Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs

SUBJECT:

2000 Diversity Initiatives Grants: First Deadline

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

PURPOSE

This report makes recommendations for four Diversity Initiative grants totalling $21,500.

BACKGROUND

The Diversity Initiatives program supports cross-cultural artistic partnerships and artistic development in distinct communities (as defined by race, ethnicity or disability). Applicants must be based and active in Vancouver. The program provides grants for four types of activities:

(1) Artistic Leadership Training: towards the costs of internships and mentorships for artists from distinct communities in the following areas: curation, artistic direction, and artistic production.

(2) Artistic Development Projects: for projects designed to contribute to the artistic development of a professionally led arts group from one or more distinct communities. Projects must include new creation or interpretation.

(3) Cross-Cultural Artistic Projects: to assist with collaborative projects between two or more arts groups, one of which must be from a distinct community.

(4) Cross-Cultural Artistic Residencies: to assist with a residency for one or more artists from a distinct community hosted by a non-profit society from a mainstream or other distinct community.

Assuming the transfer of $6,000 from the Diversity Initiatives to the Project Grant category as recommended in the report considered by Council on July 25, 2000, the budget available for Diversity Initiatives is $54,000.

DISCUSSION

Five applications were received for the first of two deadlines for the Diversity Initiatives program. Grants are recommended for four of these, listed in Table 1 and discussed in more detail under individual headings.

Table 1
Diversity Initiatives Recommendations

Organization (Sponsor)

Requested

Recommended

Firehall Theatre Society

$10,000

$6,000

Rice Girls Performance Group (Headlines Theatre)

$10,000

$2,500

Rumble Productions Society

$6,395

$4,000

Satellite Video Exchange Society

$10,000

$9,000

Touchstone Theatre Society

$5,000

$0

Total

$41,395

$21,500

Firehall Arts Centre
A $6,000 grant is recommended in support of artistic leadership training for Fif Fernandes. Ms. Fernandes is co-founder and artistic director of Chutney Productions, a professional theatre company dedicated to the advancement of theatre professionals of diverse race, ethnicity and culture. The proposed mentorship program with the Firehall Arts Centre gives Ms. Fernandes the opportunity to learn about the many facets of an established producing company’s operations, and strengthens the relationships between the Firehall and the diverse community of theatre professionals.

Rice Girls Performance Group
A second grant is recommended to support the final component of Outrageous Acts: Resisting Globalization, a play developed out of a series of community theatre workshops. Rice Girls, operating under the auspices of Headlines Theatre, work with women from diverse cultural backgrounds using community theatre and play-making to explore issues of common interest. Staff recommend a grant in the amount of $2,500 towards the costs of artistic development and the presentation of the final full-length play.

Rumble Theatre
A $4,000 grant is recommended in support of artistic leadership training for Maiko Bae Yamamoto. Ms. Yamamoto is a multi-disciplinary artist, active in the Vancouver theatre community as co-founder of boca del lupo theatre and SOURCE Artists Space. The mentorship proposed for Ms. Yamamoto focuses on artistic production, presenting and touring, as well as general theatre management, and will be provided by Rumble Theatre’s Artistic Director, Norman Armour.

Satellite Video Exchange Society
A grant of $9,000 is recommended towards the second year of the society’s project to assist deaf artists to make and show their own videos. To overcome the substantial barriers faced by this community, Video In has adapted to the artists by training some of its staff in American Sign Language, by integrating five deaf graduates from last year’s program as mentors for the six new artists who expected to enroll, and by dedicating its equipment time, considerable staff expertise , and public screening facilities to the project.

Touchstone Theatre
The company has asked for $5,000 towards a year-long cross-cultural artist-in-residence project that would enable further development of an existing script. The Diversity Initiatives program requires that such residencies include a community involvement component designed to develop the practice of the resident artist and the host arts organization while offering community members a substantial opportunity to contribute to creative process, and learn from the artist. The proposed residency offers only limited scope for community involvement and artistic development for the company. A grant is therefore not recommended.

CONCLUSION

The Diversity Initiative recommendations in this report address applications made for the first of two annual deadlines, the second being in October. Approval of the recommendations will leave an unallocated balance of $32,500 in the Diversity Initiatives component of the 2000 Cultural Grants budget. Council should note that in the report on requests received for the October deadline, staff will recommend an adjustment in the Diversity Initiatives budget, as part of the .5% decrease in the Cultural Grants budget required by City budget reductions. The required decrease will be shared by Diversity Initiatives and Organizational Development, and staff are deferring their specific recommendations after the fall deadlines, when budget level needs in each category are clearer.

*******

cs000727.htm

Comments or questions? You can send us email.
[City Homepage] [Get In Touch]

(c) 1998 City of Vancouver