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Alliance for Arts and Culture, Annual Report 2006

President's Report
Treasurer's Report
Executive Director's Report
2006 Board of Directors
2006 Staff Members
Programs and Services
2006 Membership List
Auditor's Report and Financial Statements
2006 Highlights
Our Partners

President's Report

My first year as Alliance President has been quite eventful.  It has also gone extremely fast. With great reluctance we accepted Heather Redfern’s resignation so she could accept an exciting position with the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. A difficult task lay ahead; how to replace someone who, in two short years, had changed the face and focus of the Alliance for Arts and Culture?  We were very pleased with the response to our posting and were able to interview several excellent candidates. How pleased we were that Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles accepted our offer and came on board in early 2007. Andrew was barely shown the ‘on switch’ before he was fully and effectively immersed in all the business and issues of the Alliance. My sincere thanks to the staff of the Alliance for being so patient during this process and for keeping everything together during the transition, and helping to so successfully integrate our new executive director.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Heather for her contribution to the Alliance. Her passion and dedication, not to mention insistence, served the Alliance well, and it was a pleasure working with her these last two years and a bit. Since moving back to Vancouver after so many years away, she has made a real difference in a very short time.

The following issues have taken up considerable time and attention for all of us: the future of the Vancouver Arts Awards and the Endowment Fund administered by VanCity that will hopefully be eligible for Renaissance money once we work out some issues regarding the wording of our lease agreement with the City of Vancouver.

I was very pleased to be part of the successful (and soon to be annual) Alliance Christmas party and arts gala. This raised much needed funds for the Endowment and a good time was had by all. The Cultural Olympiad had also been on our agenda, and we will continue to be a conduit for information and cooperation between the arts community and Vanoc.  Work also continues with our provincial and federal partners to further the initiative started last year, uniting cultural organizations to speak with one voice for consistency and power. 

Our first order of business is to rebuild the board with a full slate of dedicated, energetic professionals who will work with Andrew and his amazing staff to continue to provide the best service to our members, and have the greatest impact throughout our community of interest, and the community at large.

Thank you, it has been a pleasure to serve.

Respectfully submitted,

Ian Forsyth, President

Treasurer's Report

The Alliance experienced many transitions in 2006. The decision was made to transfer the Tickets Tonight program to Tourism Vancouver, a move made necessary by the financial burden the project placed on the Alliance.

The fact that our partner organization, the Society to Bridge Arts and Community, was not called upon to present the Vancouver Arts Awards in 2006 led to decisions by the boards of both organizations to write off a payable from the Bridge Society to the Alliance of some $17,000. This was largely responsible for the Alliance’s loss on the year of $16,200, resulting in an accumulated deficit of $13,785.

And we said good-bye to our executive director, Heather Redfern, who has moved on to other challenges. She will be greatly missed.

My thanks to Heather, and to the staff and board for all their hard work.

Respectfully submitted

Barbara Clausen, Treasurer

Outgoing Executive Director's Report

This past year was a building year for the Alliance. There were some great successes as we animated discussions about the future of the arts in Vancouver and about funding for the arts at three levels of government. Ours is a cohesive and effective lobby, and I have no doubt that the groundwork we did in 2006 has led and will lead to ongoing advocacy and successes in future years. A highlight was certainly the coming together of Arts Future BC, and the inspired campaign that took place across the province to lobby the provincial government for long-term, stable funding for the arts. This campaign engaged all sectors of our society, citizens from all walks of life, in a cohesive province-wide movement. It also produced a brief that clearly states the arguments for increased provincial funding in BC and outlines measurable outcomes for that increased investment. 

A real highlight of 2006 was the launch of the Artist’s Legal Outreach program. This pilot project started in July 2006 and hopefully will expand and grow into the future.  

There were also some disappointments in 2006, but these also spoke to the vitality of the Alliance. If this is to be a strong organization we must have opinions, make decisions and take actions to the best of our ability. 

Financially, 2006 was a year of consolidation for the Alliance. Several projects were terminated as we moved forward in our goal to focus on our core business, providing services for our members and advocating on their behalf. The operations of Tickets Tonight was turned over to Tourism Vancouver allowing Alliance staff to focus on our member’s needs and removing the financial burden that came with subsidizing the booth. 

After lengthy negotiations with the city, it became clear that the Vancouver Arts Awards would not proceed in 2006. This decision meant that the Alliance had to write off a $17,000 debt from the 2005 awards. The financial outcome is an accumulated deficit of $13,785 in 2006.  This was very disappointing after posting a small surplus in year-end 2005, however a plan has been put in place to eliminate the deficit over the next three years. On the revenues side the board did an extensive review of membership dues and recommended the first increase since 2000. They also recommended a cost of living increase be applied to the dues once a year. This is a prudent decision as it ensures that dues keep pace with inflation and eliminates the need for large increases every 5 years. 

My tenure at the Alliance ended in December 2006 and I would be remiss if I did not thank the board of directors for their support throughout the year, especially when I decided to take up the position of executive director at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. And then there is the Alliance staff. Bev, Lori, Laurie, Andrea, Judi, and Marianne were simply a superb team and great people. The members of the Alliance are very lucky to have them on board. And finally thank you to all of the friends I have made through the Alliance over the past two and a half years. When I first came to the city I was welcomed with open arms and now just three years later I am proud to be a member of this caring and world-class community. All the best to the Alliance in the future. If I can do anything to help you’ve got my number!

2006 Board of Directors

Executive

President, Ian Forsyth
After graduating from UBC with a BFA in Theatre, Ian Forsyth worked as a freelance actor, director and writer for several years.  After running the Vancouver TheatreSports League for four years, Ian opened and ran the North Peace Cultural Centre in Fort St. John for six years.  He was Kelowna's first Cultural Services Manager and returned to Vancouver to be the Arts Services Manager for the City of Burnaby in 2001. Ian continues to teach theatre and sits on the board of the BC Touring Council, Magnetic North Theatre Festival and the Made in BC dance touring project.

Vice-President, Jonathan Harrison
Jonathan worked for Vancouver Opera since 2000, where he was the Marketing and Media Relations Manager. He began his career as a playwright and has enjoyed success in the film and television industry. He was an executive producer for a film soundtrack recording and a producer of a television documentary with Rhombus Media.

Treasurer, Barbara Clausen
Barbara Clausen is the producer for New Works and has worked in Vancouver's arts community since 1980. Originally trained as a visual artist, she later studied dance and has worked as a dance teacher, administrator and programmer. Barbara initiated dance programming at the Firehall Theatre, and has also programmed dance series at the Playhouse Theatre, the Waterfront Theatre and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Barbara was one of the founders of The Dance Centre, and spent four years as the Centre’s first Executive Director. She worked for three years as an officer at the Canada Council in Ottawa, two of those as an officer in the dance section, where she was responsible for the program of support to dance presenters. She later worked at the touring office, where she instituted the Dance Touring Residency Program. In 1993 Barbara founded New Works with a dynamic group of arts animators.

Past-President, Hazel Currie
Hazel Currie has been general manager of Pacific Cinematheque Pacifique, Vancouver's non-profit film institute since 1998. Her work in the non-profit sector began in 1979 and has included working with a number of Vancouver organizations including: the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, the Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Vancouver East Cultural Centre.

Directors

Glenn Alteen
Glenn Alteen is a Vancouver-based curator and writer, and the director of the grunt. He has worked extensively in performance art, and is cofounder of LIVE: A Vancouver Performance Biennial. Glenn is the president of PAARC, the Pacific Association of Artist Centres, and has sat on juries for the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Manitoba Arts Council. His writing on performance was recently published in Caught in the Act (2004, YYZ Books, Toronto), La Dragu (2002, FADO, Toronto), Ablakela (2001, grunt Vancouver), LIVE at the End of the Century (2000, grunt Vancouver) and Locus Solus (1999, Black Dog, London). He has curated exhibitions nationally and internationally, most recently Vancouver Video, shown in Italy and Britain (2002, 2003) and Carel Moiseiwitch at Nuova Icona Venice (2005). He has also worked extensively in First Nations contemporary artists communities and is currently producing the publication Indian Acts - Aboriginal Performance Art, in collaboration with TRIBE

Nancy Noble
Nancy Noble is the CEO of the Vancouver Museum.  She has worked extensively in the museum community in Canada for over 20 years and came to Vancouver from Winnipeg, where she was the Director of Curatorial Services at the Manitoba Museum.  Nancy also worked in various museums in Saskatchewan, sat on the board of the Museums Association of Saskatchewan and was a founding member of the Alliance of Natural History Museums of Canada.  Nancy holds a Master of Arts degree in museum studies from the University of Leicester, England. 

Paddy Macleod
Paddy Macleod has twenty six years experience in arts administration (until recently) in the music sector. Well-known as an arts activist in Vancouver, she has been president of several of the city’s prominent cultural organizations including the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture.  Paddy is at present Chair of the Coal Harbour Arts Complex Society and Vice-President of Festival Vancouver with which she has been involved since its beginnings. Drawn to Festival Vancouver’s goals of producing outstanding music and creating a legacy in the music community by connecting local performers with international artists, she also serves as the chair of the Festival Programme Advisory Committee. Born in South Africa, Paddy worked as a journalist and broadcaster in Cape Town and, on coming to Vancouver, returned to university where she received a postgraduate degree in English Literature. As General Manager and co-founder of the newly formed classical Blackbird Theatre Company, she is now learning a new discipline.

Minna Schendlinger
Now Festival Manager of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Society, Minna came to PuSh from nearly ten years of administrative work in the cultural arts in Vancouver. Minna was the Volunteer Coordinator for the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, a short-term, full-time contract position each year from 1997 to 2004. In the winter of 2003, Minna was contracted as the festival’s Administrative Assistant until October 2004. In February of 2005, she was offered the position of Festival Operations Manager for the 2005 season. Minna also worked each fall on short-term full time contract with the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival from 2000 to 2005 as Volunteer Coordinator and coordinated volunteers for First Night 2000 and the World of Children’s Choirs 2001. Minna attended Capilano College part-time from 1995 to 1999 when she discovered there was enough work for an experienced administrator to keep her busy all year.

Jim Smith
Jim Smith began working in the professional Canadian arts sector in Montreal at La La La Human Steps.  Following a move to Vancouver, Jim co-founded Eponymous, an arts management and production agency.  Under the aegis of Eponymous, Jim is currently the Producer for Anatomica, The Holy Body Tattoo, Kidd Pivot,  Lola Dance, and the Managing Producer for Vancouver New Music.  Jim has been involved in a number of projects involving the participation of international artists including Jenny Holzer, Suzanne Linke, Richard Siegal and The Tiger Lillies to name a few.  Jim is currently the President of the Canadian Dance Assembly in addition to being the co-chair of the Advocacy Committee and the chair of the Dance Companies Standing Council.  He has also served on the board of The Dance Centre, the Music Advisory Committee of the British Columbia Arts Council and the Dance Advisory Committee of the Canada Council for the Arts.  Jim’s formal education includes studies in music performance and commerce.

Fernanda Viveiros
Currently the Executive Director of the Federation of British Columbia Writers, Fernanda has worked in journalism, editing, magazine design and book publishing for nearly twenty years. She was the founding publisher and managing editor of The Steveston Phoenix, and continues to freelance for a number of Portuguese-Canadian publications. A co-organizer of the RAW Exchange Reading Series, Fernanda has provided publicity services to dozens of publishing houses across Canada and is committed to highlighting the achievements of BC authors.

Gillian Wilder
A sociologist by background, Gillian graduated from the London School of Economics with a B.Sc. and pursued graduate studies at UBC where she obtained her master’s degree. She began her career in arts administration in London, England, and became Manager of Vancouver’s Early Music Society in 1976. A year later she was appointed General Manager of the Vancouver Bach Choir and has continued in that post ever since. Besides general management, a very broad job description in the case of the choir, encompassing public relations, marketing, concert and stage management and the usual endless grant applications, Gillian has also managed numerous national and international tours for the choir. Over the past 20 years Gillian has been Chair of the Music Alliance for a number of terms, including the present. She has been Chair of Chorfest, the annual conference of the BC Choral Federation, on two occasions and the Chair of the Four Choirs Festival in Vancouver which gave rise to the Choral Federation.

2006 Staff Members

Heather Redfern, Executive Director
Judi Piggott, Coordinator, S.E.A.R.C.H.
Laurie Guy, Director of Communications
Lisa Fedorak, Member Services Coordinator (until July 2005)
Lori Knoll, Member Services Coordinator (July 2005 to present)
Jesse Gray, Administrative Assistant, S.E.A.R.C.H. (until August 2005)
Marianne Dell, Administrative Assistant, S.E.A.R.C.H. (August 2005 to present)
Anne Coustalin, Administrative Assistant (until July 2005)
Beverly Edgecombe, Administrative Assistant (July 2005 to present)
Krysten Casumpang, Resource Assistant

Contractors
Ron Bogdonov, Computer Support, Clockwork Computing
Nigel Jones, Financial Services, Quantum Accounting

S.E.A.R.C.H. Facilitators

Andrea Davis
Isabella Mori
Rosemary Sojka
Judy Stevens

Programs and Services

Visit our programs and services page.

2006 Membership List

In 2006, the Alliance had 337 members. A membership list is available at the Alliance office.

Auditor's Report and Financial Statements

Our 2006 Auditor's Report and Financial Statements are available in PDF format; your browser will open a new window.

2006 Highlights

Advocacy

In 2006 the Alliance advocated for the arts and culture community in the following areas:

• Artists' Legal Outreach Program
• charities and advocacy
  
• copyright
  
• culture and recreation
• cultural tourism
  
• cultural venues
• education
  
• facilities
  
• gaming
  
• human resources
  
• public funding
  
• resources for cultural workers
  
• tax incentives for artists and for charitable donations
  
• Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad

Alliance representatives sat on the following committees:

• Applied Visual Communications Degree Program, Medicine Hat College - Advisory Committee
• Arbutus Lands Advisory Panel
• Arts and Entertainment Certificate Program, Capilano College - Advisory Committee
• BC Cultural Sector Development Council
• BC Social Economy Roundtable
• Canadian Arts Coalition Steering Committee
• CHRC - Provincial and Territorial Advisory Committee
• City Creative Task Force, Vancouver
• Douglas College Print Futures Program - Advisory Committee
• Koerner Foundation
• Langara College Advisory Committee
• Necklace Project
• Simon Fraser Co-op Employer Advisory Council
• Vancouver Vital Signs Leadership Advisory Group
• Vancouver Naming Rights Policy Development Advisory Committee
• Voluntary Organizations Consortium of BC

Connection

In 2006 the Alliance was a member of the following organizations:

• Access Copyright
• APASO (Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations)
• Arts Future BC
• BC Association for Charitable Gaming
• BC Touring Council
• Canadian Arts Coalition
• Canadian Conference of the Arts
• Cultural Human Resources Council
• International Network for Cultural Diversity
• Volunteer Vancouver

The Alliance for Arts and Culture Marketing Council was reactivated in November of 2006 and a meeting schedule and agenda topics were set for 2007. Kevin McKeown of Publicity Plus was named chair of the council and Melissa Edwards-Clayton was named vice-chair. The council is facilitated by staff member Laurie Guy.

Under the direction of two successive membership coordinators, Lisa Fedorak and Lori Knoll, the Alliance fine-tuned its Membership Advantage Program by adding and changing a number of partners.

Information

In 2006 we provided information to our membership and the community by:

• Providing eleven issues of our Synergy newsletter to a subscriber base of more than 1200.
• Continued to improve the value and efficiency of Synergy, E-Net and Alliance News.
• Providing information updates through Alliance News emails on gaming, new grants and award programs, government budgets, advocacy, workshops, our Members Advantage Program, new members, Tickets Tonight and more.
• Continuing to update our website and resource library with new resources, links, news items and information about our sector.

Government Relations - Municipal

In 2006, the Alliance continued a positive working relationship with Vancouver City Council and the City of Vancouver's Office of Cultural Affairs and monitored, advocated for and made presentations regarding the issues affecting the arts and cultural sector in the city. As a member of the City Creative Task Force, and by mobilizing our membership, the Alliance advocated for the third installment of the cultural grants investment announced by City Council in the spring of 2005. Other municipal activities included monitoring and speaking at Vancouver Parks Board meetings and sitting on a community advisory committee regarding the City of Vancouver's new naming rights policy.

Government Relations - Provincial

The Alliance continued to monitor funding activity at the provincial level, alerting members to budget announcements, funding changes, and news regarding the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee and 2010 Legacies and Arts Now. Relationship building continued with provincial government representatives, especially with the new minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts, Stan Hagen and his staff.

The Alliance co-founded Arts Future BC in 2006, a provincial coalition of citizens and organizations from across BC who share the goal of creating sustainable communities across the province through significant long-term investment in the arts and culture of the province. In October 2006, the Alliance was integral in creating an extensive Arts Future BC brief for the provincial finance committee to make the case for an increased investment in the BC Arts Council. In addition to creating and submitting the brief, the Alliance was also involved, through Arts Future BC, with organizing an extensive lobby campaign throughout the province which led to presentations at finance committee meetings and individual meetings with MLA's across the province regarding an increased investment for the BC Arts Council.

The Alliance also attended the provincial Arts Summit in April 2006, organized by Olga Ilich, then minister of Tourism, Sport and the Arts. Due to limited space, many Alliance members could not attend the summit so the Alliance held a roundtable leading up to the event to allow members to provide feedback on how the Alliance could best represent the interests of our community at the summit.

Government Relations - Federal

The Alliance continued to work closely with national counterparts including the Canadian Arts Coalition, Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Conference of the Arts on matters that are relevant to the arts and cultural sector.

Leading up to the election in early 2006, the Alliance worked in conjunction with the Canadian Arts Coalition to press campaigning parties to include arts and culture in their platform papers. The Alliance also educated members about party position on arts and culture, with a specific emphasis on where each party stood in relation to an increase for the Canada Council for the Arts.

Following the election results, through the Canadian Arts Coalition, the Alliance concentrated on advocating for the Canada Council increase from November 2005 when the federal government of the day announced its intention to commit $306.5 million to the Canada Council for the Arts over the next three years. Unfortunately, that commitment was not upheld in the first budget of the newly elected federal government.

Tickets Tonight

In the spring of 2006 Tourism Vancouver took over full operational responsibility for Tickets Tonight, Vancouver’s only day-of, half-price ticket outlet located within Tourism Vancouver’s flagship info centre downtown. Originally launched as a joint-venture with the Alliance for Arts and Culture, Tickets Tonight has sold thousands of day-of, half-price tickets for a range of independent arts and entertainment productions, as well as regular advance tickets while doubling as a full Ticketmaster outlet. In recognition of its valuable role in the initial development, the Alliance will continue to be recognized as a founding partner of Tickets Tonight. Additionally, Manager Paul Sontz remained with Tickets Tonight, becoming an employee of Tourism Vancouver.

S.E.A.R.C.H.: Self-Employed Attitudes Results in Creative Hires

Each year since 1996 the Alliance for Arts and Culture, with funding from Service Canada, has developed and delivered an employment assistance program free to unemployed members of the cultural work force. Because SEARCH is a job search program, not a training course, it is open to artists and cultural workers—the creatively inclined—regardless of eligibility for E.I. or other benefits.

There are valid and unique challenges facing individuals who work in the arts and culture sector—this is because of two major realities: non-standard employment is the norm, and many of the sector’s employers are non-profit organizations. Although a person may have a high level of education as well as satisfactory employability skills, it often remains a mystery why they repeatedly face challenges maintaining a sustainable income.  

SEARCH was implemented to fill this gap in human resource development and employment assistance services for arts and cultural workers. With ten years experience providing this unique program, SEARCH continues to evolve and deliver a unique program that meets the needs of the labour force in arts and culture. Between January and December of 2006, 122 people participated in ten sessions of the program.

Our Partners

The Alliance for Arts and Culture gratefully acknowledges the following support:

Government partners

• City of Vancouver
  
• Government of British Columbia, through the British Columbia Arts Council and British Columbia Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch
  
• Government of Canada

Member Advantage Program partners

• Call-Fusion
  
• Corporate Express
  
• Clubcard
  
• Desjardins merchant credit card rates
• Gift Tool
• Ann Izard, Chiropractor
• Morneau Sobeco Human Resource Consulting and Administrative Solutions
  
• Quantum Accounting
  

Mission Statement

We are an alliance of arts and culture organizations and individuals drawn from all artistic disciplines.