technical assistance to municipalities interested in pursuing MCP by connecting experienced practitioners with those new to the practice. MCPP provides an opportunity for MCP practitioners to learn from each other and contribute to the development of this emerging practice through meetings and networking. MCPP s mission is: To support municipalities in integrating culture into all facets of community planning and decision-making as a means of building healthy, prosperous and sustainable communities. MCPP will do this by harnessing the expertise and resources of its member partners. Its values are to: 1. Respect Local Leadership local leaders best understand their communities and have the capacity to affect change 2. Acknowledge Different Contexts municipal perspectives and needs vary due to size, location and economic or other circumstances; respect these differences; and 3. Emphasize Results support continuous monitoring and evaluation of results8
Interest in and commitment to MCP across Ontario has steadily increased since the
8
www.ontarioMCPP.ca
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series of forums in 2005 and 2006. At that time, very few Ontario municipalities were seriously considering the role of culture in their communities, including its role in economic development. Since this series of forums, 55 municipalities have undertaken MCP initiatives. In the last year (2008/2009) approximately 20 municipalities have recognized the importance of culture by pursuing MCP.
2.4.9
CPPAMO:
A new three-year facilitated approach to open opportunities for Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers to engage with audiences across Ontario, CPPAMO is a collaborative movement aimed at mobilizing and empowering the performing arts communities of Ontario in their pursuit of sustainable change in the areas of pluralism. The project mandate is to: 1) identify the challenges in promoting cultural pluralism in performing arts organizations; 2) identify and promote evidence-based practice models of cultural pluralism in performing arts organizations on such matters as: a. developing audiences inclusive of diverse communities; b. promoting/marketing performances to diverse communities; c. developing collaborative touring projects with performing arts organizations from diverse communities; d. recruiting board, staff, volunteers and artists from diverse communities; 3) providing education and training to performing arts organizations to build their knowledge, skills and capacities in the area of cultural pluralism; 4) develop and provide resource support to performing arts organizations engaged in integrating cultural pluralism into their organizations, e.g., programming, marketing, board/staff/volunteer engagement. It will also provide opportunities for CCI itself to develop its resources and capacities to support pluralism in the arts through its resources and member services.
2.4.10 Arts Education Forums Partnership:

From 2006-2009, this educational initiative involved convening artists, presenters and educators in an effort to build arts education programs at the local community level. The initiative was implemented in partnership between CCI and eyeGO to the Arts and Prologue to the Performing Arts with funding provided by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Department of Canadian Heritage. The project involved convening a series of forums to discuss presenting arts for children and these forums were held in Sarnia, Kitchener, Ottawa and Peterborough and addressed such issues as outreach to educators, artists and presenters and how to engage each in promoting performances through local schools. As a result of these forums, a lessons-learned session is scheduled for Ontario Contact in 2009.
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2.4.11 NRPN Learning Intensive:

Held in Banff, an initial three-day program aimed at strengthening the network leadership skills of the Canada National and Regional Presenting Network (NRPN) Executive Directors, this Intensive was co-developed by CCI, BCTC, CAPACOA and Atlantic Presenters Association for 12 Executive Directors from Anglo and Francophone networks. The Intensive was partially self-funded by participants with additional funding support provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage and by CAPACOA. Following a needs assessment conducted through a survey questionnaire, the Intensive addressed the health of the leadership and, through this focus, provided opportunity for participants to gain perspective on work-life balance as well a professional and organizational growth and their commitment to it. Through a facilitated process, each participant was able to work through key personal and organizational challenges as well as consider network thinking and the potential of working in a community of practice. All of the participants found the session very valuable and participated in a teleconference follow-up to continue this conversation. As well, many participants are hopeful that this Intensive will be an annual event.
2.4.12 Arts Leadership Institute:

An annual event, the Arts Leadership Institute by invitation brings together 10-12 cultural leaders in the arts presentation field. The purpose of this is to provide these presenters with opportunities to re-balance their personal, professional and organizational life plans and to give them the space to re-energize in order to re-engage creatively in their efforts. CCI members have participated in three of these sessions since 2006 and another one is now being planned for the fall 2009.
2.4.13 Pan-Canadian Task Force on Touring & Presenting:

Begun in 2008, this is a national initiative co-led by CAPACOA and other NRPNs. Its purpose is to gather and reveal evidence of Canadas touring and presenting sectors impact on the lives of all Canadians. This project emerged out of a meeting in Ottawa in June 2007. Terms of reference have been developed for this project and an advisory committee struck to guide its work. It is anticipated that this project will take 5 years to complete as it will engage all sectors involved in performing arts, including unions, presenters, performers, researchers, academics, etc.
2.4.14 Network Mapping:

A new initiative begun in early January 2009, Network Mapping aims to provide opportunities for CCI to learn about effective ways to map and encourage network development among the provinces performing arts presenters. The Project is led by Meta Strategies president Liz Rykert and lead facilitator June Holley. The results of the
15
mapping will be used to develop and strengthen touring and presenting networks in the province, including opening links and performing opportunities for ethno-racial and Aboriginal touring artists and audiences.
3. CCI Initiatives Promoting Pluralism:

As described above, there are a few CCI projects that have promoted pluralism. These include: The CCI 2004 and 2008 Annual Retreats. For both of these events, CCI focused discussion with its members on notions of pluralism, equity and diversity. The 2004 retreat featured a panel presentation involving renowned South Asian dancer Menaka Thakker along with BaKari Eddison Lindsay of the Collective of Black Artists. In 2008, CCI featured a presentation by Charles C. Smith, Lecturer Cultural Pluralism in the Arts University of Toronto Scarborough and Founder/Lead Facilitator of CPPAMO. The Fresh Start Grants Program was initially targeted to support Aboriginal and ethnoracial presenters and, while the program focus has widened to include emerging presenters, it still receives and funds applications from presenters within ethnoracial communities. The Ontario Contact showcase provides opportunities for Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers to perform before presenters who may engage them for touring opportunities across Ontario.
It must also be noted that both the Values and Benefits and Network Mapping initiatives have the potential respectively to increase understanding of ethnoracial and Aboriginal audiences as well as support networking amongst presenters and Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers, artists and presenters. Effort is now underway to support this. Even though CCI has established itself amongst its members and within the broader performing arts community, it has not focused its efforts on pluralism in performing arts. Despite this, CCI has a keen interest to undertake work in this area based on its understanding of members interest and interactions with performing arts organizations across Ontario and Canada. To enable this, CCI began a relationship with CPPAMO in early 2008 and has placed the work of CPPAMO within the current movement for change within performing arts organizations. CCI has undertaken work with its members that will enable this project to take place with little difficulty. CCIs work on the Healthy Arts project as well as its efforts to build the curatorial capacities of its members in the discipline of dance are excellent points of intersection with the goals and strategic planning of CPPAMO. In essence, CCI members are engaged in processes of change and CPPAMO can assist this since CCI members are looking to showcase performances of cultural expressions from diverse Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities. To enable this to take place, however, requires building the will, capacities, cultural competencies and
16
understanding of CCI members so that they engage performances from these communities and, thereby, enable audiences across Ontario to access artistic expressions from diverse communities on a regular basis. CPPAMO is essentially an organizational change activity aimed at integrating the values of pluralism into the core activities of performing arts organizations. The process started with a launch of its goals and objectives at the CCI Annual Retreat in May 2008. Following this, CPPAMO has initiated a series of facilitated interventions with ten (10) CCI members. At the same time, CCI has also reviewed its own organizational structure, decision-making processes, policies, programs and resources to identify its capacities to support the CPPAMO initiative. This phase in the organizational change process requires an assessment of CCI and its members to provide them with an overview of the project and to receive their input as to what they believe is needed to make this project a success. This phase also requires a review of CCI as the main partner in this process. This review has been done to ensure CCI is prepared to facilitate this project in the short-term and then sustain it into the future. CPPAMO aims to set in motion processes to address diverse representation reflective of Ontarios society in the boards and authorizing bodies (i.e. municipal governments), staff, artistic programming and audience reach of CCIs members. It has also initiated an ongoing forum for conversation/support to develop a cultural transformation within and outside of the arts communities. This will be implemented through several vehicles for change, including: facilitated consultations; bi-annual Town Halls on Pluralism in Performing Arts; workshops and professional development opportunities; development of resource guides, toolkits and model action plans; and research into evidence-based practices on pluralism in performing arts. As a result of these processes, it is anticipated that the following momentum will be developed: The education and training program will be set up in such as way as to provide performing arts organizations with practical guidance to enable them to successfully integrate culturally diverse values and principles in their operations, planning, programming and decision-making processes; Each participating organization will generate usable and tangible content that will inform the development and implementation of cultural pluralism into their day-today operations; The performing arts community in Ontario will have useful and appropriate tools and guides related to cultural pluralism; Diversity practice and implementation will be guided and facilitated by a professional equity/diversity arts consultant with hands-on and ongoing field experience; The commitment of participating organizations to the CPPAMO project will catalyze increased interest and proactive engagement throughout the sector as well as other arts disciplines; and Through integrating pluralism into its core member services, CCI will redefine notions of healthy arts and arts action research within the performing arts
17
community. This will ensure that these concepts, and related services, are seen as integral to and supportive of each other. The following CCI communities are being approached to participate in this process: Markham, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Oakville, Mississauga, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Ottawa, Kingston and Peterborough To support this process, a Roundtable on Pluralism in the Arts has been formed comprised of individuals and cultural workers engaged in a community of practice with demonstrated passion for pluralism in the arts. The Roundtable will be a co-learning resource towards identifying, discussing, guiding and steering the process by which the initiatives of CPPAMO will be undertaken. The members of the Roundtable include: Ms Anna Azrahimi, Canadian Childrens Peace Theatre Ms Farwah Gheewala, Education Coordinator, Soulpepper Theatre Mr. Perry Voulgaris, Director Digital Media Program CBC Ms Lata Pada, Sampradaya Dance Creations Ms Andrea Baker, fu-Gen Asian Theatre Company Ms Helen Yung, Canadian Arts Coalition and Culture Days Dr. Wayne Dowler, Cultural Pluralism in the Arts/University of Toronto Scarborough Mr. Dan Brambilla, Chief Executive Officer Sony Centre for the Performing Arts Ms Madeha Khalid, Community Relations Manager, Canadian Stage Mr. Phillip Akin, Obsidian Theatre Ms Mae Maracle, Centre for Indigenous Theatre Mr. Brainard Bryden-Taylor, Nathaniel Dett Chorale Ms Emily Chung, Little Pear Garden Theatre Collective Spy Denome-Welch, Aboriginal Playwright Ms Denise Fujiwara, CanAsian Dance Ms Charmaine Headley, Collective of Black Artists
As part of the overall process, effort is needed to bring together this Roundtable with CCI and its members in order to build relationships that will lead to increased opportunities for Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers to be presented in venues across Ontario.
4. Demographic Changes:
Supported by StatsCan Census data, Ontario is recognized for its diverse communities including Aboriginal peoples and peoples with diverse first languages, religious beliefs, cultural values, racial backgrounds, nationalities and distinct histories. Resulting from the growth of Aboriginal populations as well as vibrant immigration patterns, the composition of Ontario has changed dramatically over the past two decades and will continue this way into the foreseeable future. For example, in 2006, 19.1% of the Ontario population was comprised of individuals from racialized (i.e., visible minority) communities and this is by far the most significant population centre for these communities comprising over 2.2 million peoples and representing 54% of all racialized peoples in Canada. The most significant communities within this demographic are
18
the South Asian (554,870), Chinese (481,505) and Black (411,095) 9. Aboriginal peoples comprised 3.3% of Canadas population with Ontario as the place where most of these individuals reside (188,315)10. In some areas, these demographic shifts have brought about remarkable changes to the social, economic, political and cultural landscape of the province. Along with these changes, however, have emerged many challenges related to engaging these communities in all aspects of public life, including performing arts. As is noted in the Ontario Arts Councils Strategic Plan 2008-2013: Today Ontario, with 13 million people, is Canadas most populous and culturally diverse province and home to vibrant Aboriginal communities. Half of all immigrants to Canada between 2001 and 2006 settled in Ontario. In the 2006 Census, Ontarians reported more than 200 ethnic origins, and 2.7 million Ontarians identified themselves as visible minorities. Almost a quarter of a million people in Ontario are Aboriginal. Of that number, 62 per cent live in urban areas.11 The research of the Ontario Trillium Foundation provides details related to this diverse population12. Based on census data for 2001 and 2006, the OTF notes that:
Between 2001 and 2006, the non-English/non-French mother tongue speaking population grew 13% from 2,672,0855 to 3,134,045, almost triple the provinces total population growth of 6.6%13;
Aboriginal communities increased by 28.8% during this same period, growing from
188,315 to 242,490, and now comprising 2% of the Ontario population14; Ontario has a higher proportion of ethnoracial peoples than any other province or territory in Canada with 2,745,200 peoples comprising 22.8% of the provincial population;
More than 50% of the countrys ethnoracial communities live in Ontario with the South
Asian, Asian and African descent groups forming the most numerous of these communities, and with South Asians for the first time forming the largest of these groups15; More than 25% of the provinces peoples are foreign-born, far higher than the national average (19.8%), with 17% of this population arriving in Ontario between 2001 and 2006 or 580,740 people;
9
See Ontario Ministry of Finance Census 2001 Highlights: FactSheet 6: Visible Minorities and Ethnicity in Ontario, 1-2 10 Ibid at 5 11 OAC 2008 at 12 Your Communities in Profile: Ontario 2008 13 Ibid 18 14 Ibid 20 15 Ibid 22
19
Save for the present time, the 1990s were Ontarios highest intake of immigrants historically;
At the current time, projections for future immigration indicates that the levels for new
arrivals may result in even higher settlement numbers between 2001 and 201016.
4.1
Demographic Changes and CCI Member Communities:
These provincial wide changes are mirrored and lived in local communities, each of which has its own particulars to work with. This is something the CCI communities seem to recognize. Whether Markham, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Oakville, Mississauga, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Ottawa, Kingston or Peterborough, each of these communities has and is experiencing significant shifts in their local populations. Increased numbers of South Asians, Asians, Aboriginal peoples and those of African descent, are evident across Ontario. These changes have mostly taken place in the past twenty years largely as a result of the upward ceiling placed on immigration to such levels as 250,000 per year, most of whom settle in Ontario. Based on recent census data, It is clear that the communities noted above are experiencing some version of this right now. Each has felt the varying changes to their local neighbourhoods, giving each a different texture but a common challenge. Some of these changes within the aforementioned communities include17: Markham: This community has grown by 25.4% from 2001 to 2006, from 208,615 to 261,573, and with: 152,440 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 147,400 or over 50% of the total population whereas this group was at 68,845 before 1991 and grew by 58,680 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 18,875 between 2001 and 2006 for a total of over 77,000 peoples over a 15 year period; the Aboriginal community comprising 405 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 170,535 or over 50% of the total population with the most significant numbers in the Chinese (89,300) and South Asian (44,9,95) communities. Oakville: This community has grown by 6.6% from 2001 to 2006, from 144,738 to 165,613 and with: 41,595 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 50,250 of the total population whereas this group was at 31,710 before 1991 and grew by 11,270 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 6,820 between 2001 and 2006 for a total of over 18,540 peoples over a 15 year period;
16 17
Ibid 24 The statistics used in this section of the report are all derived from Statistics Canada, 2006 Community Profiles. See also Ontario Ministry of Finance Census 2001 Highlights: FactSheet 6: Visible Minorities and Ethnicity in Ontario
20
the Aboriginal community comprising 665 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 30,315 of the total population with the most significant numbers in the South Asian (9,945), Chinese (5,260) and Black (3,535) communities Kingston: This community has grown by 2.6% from 2001 to 2006, from 114,195 to 117,207, and with: 12,755 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 16,205 of the total population whereas this group was at 11,600 before 1991 and grew by 2,550 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 2,050 between 2001 and 2006 for a total of over 4,600 peoples over a 15 year period; the Aboriginal community comprising 2,360 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 8,150 of the total population. Guelph: This community has grown by 8.3% from 2001 to 2006, from 106,170 to 114,943, and with: 22,545 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 24,110 of the total population whereas this group was at 14,570 before 1991 and grew by 5,715 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 3,820 between 2001 and 2006 for a total of over 9,535 peoples over a 15 year period; the Aboriginal community comprising 1,290 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 15,800 of the total population. Brampton: This community has experienced population changes at many levels with a 33.3% population increase from 2001 to 2006, from 325,428 to 433,896 persons and with: 190,610 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 206,190 of the total population whereas this group was at 94,675 before 1991 and grew by 68,620 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 42,890 between 2001 and 2006 for a total of over 110,000 peoples over a 15 year period; the Aboriginal community comprising 2,665 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 246,150 or over 50% of the total population with particularly strong numbers in the South Asian (136,750) and Black (53,340) communities Richmond Hill: This community has increased by 23,2% between 2001 and 2006, from 132,030 to 162,704 and with: 89,060 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 83,335 or over 50% of the total population whereas this group was at 37,095 before 1991 and growing by 33,875 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 12,360 between 2001 and 2006 for a total of over 46,000 peoples over a 15
21
year period; the Aboriginal community comprising 315 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 73,885 or just less than 50% of the total population with particularly high numbers in the Chinese (34,615), South Asian (11,320) and West Asian/Arab (13,050) communities Ottawa: This community has increased by 4.9% between 2001 and 2006, from 774,072 to 812,129 persons and with: 173,145 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 178,545 of the total population whereas this group was at 96,200 before 1991 and growing by 52,690 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 29,650 between 2001 and 2006 for a total of over 126,000 peoples over a 15 year period; the Aboriginal community comprises 12,250 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 161,720 of the total population with particularly high numbers in the Black (30,070), Chinese (30,760), South Asian (26,510) and Arab (24,105) communities. Mississauga: This community has experienced an increase of 9.1% between 2001 and 2006, from 612,925 to 668,549 peoples. Of this population: 333,495 reported a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprised 343,250 of the total population whereas this group was at 157,560 before 1991 and grew by 110,875 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 74,805 between 2001 and 2006; the Aboriginal community comprises 2,475 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 326,425 or just less than 50% of the total population with particularly strong numbers in the South Asian (134,750), Chinese (46,120) and Black (41,365) communities Kitchener and Waterloo: This community has experienced an increase of 9% between 2001 and 2006, from 438,515 to 478,121 and with: 111,035 reporting a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprising 105,375 of the total population whereas this group was at 63,395 before 1991 and growing by 24,955 between 1991 and 2000 and then again by 17,020 between 2001 and 2006; the Aboriginal community comprising 4,810 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 61,980 of the total population with particularly high numbers in the South Asian (16,415), Black (9,510) and Chinese (9,200) communities Peterborough: This community has grown by 4.8% between 2001 and 2006, from 71,446 to 74,898. Of this population:
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4,735 reported a first language other than English or French; immigrants comprised 7,340 85 of the total population whereas this group was at 5,705 before 1991; the Aboriginal community comprises 1,690 of the total population in 2006 while racialized groups comprised 2,625. Most scenarios suggest that the changes in these, and other Ontario, communities will only accelerate over time and the proportion of Aboriginal, immigrant and racialized communities will continue to increase at rates faster than their European counterparts. Some cities have already witnessed changes in the numerical majority of their communities and most of this has come about during the last twenty years, a short period of time18. Coming to accept and work with this is inevitable.
4.2
New and Different Audiences:
These demographic shifts are having, and will continue to have, recognizable imprints on the faces of Ontarios cities and towns. In terms of their interest in performing arts, it is questionable as to how presenters will change what they do to engage these growing communities even though such a change initiative is a fairly important topic amongst these organizations. It is, after all, a movement into something that is not known and that somehow challenges all involved to engage in a critical self- and organizational assessment and, based on that, a realignment of their personal and organizational behaviours and values.. These are the challenges the CCI members engaged in this process will experience and, through a set of facilitated sessions, will be supported to continuously build their own understanding, will, capacities, anti-racist and cultural competencies so that they work well with and engage performers and audiences from diverse communities while, at the same time, enabling audiences across Ontario to access artistic expressions from its diverse communities on a regular basis.
4.3
Aboriginal and Ethnoracial Performers:
As might be expected, similar to the increased percentage of the population comprised of Aboriginal peoples and ethnoracial groups, there has been a significant increase in the artists, particularly performing artists, within these communities. This is especially evident for ethnoracial artists, including racialized19 and immigrant groups. Based on analysis of the 2001 census, Hill Strategies Diversity in Canadas Arts Labour Force 20 suggests many revealing pieces of information, including:
18
See Alain Belanger and Eric Caron Malenfant Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada: Prospects for 2017, and, Krishna Pendakur Visible Minorities in Canadas Workplaces: A Perspective on the 2017 Projection 19 The term racialzed refers to people of colour, e.g., South Asians, Asians, persons of African descent, Latinos 20 Statistical Insights on the arts, Vol. 3 No.3, February 2005
23
racialized artists combined for 8.9% of all Canadian artists, Aboriginal peoples combined for 2.5% of all Canadian artists and immigrants combined for 20% of all Canadian artists;
Ontario accounts for 50% of the racialized and immigrant artists in Canada with the
overwhelming number of these artists living in metropolitan areas while Aboriginal artists tend to live outside metropolitan areas21;
corresponding with increases in immigrant settlement, racialized and immigrant artists

grew strongly between 1991 and 2001 by 74% and 31% respectively22;
the most common disciplines for racialized artists include musicians and singers,
producers, directors, choreographers, writers and actors23;
between 1991 and 2001, the number of racialized artists more than doubled in such
areas as actors, dancers, producers, directors, choreographers occupations, exceeding the increase by artists in all other groups24; and related
Ontario is home to 50% of all racialized artists and these artists comprise 11% of the
provinces artists25;
between 1991 and 2001, there was a slight widening in earnings between racialized
and other artists (9.8% to 11.3%), however, this small disparity is notably increased in such professions as acting (-21%), dancing (-14%), as well as amongst musicians and singers (-18%), and producers/directors/choreographers (-20%)26;
racialized artists in Ontario have the highest average earnings when compared to their
counterparts in other provinces but still lag 15% behind all other artists in the province27;
across Canada, while most Aboriginal artists are involved in crafts, there are numerous
artists involved in performing arts as musicians and singers, writers, producers, directors and choreographers28;
Ontario is home to 20% of all Aboriginal artists comprising 1.2% of all Ontario artists29; Aboriginal artists earned on average 28% less than all other artists in Canada with
actors, dancers and other performers making 13% less, and, producers, directors, choreographers making 30% less30;
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Executive Summary 1-3 Ibid 4 Full report 3 Ibid 3-4 Ibid 4 Ibid 7 Ibid 8 Ibid 10 Ibid 11 Ibid 2-13
24
while Aboriginal artists have their highest earnings in Ontario, these artists make 21%
less than the average earnings of all other Ontario artists31;
the largest number of immigrant artists arrived in Canada between 1991 and 2001 with
the most common areas of creative expression in musicians and singers (20%), writers (20%), and producers, directors and choreographers (19%) with actors amongst this group more than doubling32;
Ontario is home to 49% of all immigrant artists33; Immigrant artists earnings are 1.4% less than the average for all other artists.
However, between 1991 and 2001, their earnings increased 13% which is 50% less than the average increase for all other Canadian artists.34 Unfortunately, the Hill Strategies report does not correlate racialized and immigrant artists. However, judging from the immigrant settlement patterns noted earlier, it is quite likely that many immigrant artists are also racialized. What is also very notable is the dramatic increase in the number of Aboriginal, racialized and immigrant artists since 1991. While this has contributed to the diversity of Canadian artists, particularly those in Ontario, and has likely provided a broader span of cultural forms, histories and artistic standards and values to audiences, it is also likely that the significant disparities in earnings for Aboriginal, racialized and immigrant artists are attributable to them being less employed than other artists. This is particularly notable in the areas of performing arts and may be attributable to a number of factors, including the relative newness of these artists as well as the diverse cultural forms and values they bring to the arts that are different than the Eurocentric values and practices of other Canadian artists. In fact, the latter may be directly related to the lesser rate of earnings of Aboriginal, racialized and immigrant artists since their forms of expressions and stories (including myths, iconography, references, techniques, etc.) may draw on the rich histories and traditions of their own cultures and not be based on Eurocentric norms. Many in the arts field, including presenters, may see this as being not appropriate for their audiences. The obvious challenge here is for the arts community generally, and presenters particularly, to begin to understand that it is not possible to use traditional Western modes to assess the merits of diverse artistic forms and expressions from Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities 35. Longstanding standards of excellence only need to be re-assessed against the measure of a critical capacity, one that considers the standpoint of presenters, i.e., their relationship to the
31 32
Ibid 14 Ibid 16 33 Ibid 18 34 Ibid 19 35 For a more in-depth discussion on this issue, see Cornell West The New Cultural Politics of Difference, Homhi Bhabha The Location of Culture, Frances Henry and Carol Tator Challenging Racism in the Arts, Althea Prince The Writers Conference, Michael M. Ames Cannibals and Glass Boxes, Natasha Bakht, Mere Song and Dance, Michael Greyeyes Notions of Indian-ness, Kevin A. Ormsby Between Generations: Towards Understanding the Difference in Realities and Aspirations of the First and Second Generation of Culturally Diverse Artists, Little Pear Garden Theatre Collective Demystifying Chinese Aesthetics, Mennaka Thakker Dance Company and Kalannidhi Fine Arts of Canada Contemporary Choreography in Indian Dance
25
production of knowledge and their adherence to a selective tradition that honours the notion that universal values in the arts derive from the European systems against which others are then measured. Such an approach cuts short any dialogue about the values and selective traditions of Aboriginal and ethnoracial groups and their importance in influencing the creative expressions of artists from these communities.
5. CCI Challenges and Opportunities:

As is evident from the summary of CCIs projects as well as the issues identified in the environmental context, there is much to be done in the field of performing arts to meet the interests of Ontarios diverse communities, particularly its Aboriginal and ethnoracial population. CCIs Executive Director and project leads have already noted many of these challenges which, in some part, have been an underlying issue to CPPAMOs emergence and CCIs interest in engaging in a partnership with CPPAMO as one of its projects. In the context of pluralism, the challenges to performing arts are evident from three perspectives: 1) the ever-increasing demographic changes across Ontario, particularly in its urban centres; 2) the challenge to normative values based on Eurocentric traditions in the performing arts and how this relates to engaging diverse performances, audiences and communities; and 3) the increasing resilience of performing artists from Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities. While these can be clearly seen as challenges to performing arts in Ontario, they also represent unique opportunities for cultural change and transformation which has the potential to restructure normative values in performing arts and, by doing so, providing a broad range of cultural performances and values to communities across Ontario. To discuss these, it is first important to note the issues identified by CCIs Executive Director and project leads. It will then be useful to discuss the challenge to normative values in performing arts and the potential pluralism holds for the future of performing arts across Ontario, particularly in the context of CCIs vision to ensure performing arts opportunities are available across all of Ontarios communities.
5.1 Meeting Ontarios Interest in Performing Arts:

As a result of the two presentations on pluralism at CCIs annual retreats in 2004 and 2008, there are now CCI members interested in working to integrate the values and practices of pluralism into their day-to-day operations and working with CPPAMO. However, CCI members have been facing a very difficult year due to the current economic downturn and, as a result, are being challenged to maintain their current audiences.
26
As well, another key issue to consider is how to continue members growth and development while balancing the interest in pluralism with other supports provided by CCI, e.g., Healthy Arts Leadership, the Values and Benefits Study, Network Mapping and the Annual Arts Leadership education. While CCI is keenly interested in supporting its members to address the challenges and opportunities resulting from the increasing diversity of local communities across Ontario, local presenters need to begin to explore these challenges and undertake to engage their communities as performers, audiences, volunteers as well as board and staff members. In this regard, CCI and its members need to work on artist and audience engagement together with Aboriginal and racially diverse artists and communities to transform communities through art. Specific challenges to CCI projects and initiatives are summarized below.
Fresh Start:
While originally targeted to support the development of Aboriginal and ethnoracial performing arts, this program has had very few Aboriginal organizations applying for funding and has in its most recent years released significantly less funding to Aboriginal and ethno-racial groups. At the same time, the focus of this program has shifted from Aboriginal and ethno-racial presenters to emerging presenters which may mean that the communities originally interested in benefiting from this program appear not to have fared as well as anticipated. Further, the program does not fund festivals or Pow Wows which are now funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage. While this programs objectives are structured to support Aboriginal and ethnoracial performing arts organizations, there is insufficient data at this time to indicate the success rate of these organizations both in terms of applying for and receiving funding from other sources as well as being able to access funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage for ongoing development. For example, while the number of these organizations that have received funding was noted earlier, there is no data on the number that have applied. Further, the category used to group ethnoracial organizations does not provide the specificity needed to identify distinct communities (e.g., South Asian, Asian, African, etc) that have received funding support.
Ontario Dances:
For this program, the presenters make the choices of whom they would like to showcase. CCI assists presenters with the curatorial decision-making processes as well as setting a framework to enable selection. In doing this, similar to HAL, CCI uses a non-judgmental facilitation role to support presenters. As this is a new program, it is difficult to assess how performers from Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities will be engaged in this project over a significant period of time to identify trends and to then address them.
Block Booking:
This program is not intended to focus on pluralism and, as a result, the outcomes can be mixed in terms of the diversity of performers. Coordination with other presenters may impact on considering needs and interests of local communities and this may weigh against engaging Aboriginal and ethnoracial performing artists. Further, there is no data to identify specific challenges, issues and gaps that presenters may wish to address to support diversity in
27
performances. At the same time, there appears to be a considerable engagement of diverse performers over the years 2006-07, 2007-08, and 2008-09. While this is the case, there is an enormous opportunity through this project to enhance the promotion of pluralism. This, however, will require collaboration amongst the presenters who use this service and support from the CCI project lead.
Ontario Contact:
This project is finding that there is a need to increase presenters awareness of the diversity of performers interested in and available to perform across Ontario. To support this, it is important to look at how diverse performers are promoted and presented. Also, performers from Aboriginal and diverse communities, and these communities, do not have a relationship with the venues of CCI presenters but have performed in venues within their communities. In this regard, it may be critical for CCI presenters to offer performances within these communities and their venues as a way for CCI presenter members to be more socially engaged with diverse Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers. Further, it would probably assist presenters to engage hybrid performers, e.g., groups like AutoRikshaw, who can cross-over into classical and youth, jazz and contemporary while drawing their work from diverse histories and cultural heritages. There is also a growing network of diverse presenters whom it would be important to create partnerships with (EXAMPLES). Addressing these challenges would likely assist in establishing communication with diverse Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers and presenters to understand what they need from CCI and to make showcase opportunities more accessible to them. As for Ontario Contact itself, there seems to be a gap between what Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers think presenters want and how to meet these expectations. In this regard, it might be helpful for CCI to have workshops for performers/artists regarding how to go through the showcase process and to get performers/artists from diverse communities involved. As part of this, CCI will need to be more attentive as to the social, cultural and racialized identities of those submitting proposals to Ontario Contact, those whom have been selected and those who are then engaged by CCI presenter members.
Values and Benefits Study:

While there is no data to definitively identify the personal characteristics of the audiences that participated in this Study, it is important to support the continuation of the Values and Benefits Study with performance groups and presenters in diverse Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities to assess how their audiences respond to the performances they see. This may help these performers and presenters in having a better understanding of their audiences and, as well, it will help identify commonalities and differences with CCI members who have already participated in the Study.
Ontario Classical Music Network:

Given its recent development, there havent been opportunities to discuss in depth issues of pluralism within OCMN since most attention has been focused on revitalizing it. However, OCMN recognizes the diversity of communities that presenters are located in and has
28
considered some issues related to addressing pluralism in the context of its mandate, i.e., to present classical music and gather a range of diverse performers and audiences within this. The Lindsay community may be a model on how to do this. For example, the local presenter has worked with African drumming and Asian instrumentalists in order to broaden notions of the term classical. Lindsay has also actively provided exposure to other cultural forms a well as education and training on these forms and twinning with cities in different countries, e.g., Japan. While this model may not be so readily transferable, nearly all classical presenters are concerned about focusing on children and enabling them to develop an interest in classical music at a young age. OCMN acknowledges the demographic changes sweeping across Ontario and that it is important to begin planning for an acceleration of these demographic changes in small Ontario communities, e.g., increased immigration levels with families beginning to settle in small cities and towns as well as the potential impact of improved public transit systems enhancing travel across Ontario in the way the proposed train station in Peterborough seeks to do. While these changes can be intimidating, this is a good time for OCMN to address them as it engages in its own resurgence. During this time, OCMN has an invaluable opportunity to build pluralism into its work now so that it is a core value and grows with OCMN. This, however, cannot be done without considering the difficulty OCMN has to deal with in terms of budget restrictions and efforts to strengthen the Networks volunteer commitment, particularly to sustain and attract new individuals and to work with those who only want to be involved with a timelimited specific project. Another challenge to OCMN members is that funding for programming is largely reliant on ticket sales. This makes audience development and engagement important, especially since there are minimal capacities in OCMN right now. Also, the Network needs to plan for its development and will likely need to engage in a 2-3 year planning process to support and bring about change to reflect pluralism in its programming and other operations. One issue that will require attention is the need to look at outreach and communications with diverse Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities. Further, individual networks need to look at how they connect to young musicians from diverse backgrounds. There is also a need to ensure local communities can bring young Canadian music scholars home. This may address some issues of pluralism while, at the same time, contribute to the development of Ontarios classical music resources and capacities.
Healthy Arts Leadership:

As noted earlier, this project employs a facilitated process and non-judgmental role to support presenters professional and organizational development In this context, the project has had to address traditional organizational models/hierarchies that seem contrary to the artistic process. This is particularly evident in the municipally-operated venues that present even more entrenched models of organizational hierarchy which, in turn, limits the ability of its managers to use their creativity and judgment.
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At the same time, HAL is being implemented within organizations whose communities are facing significant demographic changes. As such, the organizations involved in HAL are unsure about outreach and programming, i.e., who to outreach to and how to program for diverse communities. This challenge is one other factor to consider amongst not-for-profit arts organizations that face several challenges related to a lack of strength amongst professional leadership, being under-resourced and simply managing performing spaces While HAL has had some progress, it has been difficult working with some members if their managers predominantly focus on maintaining performance venues as opposed to asserting the leadership needed to bring about changes to these performance venues, their staffing, board and performances. In addition, many CCI members: are over-extended and face significant challenges in attempting to do demographic analysis and outreach to their respective public; dont receive many opportunities to engage in reflective moments to assess their work; need to understand that developing consistent and inclusive programming is beyond marketing and public relations and involves the development of relationships between presenters and performers; need to examine who needs to be at the table and ensure it is inclusive of diversity, e.g., the Kitchener Culture Plan II process has an inclusive framework in which it purposefully went to diverse communities to find what was hidden; need to build pluralism, equity and diversity from the organizations strengths as well as to understand and build relationships with diverse audiences/different demographics that require program challenges and changes. While developing and maintaining community connections is key to change, CCI members in HAL will have to address the pressures of being under-resourced and how this will impact what they are doing and avoiding the notion that some will say this is extra work for which they are not resourced. As part of this, CCI members involved in HAL will need to focus on structural issues, e.g., leadership, resources, the board as a cultural army, promoting dialogue and learning within the organization, and moving from a prescriptive mode of operation to one of engagement and creative collaboration of individuals across the organization. To support this, HAL indicators could be used as a platform to help arts organizations address these issues. Also, the healthy arts leadership approach can be used as a model to enable CCI members to develop and articulate their values and beliefs regarding pluralism in performing arts and in their organizations as a whole.
Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership:

The success of this initiative is dependent on keeping municipalities at the centre of the process and having them consider culture in all aspects of what it does, its services, functions, businesses and communities. To assist this process, in 2006-08, the Department of Canadian Heritage initiated a grants program to support municipalities to engage in municipal cultural mapping. These funds were conditional on having a heritage aspect to the process.
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Given that MCPP may have raised expectations of those municipalities and communities it has engaged, there needs to be consideration on how to follow-up on the initial successes. In this regard, MCPP is working on a three-year strategic plan with specific workplans. Amongst other things, these plans will address how to meet unmet demands, e.g., interest of other cities like Kenora, and the need to be attentive to areas with Aboriginal populations nearby. MCPP has also developed a website that will need to be updated and maintained. At the same time, MCPP is not a racially diverse group and its forums have not been diverse either. This is a key priority for future work given the changes in demographics across Ontario. For example, one incident prompted concerns about racial insensitivity at an MCPP function. This prompted members to realize that diverse perspectives have not been at the table in any of the forums and that MCPP needs to consider proactively how to engage with pluralism and diversity so that it has a strategy for inclusion through a collective approach.
5.2
Integrating Pluralism Into CCIs Projects:
While CCI is attempting to integrate pluralism into all aspects of its work, it faces several organizational, i.e., systemic, barriers in doing so. Some of these barriers are related to CCIs administrative structure and its capacities to sustain the numerous projects the organization offers. Some barriers are related to the limited engagement of the project leads CCI relies on to carry out its mandate. Other barriers relate to CCIs relationship to its funding sources, particularly its reliance on project funding for several of its initiatives. These barriers have numerous impacts on, and present distinct disadvantages for, CCI as it undertakes to improve the capacities of professionals in the performing arts field and increase access to and interest in diverse forms of performances in communities across Ontario. In this context, it is evident that: 1) Since most CCI project leads are engaged for time-limited projects, it is difficult to maintain momentum for a project that requires more time to achieve its results than is allowed by the conditions of funding. For example, HAL is an important project to developing the capacities of CCI members, yet this project is reliant on project funds to provide services to meet this need. Also, Arts Education is a critical partnership between CCI, Prologue and eyeGO to the Arts as communities more educated in performing arts can likely be offered a wider range of performance opportunities. Further, Network Mapping provides possibilities for CCI to quickly assess various characteristics and resiliencies in the performing arts communities enabling it to support networking with other performing arts companies, performing artists and their networks. Despite the importance of these initiatives, they are reliant on project funding for their continuation and, given the competitive nature of project grant applications, it is not possible to forecast when these initiatives will be funded and the timeframe the funding, if provided, will include. This must be a frustrating situation for CCI members who wish to benefit from these services as they may be left with difficulties in planning their resources and committing them to initiatives that may or may not occur or may or may not be available on a basis consistent enough to support ongoing organizational development and change; 2) CCI project leads have limited opportunities to come together in order to share with and learn from each other. Given that project leads are engaged to work on specific initiatives and are compensated in this way, they do not have opportunities to come together to
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enhance their own knowledge of what each other is doing and to explore possibilities for relationship building across projects and, perhaps, working jointly on projects. This is a significant loss of potential that, if addressed, could enhance the quality and impact of CCI projects and improve the delivery of services by CCI project leads as they will be more familiar with other project work and serve to support CCI initiatives they are not directly working on. For example, Ontario Contact and Ontario Dances provide showcase opportunities for CCI members. As well, MCPP, HAL and Arts Leadership Institute focus on developing the leadership and management capacities of CCI members. An ongoing conversation between the project leads for each of these initiatives may serve to enhance their own provision of service and, thereby, increase the learning opportunities for CCI members; 3) CPPAMO itself is now a CCI project subject to the same restraints as other CCI initiatives, i.e., limited funding within a narrow timeframe. There is no guarantee that funding for CPPAMO will be renewed and that this project will be able to engage the remaining CCI members across Ontario. So while CPPAMO will work with CCI and ten of its members, it may not reach the bulk of the CCI presenter members to engage them in the work needed to promote pluralism in performing arts across Ontario. This is a short-sighted approach to change work as it only addresses a small portion of presenters even though Ontario communities are experiencing significant changes in their demographic make-up. 4) CCIs administrative structure is very lean and faces challenges in supporting all of CCI activities. On one hand, the Executive Director is engaged in leadership activities to support the organization in various sectors, including relationships with members, funders and organizations within and outside of the cultural sector as well as attending conferences and seminars relevant to presenters and the ecology of performing arts locally, provincially and nationally. This is demanding in-and-of itself and leaves little time for managing the day-to-day activities of the office and the administrative work needed to support CCIs programs, including staying abreast of the myriad reports required to fulfill conditions of funding received and to apply for additional funding to support ongoing projects and/or propose new activities.
5) Addressing the challenges of pluralism in the arts is a major challenge for CCI. One the
one hand, while funders have indicated their interest in and support of equity, diversity and pluralism36, there are no dedicated grants programs in the cultural sector to support organizations wishing to engage in a process of organizational change to address these issues. As a result, CCI, like many other organizations with similar interests, has to put forward its proposals for pluralism work into grant programs that address a wide-range of issues and needs. This level of competition may detract from the specific work required to implement initiatives on pluralism as funder juries and decision-makers do not directly assess such applications with criteria that specifically assesses these initiatives. The lack of funder resources directly dedicated to equity, diversity and pluralism make it nearly impossible for CCI, and other organizations, to undertake the work needed on these matters. While there are likely other issues CCI needs to address to promote pluralism, those identified above seem to be the most salient and systemic/core to the challenges CCI faces in promoting pluralism. Addressing these issues will enable CCI to move ahead on pluralism in a healthy and productive manner; failure to address them will leave CCI in an extremely disadvantageous and
36
See for example OACs Strategic Plan for the periods 2003-2006 and 2008-2013
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troubling position.
6. Moving Into The Change:

Despite the challenges noted immediately above and because of its many projects developed and supported by an entrepreneurial use of and relationship with project leads who have strong backgrounds in the arts, CCI has become quite a dynamic catalyst for growth of and transformation in performing arts across Ontario and nationally. It is this energy, integrity and promise that CCI has taken to address pluralism both in developing itself and its members and in promoting performing arts in Ontario communities. When reviewing the broad range of CCIs work, it is evident that integrating pluralism into CCI will have a significant impact on performing arts, particularly as it relates to the inclusion of Aboriginal and ethnoracial artists, presenters and Ontario communities. However, the sheer scope of CCIs work may make it difficult to integrate pluralism unless it is done strategically and in concert with CCIs projects. This will require CCI to play a lead role as a catalyst for change to promote pluralism by example and in its support to members. Regarding the latter, CCI will need to encourage and support its members to become involved in systemic change activities to promote pluralism, equity and diversity; regarding the latter, CCIs projects will need to examine the most appropriate ways to ensure their activities address pluralism as a core value; and, overall, CCI will need to monitor its current and future efforts in to assess and evaluate its success in these matters/
6.2 CCI As the Catalyst:

Given CCIs vision, it will face many challenges in promoting and integrating pluralism into its operations. However, as the catalyst for change within the performing arts community, CCI has many opportunities to achieve this. First of all, CCI can play a significant role in bringing communities together with presenters. This will require CCI and its members to explore the changing nature of community demographics e.g., trends in immigrant settlement, fertility rates of diverse communities, diversity in the youth population and cultural mapping to determine resources, capacities and linking points within Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities. CCI sees itself as a vehicle for the social engagement of communities in the arts that will result in growing the individual, the neighbourhood, the city, the province. As such, addressing pluralism directly in its work with members must be central to all of CCIs work. This is a role CCI needs to play in order to enable its members to grow and learn more about pluralism and its benefits. In this context, CCI has begun to see pluralism in the same way it does HAL, Ontario Contact, Ontario Dances and its other projects and understands that pluralism must inform their values and be a support to them as well. In terms of priorities for its members, CCI acknowledges that they need to: know their communities, their Aboriginal and ethnoracial composition and the capacities of these communities as well as their interests in performing arts; embrace the fear of pluralism as a challenge in order to go beyond the fear and
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to see pluralism as an opportunity; make sure pluralism efforts are practical and that there is clarity about whom it is for and how it will be implemented; make connections to local Aboriginal and ethnoracial community groups and establish networks as well as share resources with them; separate the real issues from the excuses in terms of embracing pluralism; create teams of presenters to work together to support pluralism; see the lack of diversity in what theyre doing and have greater and more frequent exposure to diverse performers through showcase opportunities for diverse performers; create acceptance of new forms of performances, new performers and developing curatorial competencies and organizational functioning that address pluralism as a core value; identify projects from Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities that they can work with.
Addressing these issues will assist CCI members in developing both a collective and individual organizational map to embracing the values of pluralism in their day-to-day activities.
6.2
CPPAMO The Catalyst Within the Catalyst:
CPPAMO was developed to assist CCI and its members in addressing pluralism in performing arts. As a result, CCI members are preparing to engage in processes of change in order to showcase performances of cultural expressions from diverse communities. To enable this to take place, however, requires building the will, capacities, cultural competencies and understanding of CCI members so that they engage performances from diverse communities and enable audiences across Ontario to access artistic expressions from these communities on a regular basis. A catalytic activity aimed at integrating the values of pluralism into the core activities of performing arts organizations, this process has started with a launch of its goals and objectives at the CCI Annual Retreat in May 2008. This was done through a presentation addressing the critical importance of cultural pluralism in performing arts and the goals/objectives of the CPPAMO project. Following this, CPPAMO is engaged in supporting this development through a series of facilitated interventions with CCI itself and ten (10) CCI members. The specific actions for the project are divided into three phases representing key components of program development and deliverables. Each phase is discussed below: 1) Phase I: Needs Assessment and Organizational Review:
This phase requires an assessment of CCI members to provide them with an overview of the project and to receive their input as to what they believe is needed to make this project a
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success. This phase also requires a review of CCI as the main partner in this process. This review will be done to ensure CCI is prepared to facilitate this project in the short-term and then sustain it into the future. The actions required for this phase are: a. Consultations with CCI members to discuss the development of resource guides and tools to enable performing arts organizations to integrate cultural pluralism into their day-to-day activities. b. Presentations about this project will be made at CCIs Regional Roundtables. This will be done throughout the entire project and become a regular feature of CCI Regional Roundtables which are held on a quarterly basis each year. Presentations will also be made at CCIs annual winter and spring retreats. To assess the readiness of CCI to support this initiative in the short- and longterm, an organizational review of CCI will be conducted. In this regard, CCI policies, programs, members, staff and board composition, communications and use of external expertise will be reviewed to determine opportunities to build on current efforts and/or to transform them so they integrate and support the goals/objectives of the CPPAMO. Phase II: Developing Organizational Models and Conducting Evidence-based Review
c.
2)
This phase requires in-depth work in each of the 10 participating organizations. Each organization will engage in five (5) days of workshops to assess its capacities and needs as well as to build its strengths and competencies to integrate cultural pluralism into their day-to-day operations. Generally, the workshops will address: (1) organizational assessment in terms of capacities for promoting pluralism; (2) identification of challenges and opportunities for action; (3) building knowledge, capacities and cultural competencies; (4) planning for change; and (5) implementing, monitoring and assessing change work. Based on these workshops and educational sessions, evidence-based research will be conducted to assist participating organizations in addressing their challenges and needs. In this regard, the evidence-based research will be implemented through a participatory process that will aim to build on the work done in the aforementioned workshops. It is anticipated that this will enable participating organizations to learn from and reflect on the developments in other performing arts organizations. 3) Phase III: Preparing Resources, Toolkits and Promoting Products
This phase will bring together all of the learnings and outcomes from the previous phases and, through this, prepare, package and promote materials and resources to sustain this work in CCI as well as in CCI members who have participated through this process. This phase will begin to market and promote the practices learned and developed through this project to performing arts organizations across Ontario and Canada. It will also provide resources and tools to assist interested organizations in engaging in a facilitated process of organizational change to integrate the values of cultural pluralism in day-to-day operations. The consultations, workshops and research on evidence-based models will be key to developing future programs within participating organizations so that they can anticipate community expectations, benchmark their efforts against others and institute efforts that are cutting edge, bringing together new forms of cultural expressions while providing venues for
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exploring diverse and hybrid forms of such expression. The development of governance models to support this will be approached in a similar manner involving all participating CCI members in a process of organizational change. In the final year of the project, the CPPAMO will develop a number of resource guides and tools. During this time, CCI will begin to market/promote these tools and offer education and training programs for performing arts organizations to assist them in integrating the above into their activities. The education and training program will be set up in such as way as to provide performing arts organizations with practical guidance to enable them to integrate successfully these values and principles and to build foundations to continue the work into the future. Based on this, the guides and toolkits will be developed to address the core mandates of performing arts organizations, specifically their operations, planning, programming and decisionmaking processes in such areas as: 1. Employment. This will address recruiting, retaining, educating, training and promoting individuals from diverse communities; 2. Programming and Curatorial Decision-making. This will address staging events from diverse communities while, at the same time, collaborating with diverse communities in promoting cultural productions; 3. Training and Development. This will address the need to ensure staff of performing arts organizations have the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills needed to implement cultural pluralism in their organizations; 4. Media and Communications. This will address opportunities to promote artistic and cultural activities in diverse communities and the most effective means of communicating to dverse communities, e.g., local media, community and arts/cultural organizations; 5. Governance. This will address how to recruit, support, maintain and develop a Board of Directors and volunteers reflective of diverse communities and who exercise their governance function with knowledge and sensitivity to core values and principles of cultural pluralism. There are specific timeframes and deliverables for each of the components of CPPAMOs work with CCI and its members. In each of these areas, CPPAMOs vision is to ensure transparency, inclusiveness and non-discrimination in the operations of performing arts organizations. Given the diversity of the participating organizations, it is quite likely that a range of issues may emerge during each phase. When this occurs, CCI will act as a clearing-house, sharing such issues and information with the appropriate body, whether government agency or public, private sector funding bodies. In this way, the CCI will work with arts and cultural organizations to ensure an environment is established which provides the supports needed to enable diverse artistic and cultural productions to be showcased across Ontario.
6.3 Resource Issue:

CCI has a broad range of projects it provides to its members. These services are delivered by
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a small administrative core of three staff and a group of project leads, some of whom work year-round with CCI and others who appear for specific functions annually or in relationship with a particular project, e.g., annual leadership institute and healthy arts leadership. CCI also engages in several partnerships such in arts education, network mapping and some of its work at the national level with other provincial arts services organizations in the performing arts field. This is a staggering range of projects to be engaged in. At the same time, each is important in its own right in terms of providing support to CCI members and other professionals in the performing arts. Further, some of these projects are directly or indirectly supportive of each other. For example, HAL and Ontario Dances each aim to build the capacities of the CCI members they are working with either in terms of curatorial vision and competencies and organizational stewardship that connects the artistic process to organizational structure and decision-making. As noted earlier, many of CCIs projects are time-limited and reliant on project funding to initiate or continue. This is problematic as it not only jeopardizes implementation of important initiatives, e.g., HAL or network mapping, it may also cut short valuable professional development opportunities for professionals in the performing arts field. Given that CCIs mandate is to support the development of performing arts across Ontario, both in terms of this fields professionals and increasing the awareness and appreciation of Ontarios many communities for live performances, it is rather unusual to see the truncated nature of some of CCIs most timely and critical initiatives.
6.4 A Conversation with Funders:

The majority of CCIs funding comes from funders who have clear policy goals and objectives related to pluralism. Canada Council has had both an Equity Office and Aboriginal Office for some time with advisory committees comprised of artists from racialized and Aboriginal communities. The Ontario Arts Councils Strategic Plan identifies particular concerns regarding Aboriginal and culturally diverse artists while the Department of Canadian Heritage is guided by the Multiculturalism Act of 1988. The Ontario Trillium Foundation has a similar regard for diversity and accessibility. In this regard, there is consistency in the policy commitments of CCIs major funding sources to support changes addressing pluralism and diversity in the arts. Despite this, aside from the Canada Council and OACs work with Aboriginal artists, these funders have not identified a program, either separately or jointly, to address this issue and, as a result, CCI, like other interested organizations, is reliant on project funding to underake these challenges. Given the changing demographics of Ontarios communities and artists, particularly performing artists, it would seem logical that these funders would either individually or as a group undertake to directly provide resources, including financial support, to initiate and sustain efforts to bring about change to address the challenges in the arts posed by the increasing diversity of national and provincial populations and artists. Dedicated funder policies and programs are essential to ensuring support for these changes and to engaging funders with organizations like CCI as well as presenters and performers in this significant transformation of Canadian society and the arts. In brief, given the dramatic changes to both the demographics of communities and artists and projections for the future, it would seem imperative for funders to begin to address these challenges now rather than allowing the process to unfold without any planning.
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This is a conversation these funders need to have within their own organizations and amongst each other. It is also a conversation CCI needs to undertake together with and on behalf of its members and partners. Failure to do so may only result in the deepening of the disparities between artists as noted earlier and the increased isolation of diverse communities from the official canon of Canadian arts. On the other hand, the benefits of taking such action may result in clear processes to engage Canadian artists, including presenters, with opportunities to redefine the Canadian canon in the context of pluralism and consistent with the intent of funders policies recognizing the importance of pluralism in the arts.
7. Action Plans Practical Steps to the Change:

In the context of this review, there are several action steps CCI will need to take over the next few years to enhance its current activities on pluralism, equity and diversity. These are outlined below in terms of each of CCs projects. HAL: This project can assist CCI members to: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. assess changes to date and how pluralism can fit into their work; review examples of evidence-based practices, discuss what happened, particularly the how, why, and what can be learned; discuss elements of change, what makes a difference and who is setting the mandate for this work; look at the relationship of pluralism to other CCI projects and have CCI project leads engage more frequently in sharing, problem-solving and joint work; examine and come to understand how to grow into change work over time; how to deal with municipal environments in terms of promoting pluralism and establishing processes to ensure continuity in the municipal cultural planning process.
Some tools that would be helpful and can be provided through HAL include: creating indicators for pluralism as part of understanding curatorial vision and healthy organizational functioning; developing a range of strategies on how to program diversity; examining strategies on how to best reflect and work with Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities, particularly as it relates to who should be in the audience, on stage, engaged as staff and board members.
MCPP: In order to address pluralism, this project will need to: identify it in its meetings, discuss it fully in order to determine
38
strategies to promote it and then assign resources to the task and discuss at each meeting; organize an educational forum for its steering committee; and host a forum on cultural pluralism with the involvement of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario; conduct outreach to Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities to involve in the municipal cultural planning process; and address the concerns of Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities in the development of any promotional, educational and other tools developed for municipal cultural planning.
Block Booking:, For this project to integrate pluralism, it must be acknowledged that: presenters are open to staging whats a proven success and how these can be moved into their venues as well as what can be learned from them; presenters are always working to balance money-making events with those that are risky and performances by Aboriginal and ethnoracial artists may fall into the latter;
the current economic downturn will likely make presenters even more risk-adverse; while presenters want to have performances that meet their standard of artistic excellence, they probably need to have a more focused discussion on these standards to ensure theyre inclusive and dont present barriers; presenters are working to increase their understanding of their audiences and communities but are concerned about their lack of knowledge on diverse communities and what they want in terms of performance opportunities, etc.
the project lead for this will need to continue outreach to Aboriginal and ethnoracial performing artists and present them to presenters for touring opportunities. Values and Benefits Study: While this project has been very successful in receiving significant response from the audiences it has engaged, there is a recognition that these audiences were not very diverse and that effort is required to engage with Aboriginal and ethnoracial audiences to assess their intrinsic values in terms of interest in performing arts. To do this, it will require: Identifying Aboriginal and ethnoracial presenters/performers to work together with on this study; training volunteers from Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities to do interviews with audiences from these communities; gathering and assessing data from Aboriginal and ethnoracial audiences to
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understand their intrinsic values as well as to determine commonalities and differences with audiences already assessed; communicating results to CCI presenters for their use in planning performances that might engage Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers or present partnership opportunities with presenters from these communities. Ontario Contact: As there seems to be a gap between what Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers think presenters want and how to meet these expectations, it would be useful to provide workshops for these performers/artists regarding how to go through the showcase process. Several other steps will be needed including: conducting outreach to Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers/presenters to increase their knowledge and understanding about Ontario Contact; being more attentive to the identities of those submitting proposals to Ontario Contact, those whom have been selected and those who are then engaged by CCI presenter members; working with presenters to enable them to understand performances by Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers and to value opportunities for partnership with presenters from these communities; and working with presenters to enable them to promote and market performances by Aboriginal and ethnoracial artists to their traditional audiences/communities as well as Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities. Fresh Start: While this program was initially targeted to support Aboriginal and ethnoracial presenters, it has widened its mandate to include emerging presenters from all communities. In this regard, to address issues of pluralism, this project needs to: identify the Aboriginal and ethnoracial make-up of applicants for funding to identify gaps in communities seeking support; identify Aboriginal and ethnoracial presenters and outreach to them to inform them of the project, funding available and application process; and ensure Aboriginal and ethnoracial artists/presenters are part of the decision-making process in the allocation of grants. OCMN: As noted earlier, this network is in the process of rebuilding itself; however, it is in such moments that including consideration of pluralism may be beneficial to the rebuilding process. For example, understanding the changing demographics of communities and undertaking a process of cultural mapping may be very useful to connecting members of this network to potential audiences and performers. Also, coming to an understanding of the diverse range of classical repertoires that are within Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities may enable members of this network to broaden their appeal and, at the same time, educate local communities regarding the wealth of classical music. Further, OCMN can begin to:
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identify the Aboriginal and ethnoracial background of its current members to assess how well it reflects local communities; consider a process to engage in cultural mapping to identify the capacities of, and interests in classical music amongst Aboriginal and ethnoracial peoples within local communities; discuss an inclusive definition of classical music that reflects the music histories of Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities; engage in a process of audience development that includes Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities as well as musicians and composers; and consider musical exchanges and performances featuring musicians educated and practicing in a Eurocentric context and those practicing in Aboriginal and ethnoracial contexts. Ontario Dances: This is a new initiative that will require attentiveness to pluralism in the dance companies involved and in supporting presenters promotion of their work and the arts education conducted by these dancers within the presenters communities. Further, Ontario Dances can begin to: discuss with presenters an inclusive definition of dance that includes and reflects the dance histories of Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities; and consider dance exchanges and performances featuring dancers educated and practicing in a Eurocentric context and those practicing in Aboriginal and ethnoracial contexts. NRPN Learning Intensive and Arts Leadership Institute: Both annual learning initiatives, CCI will need to promote pluralism as part of the ongoing agenda. This can be done by CCI reporting on its progress in addressing pluralism as well as encouraging other networks to bring forward for discussion its issues and initiatives on pluralism. As part of this process, it may be useful for this group to focus a particular time to address pluralism for educational/sharing purposes and to identify how best to move forward on this in the future. Pan Canadian Task Force on Touring and Presenting: A new initiative, this project presents a significant opportunity to assess issues related to pluralism in performing arts at a national level. CCI can assist in this by introducing its work on pluralism, the methodologies employed, its goals and objectives and how these might be transferable to the work of this task force. CCI Annual Retreat: It will be critical to ensure CCI members are provided with regular updates on the progress of CPPAMO and CCIs initiatives to promote pluralism. This is discussed in more detail below as part of the section on CPPAMO. Network Mapping: This new initiative allows for voluntary self-identification of personal and organizational characteristics that can assist in identifying Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers and presenters. As the initiative seeks to promote improved
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collaborations and smart networking on those included in its data base, it can also assist in identifying the possibilities for collaboration with Aboriginal and ethnoracial performers and presenters, including the resilience of these performers and presenters and gaps in their involvement in the data base. The latter can assist CCI in its outreach to communities either under-represented or not represented at all. It can also assist CCI in understanding the resilience and capacities of these performers and presenters. This may assist in building relationships with these individuals and groups and connecting them to other individuals and organizations. Finally, it may also provide CCI with data to advocate for resources to enhance the capacities of these individuals and performers from Aboriginal and ethnoracial communities. CPPAMO. To establish itself as a catalyst within CCI for both project leads and members, this project will need to: establish relationships between its Roundtable members, CCI project leads and CCI members to develop mutual understanding and opportunities for sharing and project development; support CCI project leads and members in their efforts to address pluralism as an intrinsic value of all activities as noted above; and promote itself and the work of CCI in the broader arts communities so as to develop greater understanding and support for the values of equity, diversity and pluralism in the arts. In identifying these areas for future work, it is not possible at this time to discuss timeframes for implementation as resources will need to be designated for work on these matters. Such resources require opportunities for CCI project leads and CPPAMO, its lead facilitator and Roundtable, to come together for education and professional development, including actionplanning, to address these issues and to support each other through the implementation process.
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Plowing The Road: Enhancing Opportunities For Pluralism in Performing Arts in Ontario Charles C. Smith Consulting

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1.

See CCI Website www.ccio.on.ca

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

A. review documentation about CCI as well as other relevant literature3;

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

2.1 Presenters in Ontario A Brief History:

2.2 The Emergence of CCI:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

2.3 CCI Membership:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

2.4 CCI Projects and Initiatives:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Healthy Arts Leadership:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

d) valuing variety and diversity of experiences as both learning and teaching

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Values and Benefits Study:

CCI Healthy Arts Leader (HAL) Final Report, no date

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Ontario Classical Music Network:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

2.4.10 Arts Education Forums Partnership:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

2.4.11 NRPN Learning Intensive:

2.4.12 Arts Leadership Institute:

2.4.13 Pan-Canadian Task Force on Touring & Presenting:

2.4.14 Network Mapping:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

3. CCI Initiatives Promoting Pluralism:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Demographic Changes and CCI Member Communities:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

New and Different Audiences:

Aboriginal and Ethnoracial Performers:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

corresponding with increases in immigrant settlement, racialized and immigrant artists

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

5. CCI Challenges and Opportunities:

5.1 Meeting Ontarios Interest in Performing Arts:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Values and Benefits Study:

Ontario Classical Music Network:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Healthy Arts Leadership:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Integrating Pluralism Into CCIs Projects:

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

Charles C. Smith Consulting July,2009

6. Moving Into The Change: