Presentation: Laura Davis — Re: Westshore Arts Council (Statement of Annual Performance)

Our Vision

Connecting the Westshore Community to the diversity of the arts, culture and heritage for all ages and abilities.

Our Mission

to foster creativity, innovation, collaboration, and diversity of thought through actively engaging Westshore communities in the sharing of their art, culture and heritage in ways that are meaningful to them.

STATEMENT OF ANNUAL PERFORMANCE

ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT

Each year our organization seeks to continue programming from the previous year and endeavors to increase the number of events and interactions within the community. The following list illustrates our activities for the most recent year:

• Emily Carr on the West Shore Map (distribution and printing) (ongoing)
• West Shore Arts Task Force (discussions with respect to a Community Arts Infrastructure) (ongoing)
• Concert Series – Concerts are sponsored and completely organized by the Arts Council each spring and fall. In the previous year we have held three (3) concerts for West Shore Community Concert Band Canada 150 concerts, Karel Roessingh concert in Highlands, Ken Lavigne in Concert (Colwood) and Chris Millington & band performing at a Westshore Chamber of Commerce event. (ongoing)
• Special Events
  • Celebration of James Dunsmuir – July 8th, “Whatever the Cost: Hatley Park and the Dunsmuirs” – Featuring a film release and Music by Elizabeth Gerow, Jannie Burdeti (new achievement)
• Festivals/Fairs
  • Mothers’ Day Paint In at Royal Roads University, selection and sponsorship of theatre and musical performances (second year)
  • Canada Day Celebrations in collaboration with City of Langford at Centennial Park, providing art participation projects for children and youth who attended. (ongoing)
  • Eats & Beats Festival – Colwood – providing an art project for children and youth (new achievement)
  • Lantern Festival – “Light up the Hills”, Lead partner in coordination of this event on the Westshore in the community of Westhills (Langford). (second year)
• Art Shows
  • Youth Art Show – providing funding, marketing, volunteer time for a program for children delivered by the Coast Collective Art Gallery / Colwood. (ongoing)
  • Art Tree Project – provided funding for Artists who are connected with over 7 schools in Colwood to create a banner for Canada 150. (new one time achievement)
  • Student Art Show – providing funding, marketing, volunteer time for a program for students delivered by the Coast Collective Art Gallery / Colwood. (ongoing)
  • Art at the Pub & Art at the Spot – we hosted three very successful art sessions engaging community members who might not normally try to paint a picture. This occurred in the evenings in a pub (View Royal) and the White Spot (Langford), where participants were given a discounted dinner meal price along with the art session. (second year)
  • Recycle Art Show – Westshore Mall in response to a call to artists we were able to feature four artists. Art Installations were created with recycled materials with competition by private ballot. The winner received a $1,000 gift certificate sponsored by the WestShore Mall (Langford). (new achievement)
  • West Shore Studio Tour – as a major sponsor there were 13 art studio’s featured for the Westshore public to visit over Mother’s Day Weekend. This was organized by the Coast Collective Art Centre. (new achievement)
• Speaker Series
  • Two speaker presentations in the Metchosin community house, featuring Gavin Bryars, international composer, Anna Tchernakova, Filmmaker. Anna Tchernakova engaged the audience in the most recent presentation and received feedback to improve her subtitles in her film. (ongoing)
  • A speaker presentation at the new Victoria Conservatory of Music space in Langford, featuring the Victoria Storytellers and enhanced by selections of music featuring pianist Lara Oberg. (new achievement)
• M’akola Housing Society partnership
  • Family Art Studio Workshops, featuring a local artist who brings families together for a creative and collaborative art-making project – August 2017. The first registration yielded 10 enthusiastic participants from the neighborhood and the second brought more of the neighborhood out to make art with us. This is a new partnership with the M’akola Group that we now know will continue to grow for future years.(second year)
• Support to Youth
  • Bursaries for high school graduates – Given to Belmont High School and Royal Bay High School to encourage youth in pursuing their talent. (ongoing)
  • Youth engagement – this program is currently sponsoring five youth at risk. One youth band has been formed and has performed at several well attended recitals.
• Outreach, Communications and Social Marketing (ongoing) – newsletter, social media, articles in a local paper, presence at summer festivals, marketing events and art awareness on the Westshore. Board interaction with municipal council members, mayors, corporate sponsors as well as our members. We have completely redesigned our Website to allow citizens to find out what is going on in the Westshore community (activity and media) as well as the ability for artists to engage in local calls to artists.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Dunsmuir Celebration 1887 – 1938 connected art with heritage and a focus on women in history. Held at the historic Hatley Castle (the home of James Dunsmuir) a special screening of the film “Whatever the Cost: Hatley Park and the Dunsmuirs” was shown. Filmmakers David Springbett and Heather MacAndrew provided historical context. Local Soprano Elizabeth Gerow, with accompanist Jannie Burdeti, performed Elinor Dunsmuir’s original songs in the same drawing room as was heard 80 years ago, interspersed with a lively presentation of her research into Elinor’s life and musical inspiration. This was a collaboration with Royal Roads University, Museum and Archives Division.

• The Children’s Art Show, held at the Coast Collective Art Centre in Colwood, is an example of our successful programs for children. Participation has continued over the past several years to around 100 students. With the assistance of City Councilor Lilja Chong, awards and certificates were given to each student to encourage them to continue to create and share their art pieces.

• Our second annual “Light up the Hills” Lantern Festival involved about 50 local artists, such as dancers, musicians, visual artists and Canada 150 quilters, and engaged about 50 local community members. Attendance was calculated at 2,000. Three workshops to construct unique lanterns brought families and art enthusiasts together in creativity. “Let your lantern light your path” was the theme for a magical pathway, along which festival goers experienced four professionally constructed illuminated installations, dancers and music. Shown here is one of the art installations “Stalagnight” created by a local Victoria Artist, Andrew Azzopardi.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

The Westshore community has become a vibrant and energetic place to live and visit. The Arts Council continues to engage with the community in many exciting ways. Collaboration with our local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary and other not for profits allows us to meet new partners and opens up a multitude of possibilities for arts engagement in our five communities. Each community is unique in its artistic programming. This produces a wide range of diverse art engagement from which the overall Western communities can benefit. The Arts Council looks for avenues to travel into the mainstream gathering places and form partnerships with known businesses that are well placed to interact with the community. We seek to effect board community inclusion and participation for both our local artists and the public. We have begun discussions with local Aboriginal organizations and individuals to better asses how we can include art creativity of Aboriginal artists and First Nations neighborhoods.

Artistic Programming and Engagement Plans for Next Season

Future plans for the organization: The Arts Council has entered an exciting period in its endeavor to “make contact” with so many citizens and artists in the five communities we serve. New ideas for arts engagement are constantly at our doorstep and with this we must ensure that we are inclusive and open to new ideas coming our way. In our critical reflection on the issue of ensuring fair and competitive inclusion for all artists as well as ensuring diversity and excellence in art forms, we have created committees to review and consider proposals from the arts community for arts engagement concepts and ideas. These committees would recommend the arts programming we envision for the Westshore to the Board of Directors. All of our programming for the upcoming year will also celebrate our 30th anniversary on the Westshore. Programming will include:

• Host the “Speaker Series”, in new venues/locations.
• Sponsor “Art at the Pub”, Art at the Spot events in Spring/Fall 2018
• Sponsor Children & Youth Art Shows at the Coast Collective Art Centre, Colwood
• Support for Westshore Studio Tour and the Stinking Fish Studio Tour
• Collaborate with M’akola Society to bring art engagement to their neighborhoods as well as collaborate with Aboriginal Artists connected with M’akola.
• Concert Series Spring/Fall
  • add additional concerts in the Spring/Fall – Bear Mountain, Teechamitsa & Belmont Theatre
  • mini concerts for smaller performance groups such as Emily Carr Quartet, Michael Jones –international cellist ( a Langford performance)
• Continue our partnerships with other associations for festivals/events to provide performing artists/artisans and fees associated with them as well as art activities for youth. (Westshore Chamber of Commerce events, Royal Roads University community event – summer 2018, Canada Day Celebration, Lantern Festival, Eats & Beats Festival, Seaside Festival)
• Provide bursaries for Belmont and Royal Bay Secondary Schools.
• New Programming:
  • Plan and deliver a mini art festival which would include an art show, musical performances, theatre and dance. We have organized a Performing Arts Festival in 2014 in Langford’s Westhills Stadium, so we have a template with which to work from and know the lessons learned from that event. Event location to be determined. Intentions are to have presentations in all five communities.

Initiatives Strengthening Arts in Our Community

• Collaboration with neighboring not for profits such as the Westshore Chamber of Commerce, Coast Collective Arts Centre and Rotary Club of the Westshore has extended our reach to our citizens on the Westshore. Providing artistic enhancements to many of these events that are created and delivered by other organizations has allowed more opportunities for us to promote artists from the Westshore. These opportunities also allow the artists to enlarge their network within the community.
• As with the previous year this year’s “Light up the Hills” has brought artists from varying genres together with the public for a spectacular evening. Not only do the artists get paid professional fees for their presentations but they also extend their art to communities that may not ever have experienced this type of art. The public seems to enjoy being a part of the art for the evening by “lighting up their path” with their own creations. Enhanced by dance, acrobatic dance, theatre and music this becomes a true adventure in art.
• The Dunsmuir event brought to the public not only the second release of a local filmmaker’s historical production, but also a powerful experience of heritage as the audience realized they were sitting in the very place where the film’s events unfolded. The music was high quality and enhanced the emotional experience, but also provided an important historical focus on women as composers and artists. Some of those who came for the history said they had never really experienced classical music and found it intriguing. We are hopeful that we can collaborate again next year with Royal Road University, Archivist to host another event or two, perhaps even incorporating Aboriginal history and music.

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY

The Arts Council is proud of its consistent record in governance of adhering to principles of accountability, independence, merit and equity, through fair and transparent processes. These include written policies and procedures; a professional board that meets monthly, with fully documented decisions and activities, and engages in an annual extended planning retreat; complete and accurate financial records; strong internal and external communication channels exercising a range of media to target wide-ranging audiences; and regular communication of its executive with other agencies in the arts, government, and community including Aboriginal communities.

The Arts Council is also proud of having reached a relatively positive financial position, due to successful negotiations to build strong partnerships and particularly to the new levels of contribution from the City of Langford & Colwood as well as an anticipated increase from British Columbia Arts Council. We also feel ready to move to the next level of growth and innovation, building on our past successes. However, as noted earlier, our key challenge has been understaffing for the demands of five diverse municipalities.

Therefore to strengthen capacity and strategy, we plan to recruit and train new staff during the coming year. This will include, a new part time Administrative Officer. We will again apply for the Federal Summer Jobs program to seek summer students that will broaden the communications and outreach capacity for the organization. We will apply for British Columbia Arts Council project grants as well as CRD project grants to enhance our funding diversity.

We also have moved our office location in November from Metchosin, the smallest and most remote of the five municipalities served, to central Langford. This will immediately help improve outreach, presence in the community, and networking opportunities with current and future partners.

Simultaneously the Board is now entering a phase of transition that is carefully planned to enhance capacity while ensuring continuity of expertise and smooth succession planning for key administrators. The Board composition is being refreshed, and a new committee structure is being developed to work toward hiring an Executive Director to advise the Board in order to maximise the diversity, quality, inclusivity and innovation of our programming. The Board has created a new vision and strategic plan for the next three years, focusing the goals to address the identified challenges, and including an evaluation plan. Our facilities are primarily for administrative purposes. Currently the Board President acts as the Executive Director, a volunteer position.

FUNDING AND GOVERNANCE

In the early years of the Arts Council, funding was obtained primarily from British Columbia Arts Council, Gaming & municipal sources. This has remained constant for the past 11 years, excluding the loss of Gaming funding for the 5 years that the arts were not supported through Community Gaming Grants. In 2014 we were fortunate to receive funding from ArtsBC (Business for the Arts) to host a BC Day Festival ($10,000) and in the current year were successful and received a Community Gaming Grant in the amount of $4,100.

We are also working with all the municipalities on the Westshore to demonstrate our level of commitment and service to the community and hope that with continued discussions the municipalities will set aside more funding for the Arts. The City of Langford will yield $.75 per citizen as calculated each year by the CRD. We continue our partnership with the Westhills Land Development Company which is providing in-kind and cash support of $10,000.00 for our current Lantern Festival for Fall of 2018.

In terms of management and governance, currently our Board would be considered a volunteer working Board of Directors. (President = Executive Director; Treasurer; Secretary = Office Manager; Director-at-Large = Communications Director; other board members and society volunteers providing organizational support when and where needed, including project management, administration and research.)