2023 has been another busy year for ABO! Let’s look back at all the activities we did this past year.
In January we welcomed a new member to our team; Helena Ciuciura who joined as the Marketing and Community Coordinator at the beginning of the year to support our marketing, communications, and 44 Gaukel creative hub.
Creative Spaces Mentoring Network
In February, the ABO team traveled to Calgary for the Creative Spaces Mentoring Network 2023 Kick-Off Workshop in partnership with Calgary Arts Development and cSpace Marda Loop. We welcomed 34 participants from Calgary! We hosted the Ontario Kick-Off webinar in March also with 34 particpants,with projects ranging from visioning a new space to being mid-way through construction.
As the year comes to a close we are looking forward to the Wrap-Up webinars with both the Calgary and Ontario cohorts, to hearing from the pairs how the program has helped them develop as leaders in the sector, and to see where their projects are in comparison to the beginning of the program. We are excited to meet the new mentees from Ontario and Calgary in the new year.
The Indigenous Creative Spaces Project
2023 marked the third year of the Indigenous Creative Spaces Project. We wrapped up the New Moon Dialogue series between March and June with four discussions; Looking Towards the Next 50 Years, Debahjemuhjig Theatre Group: Developing the Creation Centre, Creating and Maintaining Culturally Safe Creative Spaces, and Culturally Based Training and Indigenous Spaces.
The New Moon Dialogues touched on themes including uplifting the relationship to land, Indigenous sovereignty, and systemic barriers in developing Indigenous creative spaces.
In June, Paddling Upstream was released. This document shares the journey that summarizes the work of the Indigenous Creative Spaces Project (ICSP) over the past three years. If you have not yet read the document, you can access it now on the ICSP project page! This document presents how this project came to be, the journey of discovery and knowledge, and four Bundles of Knowledge that offer guidance for building sovereign and sustainable Indigenous creative spaces. ABO supported the Paddling Upstream: Indigenous Creative Spaces Project Webinar in August with author Dr. Terri-Lynn Brennan, CEO of Inclusive Voices, and collaborators, JP Longboat, Artistic Director of Circadia Indigena.
The work of Paddling Upstream continued throughout the year as the ABO team hit the road to continue the conversations from the project’s initial travels in 2020. The Return to Community Gatherings focused on the Bundles of Knowledge in Paddling Upstream with the conversation self-determined by each community. The sessions revolved around the evolution of organizations and their spaces since the beginning of the project and their plans for the future. The gatherings were held with Aanmitaagzi in North Bay, Debajehmujig in Manitoulin Island, Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston, and Friday Creeations in Temagami. We look forward to visiting the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford and Native Earth in Toronto in the new year. We will also be hosting an in-person workshop, The Ecology of Indigenous Creative Space & Allyship in March 2024. Subscribe to our e-news for registration details in January.
Webinars and Professional Development
We hosted a number of webinars and workshops over 2023. In April we were joined by Tara Mazurk and Elizabeth Seip from PAA Advisory | Conseils for a conversation on Green Infrastructure Initiatives for Arts Organizations and the latest federal funding investment in green buildings. We spoke about the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program, the Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative, and outlined how these supports can integrate with existing programs such as the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund.
We partnered with STEPS Public Art for the Mentorship in the Arts Panel, a free virtual panel with Elle de Lyon, Bruno Canadien, Quentin VerCetty, and Bruce Pitkin in which we explored the importance of mentorship and the different types of mentoring seen in the arts.
In addition, our Executive Director, Alex Glass, participated in Ontario Presents’ Cedar Tea Break and the Arts Network Ottawa for the Community Engagement Session: Empowering Voices: Indigenous Relations and Self-Determination in Arts Organizational Development both with Artistic Director of Circadia Indigena JP Longboat.
We rounded out the end of the year with our sixth online auction in partnership with the KW Rotary Club. We had some amazing donations and thank all who supported us by donating and bidding on ABO’s items.
This busy year comes to a close with several exciting projects on the horizon in the New Year. ABO would like to thank all of the project partners, donors, and arts organizations that we have formed relationships with in 2023 for making this year an incredible success. And thanks to our network for your continued support. We wish you all the best this Holiday Season!
