What riding is your centre located in? Have you started thinking about our new government’s promise to double the budget of the Canada Council for the Arts? The following resource is adapted from the Canadian Arts Coalition’s website. Arca encourages members of the artist-run community to adapt and personalize the material produced for the 2014 Arts Day on the Hill campaign, and adapted by ARCA, to engage with local politicians. The topic for the 2014 pre-budget committee hearings was “maximizing the number and types of jobs for Canadians.” This topic remains a top priority so take the opportunity to highlight recent statistics on employment in the artist-run network, and, to reiterate the Canadian Arts Coalitions recommendations for the federal budget 2016. Once again, Arca thanks the Coalition’s volunteers for developing and sharing this material.

The Canadian Coalition for the Arts has just ended the Arts 308 campaign launched last October. Described as the longest campaign ever conducted by the Coalition, it was successful in delivering key messages to 122 members of parliament either in person, or via social media. The federal budget has since been unveiled and reveals almost no changes to arts funding.

Note: The following post is adapted from the Canadian Arts Coalition communications found on their website. The text of some campaign documents is currently being adapted by ARCA and will be available on our website shortly for use by individuals and groups from the artist-run community. In the meantime, members are encouraged to set-up meetings »»

ARCA is proud to announce the upcoming publication of PERFORMANCE ART PRESENTATION IN CANADA TODAY, a summary of the LIVE Retreat minutes, Vancouver October 9 & 10, 2012, in INTER, ART ACTUEL – #115 fall issue, prepared by Stacey Ho and Randy Gledhill with the support of the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference / La Conférence des collectifs et des centres d’artistes autogérés (ARCCC/CCCAA, aka ARCA).

GREAT speech by Rebecca Belmore, laureate of the 2013 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, giving props to artist-run centres, Canada Council for the arts, public funding, peer adjudication… congratulations Rebecca! And, check out this website produced by grunt gallery created for Rebecca Belmore Also, the Canada Council and the Independent Media Arts Alliance put out a call to »»

If the first few weeks of the New Year are any indication, the arts, and more specifically, artist-run centres are increasingly on the radar of the mainstream media. Of great interest to our milieu, is the publication in the Canadian press, of results from a recent telephone poll of 1,001 Canadians, conducted by Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc., last summer, at the request of the federal government. The survey reveals that a crushing majority of Canadians are in favour of government support for the arts.

ARCA is proud to have been part of the 3rd edition of the Canadian Arts Coalition’s Day on the Hill on October 23 with a group of over 120 arts leaders from across Canada. This advocacy group constituted from a range of arts disciplines was broken up into smaller, mixed groups and met with Senators, MPs and senior officials over an amazing one hundred and eight meetings of 30 minutes each.

The Field is ARCA’s first venture into commissioning works that aim to provide perspective on the role of Canadian artist-run centres. This video by emerging filmmaker Heidi Phillips focuses on one install at RAW: Gallery of Architecture & Design in Winnipeg. The environment created by artist-architect Frank Fantauzzi, associate professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Manitoba, Charlie O’Geen and a team of collaborators, portrays how, more and more, artist-run centres support an ever-expanding artistic field, across disciplines, and across communities.

After the resounding success of last year’s event, ARCA is again taking part in the Canadian Arts Coalition’s Arts Day on Parliament Hill this October 23 with a group of over 120 arts leaders from across Canada.

The Day on the Hill, a day when artists and cultural workers from all disciplines of the arts meet with MPs at Parliament Hill. This event was organized by the Canadian Arts Coalition.