Program Summary
ArtsBuild Ontario is a not-for-profit organization located in Toronto whose mission is to address the cultural infrastructure challenge facing Ontario’s charitable small and mid-sized performing and visual arts organizations, working in collaboration with constituent service organizations, culture sector partners and public sector partners. The long-term vision is to develop a permanent, independent capital finance fund offering funding, financing and capacity-building technical assistance, designed specifically to address the challenges these groups face.
Context
Small and mid-sized performing and visual arts organizations in Ontario face an enormous challenge dealing with their capital infrastructure needs. A 2006 Ipsos Reid study commissioned by ArtsBuild Ontario clearly indicates that 75% of small to mid-sized arts organizations have multiple, ongoing capital needs whether they be for specialized technical equipment, renovations, or building acquisition and that current funding programs are inadequate to meet this need.
Thanks to the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation over the past few years, ArtsBuild Ontario has been established to address this long-standing issue and has made some progress: incorporation; establishment of an independent Board of Directors; pilot program development of a province-wide workshop program; a significant quanitative study of the scope of the problem; partnerships with other sector organizations with congruent interests.
We are currently feeling a degree of optimism regarding ArtsBuild Ontario's prospects for the future. As a result of a series of partnerships and collaborations that have been initiated in the past eighteen months, the scope of our work has expanded and the potential for broader impact is more likely. Our relationship with public sector funders has evolved to one of partnership, where the research data and new models that ArtsBuild Ontario is developing are seen as valuable public policy inputs.
Broadening our horizons to include conversations with non profit partners outside of the arts sector has brought both new ideas and new networks. There appears to be great potential in the area of alternate financing tools and a greater degree of momentum that felt previously. There is a greater degree of sophistication to the solutions that ArtsBuild Ontario is developing, along with greater complexity.
At the moment we are not proscribing a set solution to the chronic infrastructure problems facing our sector; rather we are exploring all the possible scenarios that might shift the tools we have to work with, expand potential partnerships and change the landscape within which we work.
The potential for significant, transformative leadership in this area for our sector is great and ArtsBuild Ontario is poised to take on this role. We believe passionately that that the capacity for effective capital project management can be developed in the sector; that with current and comprehensive information, ArtsBuild Ontario can identify current and future potential needs and priorities with our funding partners; and that there are practical, tangible solutions that can be developed to address this long-standing challenge.
Three Year Plan
ArtsBuild Ontario proposes extending our program of EDUCATION to build capital project management capacity in the sector, continuing to collect INFORMATION to assist stakeholders and funders to quantify and prioritize the status of potential capital projects and developing SOLUTIONS to address the acute capital infrastructure crisis facing Ontario's small and mid-sized performing and visual arts organizations. Underlying these initiatives is a robust ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT plan to ensure that the projects are well managed and that the organization is sustainable in the long term.
In collaboration with our constituent service organizations, our culture sector partners and our public sector partners, we will improve the success of capital projects for small and mid-sized performing and visual arts organizations in the province of Ontario.
Our long-term vision is to develop a permanent, independent capital finance fund offering funding, financing and capacity-building technical assistance, designed specifically to address the challenges these groups face.
Constituents
Approximately 800 small and mid-sized performing and visual arts organizations that are registered charities, working across Ontario (defined as less than $3.0 million annual operating budget; or less than 500 seats) represented through an Advisory Committee (Artist Run Centres and Collectives of Ontario; Dance Umbrella of Ontario; Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario in collaboration with Association des groupes en arts visuels francophones; Ontario Association of Art Galleries; Professional Association of Canadian Theatres; Théâtre Action in collaboration with Association des théâtre français du Canada (ATFC);Theatre Ontario; Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA)).
Funding Partners
Founded through the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, ArtsBuild Ontario has also accessed project funding from from the Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Ministry of Culture, Department of Canadian Heritage and the George C. Metcalf Foundation. The next extensive three year program is currently under consideration for funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
We envision that in 3 years' time ArtsBuild Ontario will be offering a province-wide EDUCATION program, continuing to collect INFORMATION that is funded by all these funding partners and finding SOLUTIONS that all funders judge credible and useful.
