The Regina Forum

November 6

A very windy day in the broad streets of Regina! I wish I had taken my gloves with me…

But the atmosphere in the room at the Globe Theatre, where some twenty-five people have gathered, more than makes up for the cold outside. The Saskatchewan arts community is well established and has a long tradition to be proud of. Did you know that this province was the very first one in Canada to give itself an Arts Council in 1948, almost ten years before we got a national one? Amongst many other distinguished artists, this is the land that gave us Joe Fafard, last year’s recipient of the CCA’s Diplôme d’honneur. I take the opportunity to invite people to submit names for this year’s CCA Awards (for more information, see http://www.ccarts.ca/en/awards/ )

As in previous Forums, the Regina participants welcome the call for a coordinated effort to better position arts and culture within Canadian society. The need to expand networks outside the cultural sector itself is underlined: it is deemed crucial to find allies in the business community, in the education sector, in the health sector, etc. and to identify the right people to carry the message for the importance the arts have in our lives and in our society.

But the need for fact-based advocacy, the need for proper statistics and the need for proper training for advocating are underlined once again and participants turn to the CCA to help provide these basic tools and the leadership required to achieve our common goals. Participants also acknowledge that we have to find ways of breaking silos and identify common objectives and strategies. As in Ottawa and Vancouver, the CCA is invited to take the lead in defining a sustained awareness campaign to raise public awareness of the value of the arts and culture in their lives. Here again, the opportunities offered by the Internet are highlighted as people point to the mobilizing effects it has had in the Canadian and American election campaigns. More strategizing must be done in this respect.

Once again, I welcome this enthusiasm but I must realistically point at the modesty and precariousness of CCA’s resources. In the ensuing discussion, the strategic importance of better connecting the CCA with its grassroot organizations and the need for some sort of provincial connection with the mother ship is highlighted. I agree that this must be explored in the coming months and undertake to do so with the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance to determine how this could be achieved in a mutually satisfying way.

All in all, I can say that the energy of the Forum and a series of positive meetings with key players in the Saskatchewan’s cultural scene have made a success of my visit to Regina. I shall be back in Saskatchewan for the Saskatoon Forum on November 27...