Help create a strong voice for Canadian arts and culture in Ottawa!

How? Mark your calendar for an important think-tank workshop with Alain Pineau from the Canadian Conference of the Arts.

Wednesday February 1

3 to 5 pm

Kerr Room, 2^nd floor, Prince of Wales Armoury, 10440 108 Ave, Edmonton

(hosted by the Edmonton Arts Council)

The Canadian cultural sector is facing considerable changes in its operating environment. One of those is an increasingly clear change in the way the federal government sees its role regarding arts and culture. Now more than ever before, there is a need for greater cohesion in the arts, culture and heritage sector. This is the message that Alain Pineau, National Director of the Canadian Conference of the Arts is bringing to all of us on February 1  

For those who don’t know, the CCA was founded 66 years ago to represent the interests of all Canadian artists and cultural professionals at the federal level. CCA was behind the creation of the Canada Council for the Arts, the federal Act on Status of the Artist, the creation of the Cultural Human Resources Council, to name but a few of its contributions. CCA intervenes regularly on our behalf in front of parliamentary committees and regulatory bodies and it supports cooperative work as in the case of the review of the Copyright Act.

As some of you may know, the CCA has learned of the federal government’s decision to put an end to 45 years of financial support. The Board of the CCA (including current board member Tom McFall and past-president Denise Roy from Alberta) is convinced that, more than ever, there is a need for an overarching cultural organization bringing together all the communities of arts, culture and heritage in Canada. Accordingly, the CCA has taken up the challenge of developing a new business model that will make it financially independent by 2014-15. The CCA seeks your opinion and input on a set of proposed services and activities: this will be crucial in the development of sustainable business model.

Alain Pineau’s visit is part of a national tour which will take him to 13 cities by the middle of February. Make sure you mark the date of his visit to Edmonton so you can participate in this very important joint effort to ensure a sustained strong voice for arts and culture in Ottawa.