ISSAY!
Recipient: Project Grant for Organizations
EQUITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND ACCESSIBILITY
The arts build bridges, challenge stereotypes and increase understanding, empathy and resilience. They provide ways to celebrate our city’s rich ethnic diversity, participate in civic life and create a sense of belonging. We believe this moment is asking us to support and nurture diverse art and artist-led city building to foster not only a resilient and sustainable arts ecosystem but to achieve a truly equitable, inclusive and accessible city where everyone belongs.
Our commitment to equity includes a focus on Indigenous reconciliation, racial equity, disability justice, and gender and sexual diversity. Our EDIA values are embedded in our hiring practices, our group agreements, our grant investment programs and our community engagement practices.
Our core values — equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility — guide how we conduct our work. We strive to design our policies, practices, and programs so that they do not create systemic barriers that are contrary to our values.
Equity. We believe in creating equitable access for Calgarians who have had less opportunity for philanthropic and governmental support due to systemic barriers that exist in our community.
Diversity. We believe in supporting a variety of artists and artistic endeavours that reflect our diverse community and in supporting the work of artists of diverse backgrounds.
Inclusion. We believe in engaging diverse voices and perspectives in shaping and furthering all the work we do.
Accessibility. We believe in eliminating barriers that prevent people who encounter physical, mental or cultural barriers to spaces, programs and services from participating in the arts.
Visit the Commitment to Equity page on our website.
CADA has been on a reconciliation journey for many years. We know this work never ends, our relationships and knowledge just continue to deepen. 2023 was an active year in our journey. Led by director, engagement and reconciliation, Sable Sweetgrass, and Indigenous program specialist Morgan Possberg, with guidance from our Indigenous Advisory, and trusted advisor Blackfoot Elder Saa’kokoto, we were able to increase engagement and build new relationships with Indigenous communities.
Our 2023-2026 Strategic Framework, Ákáakomatapoap, takes a Treaty 7 Indigenous world view in recognition and acknowledgement of the original peoples and the land on which we live and work.
Both Patti Pon and Sable Sweetgrass were invited to be part of the bid committee for the North America Indigenous Games that this region will be hosting in 2027. The games are 50% sport and 50% cultural and CADA looks forward to supporting the cultural side of the games in whatever ways make most sense as an Indigenous-led event.
Last June we hosted a virtual town hall titled A Deeper Understanding of Land Acknowledgements with Michelle Robinson. The presentation shared very useful information with members of the community who wanted to learn more about how and why land acknowledgements are important. We also sponsored several Indigenous events such as the Authentically Indigenous Art Market and the Esquao Awards. Our Create Calgary magazine featured an Indigenous art cover story as well as other stories within its pages. These are all important steps toward greater appreciation, representation and inclusion in our work.
Our granting programs are all open to Indigenous artists, but we also have three programs specifically designed by and for Indigenous artists: the Original Peoples Investment Program, the Indigenous Artist Microgrants and the Honouring the Children program.
With many future public art projects centred on Treaty 7 nations’ artists, the public art team has started engagement with the Blackfoot Confederacy, with other First Nations and Otipemisiwak Métis Nation. It was an important commitment to hire Indigenous project leads to manage those and other public art projects to ensure we are stewarding these projects through the lens of good relations.
In 2022 Tsuut’ina filmmaker and community leader, Kevin Littlelight, was appointed to our board, ensuring we have Indigenous participation at the highest levels of leadership in our organization.
Sable Sweetgrass participated on many committees including the Aboriginal Awareness Week organizing committee, Native Info Exchange, and the Network of Indigenous Funders of Alberta. She also attended many conferences and gatherings such as the Forward Summit, powwows and Sundance, and worked on Calgary Arts Development’s engagement framework — Iinitsii (the Blackfoot word for Good Relations) — which embraces a Treaty 7 Indigenous world view. Sable also visited the nations of Treaty 7 to share information about our granting programs and launched a monthly podcast series: Storytelling Podcast Indigenous Stories featuring conversations with Indigenous artists.
We continue our practice of delivering land acknowledgements at all our live events with a focus on making them personal and relevant to the work we are doing and the event. We also engage Elders to start our events in a good way by sharing a blessing or a teaching.
All our granting programs are open to artists regardless of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, language, citizenship, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, physical or mental abilities. In addition, some programs are designed specifically for Indigenous or other equity-deserving artists. In addition to the programs for Indigenous artists mentioned above, the ArtShare Program is also for equity-deserving artists
The biggest undertaking in 2023 was publishing a third-party equity report: Imagine THIS, which was co-written and co-researched by People of Design and Constructive Public Engagement. The report contains many ideas from the lived and learned experiences of citizen artists of Calgary, staff of Calgary Arts Development, and EDIA consultants. It serves as a resource not only for CADA but also for the community.
Through our EDIA community working group, EDIA staff working group, a group of Cultural Instigators, other advisors, and our own community engagement, we are continuously learning about community needs, aspirations, gaps and concerns. Our goal is to foster not only a resilient and sustainable arts ecosystem but also to achieve a truly equitable, inclusive and accessible city where everyone belongs.
Because of her leadership in the EDIA realm, Patti Pon is often invited to participate in discussions and round tables. One example was at the International Economic Development Conference hosted in Calgary where she presented about developing a Holistic and Inclusive Economy. She was also invited to participate in Suncor Energy and Campfire Kinship’s Weaving Tales of Unity gathering as a community leader. Our engagement specialist, Sayonara Cunha, participated and represented CADA in many groups and discussions centred on anti-racism, equity, decolonization, trauma-informed care and community development to ensure we are continuously learning and improving our practices. Director of Community Investment and Impact, Melissa Tuplin, and Community Investment Manager, Allan Rosales, sat at the Anti-Racism Funders table, Sable Sweetgrass was on the CLIP Council, and Research and Impact Manager Gregory Burbidge spoke at the University of Edinburgh on Equity & Arts Policy. Our entire staff took bystander training and participated in a training session on conflict management. Participation with these groups and training sessions is a way to increase our skills, share our practices, understand what is needed in the community and learn about what others are doing. All this work is important to remind us that the learning process is never complete, and we must continue to become more knowledgeable and more intentional about our EDIA work.
An EDIA lens is applied to all programs to ensure our commitment to EDIA, including assessor selection and training. The ArtShare program is specifically designed for equity-deserving artists and organizations and the Changemaker grant often involves art for social change as it relates to EDIA issues.
In 2023 we held three virtual town halls specifically related to Racial Equity in the Workplace hosted by Toyin Oladele. The first was with arts organizations discussing hiring policies, practices and internal procedures that help them hire and engage artists, staff and volunteers in an equitable way. The second was a conversation with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour)-led arts organizations surrounding some of the intentional policies and practices they have created and followed, and practical ways they support team members who are from visible minority groups, BIPOC communities or represent any form of diversity. The third was a conversation with BIPOC arts leaders to explore some of the challenges they have encountered getting hired in the arts community as a leader from a minority group.
We continued to advance our disability justice learning and actions by supporting a disability justice circle whose members are working in community. We hosted a virtual town hall on Disability Culture and Justice led by mad activist and disability justice advocate JD Derbyshire. This session shed light on the idea that persons with disabilities share a common history of oppression and a common bond of resilience, claiming their disability with pride as part of their identities. It promoted the idea of eliminating ableism and sane-ism for all. Our staff also received training on neurodiversity in the workplace to help us become a more welcoming and inclusive place to work.
We continued to ensure accessibility at our live events such as the Celebration for the Arts hosted by Mayor Gondek with ASL interpretation, accessible pricing (free tickets) for artists, and infrared hearing assistance devices. Our 2023 Living a Creative Life Congress also included ASL interpretation and was streamed online for those who couldn’t attend in person.
With our support, the Trico Changemaker Studio at Mount Royal University has become the Calgary hub for art for social change. They act as a catalyst to nurture a network of community-based art practitioners and art for social change agents in our city.
The Artist as Changemaker program, which is also managed by the Trico Changemaker Studio, partners artists with community organizations to use art to create conversation and solutions to our communities’ most challenging problems. Changemaker grants fund the artists and projects that emerge from these community connections. In addition, we provide microgrants to 35 organizations to participate in the Creative Green Tools pilot program, which provides carbon output reporting tools specific to the arts and culture sector. Through the Changemaker Grant program we invested $135,000 in 4 projects plus the Green Tools project.
In 2022 the Artist as Changemaker program began a new two-year artist residency cohort. The 2022-2024 residency included systems change training, collaboration, and working with community organizations on complex problems. Creativity is being listed by some as one of the most important job skills of the future and artists are often at the forefront of creative thinking and practice. The Artist as Changemaker program investigates the ways artists can use their skills to tackle complex problems and sees the power of the arts to contribute to social change. Information about the Artist as Changemaker program can be found here.
Participating artists in the 2022-2024 cohort included:
Ado Nkemka
Apiow Akwai
Barbara Amos (fellow)
Kevin Jesuino (fellow)
Louie Fermor
Mel VeeX
Melanee Murray-Hunt
Shumaila Hemani
Skye Louis (fellow)
Stephanie Banszky
Tito Gomez
Number of activities engaging multicultural communities
Number of activities engaging people with disabilities
Number of activities engaging Indigenous communities
Number of activities engaging 2SLGBTQIA+ communities
Recipient: Project Grant for Organizations
Recipient: Project Grant, Individuals & Collectives
Recipient: Operating Grant
Recipient: Original Peoples Investment Program