ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: July 14, 1998
Author/Local: A. Niwinski/6007
CC File No. 2050

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	Director, Office of Cultural Affairs
SUBJECT:	Cross-Cultural Initiatives Grant Program Review

RECOMMENDATIONS

A. THAT Council approve revisions in the guidelines for training and audience development grants in the Organizational Development component of the Cultural Grant Incentive category, as described in this report.

B. THAT Council approve changes in the Incentive category’s Cross-Cultural Initiatives program, to be renamed Diversity Initiatives, as described in this report.

GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of the foregoing.

COUNCIL POLICY

Council approved the establishment of the Cross-Cultural Initiatives (CCI) and Organizational Development grant programs within the Incentive Grants category on December 15, 1989, and following a review in 1993, approved the current CCI guidelines on July 20, 1993.

SUMMARY

Following a review of the Cross-Cultural Initiatives (CCI) program to determine current priority needs for diversity in the arts, staff are recommending changes in both CCI and Organizational Development, summarized as follows and detailed later in this report. Staff believe that the net effect of these recommendations will be to direct developmental assistance to arts groups in distinct communities, while still providing for assistance to mainstream organizations wishing to collaborate with distinct communities.

Cross-Cultural Initiatives: Staff recommend a number of changes (and renaming the program Diversity Initiatives to signal the changes). These include transferring equity training and the audience development component of community outreach to Organizational Development, and focusing support on the following:

- leadership skills development: to support experiential training (eg. apprenticeships) for artists from distinct communities (already supported by CCI);
- intercultural collaborations (already supported by CCI); and
- support for developmental initiatives by distinct community artists (addition to program).

Organizational Development: Staff recommend making revisions in the guidelines for arts administration training grants to include equity training for staff and board members of arts organizations, and expanding audience development grant guidelines to include cross-cultural audience development initiatives by distinct communities. In addition, staff propose to work with the City’s funding partners in the APOD (Arts Partners in Organizational Development) program to improve outreach to distinct communities and explore possible revisions to make APOD a useful source of assistance for them.

PURPOSE

This report summarizes the results of the CCI program review undertaken by staff as indicated in the 1998 Cultural Grants Budget report, and presents recommendations for changes in the CCI program, renamed Diversity Initiatives, and for related changes in Organizational Development guidelines.

BACKGROUND

Cross-Cultural Initiatives (CCI) was set up in 1990 as one of two components of the Cultural Grant Incentives category, the other being Organizational Development. CCI is intended to:
(1) encourage established arts organizations to be more responsive to Vancouver’s diversity in their programming, community outreach, and organizational makeup, and (2) assist artsgroups from distinct communities (as defined by ethnicity, race, disability and sexual orientation) to undertake intercultural initiatives that would promote increased understanding and interaction between the city’s diverse cultural communities.

From the beginning, CCI has supported organizational development, training, programming, and community outreach and education. The grants have been available to large and small non-profit arts organizations based in Vancouver for activities outside their regular programming, representing a new or recent direction. (Appendix A). A 1993 program review in consultation with community representatives supported continuation of CCI, and resulted in improved communication and guideline revisions to make the program more inclusive. The CCI budget allocation has stayed at $50,000 since its inception.

DISCUSSION

Review Overview

Given the changes in the arts community and the community at large since the last evaluation of CCI five years ago, staff undertook the present program review to ascertain current priority needs for addressing diversity in the arts and to evaluate CCI’s effectiveness in helping to address those needs. The main components of the review were an analysis of the projects CCI has funded since 1990, and a series of consultation meetings with successful and unsuccessful applicants to the program, as well as some representatives of the arts community who did not apply to the program (as listed in Appendix B).

The analysis and consultations indicate that the cumulative effect of the CCI program has been greater awareness of intercultural issues and opportunities in the arts, and that the program has supported many valuable projects. Since 1990 CCI has provided 102 grants to 64 different organizations working in the performing, visual, media and literary arts. The grants have helped to support outreach initiatives between communities, facilitated new employment opportunities for artists in distinct communities through training, and contributed to new artistic exchanges and collaborations. Participants in funded projects included a broad cross-section of Vancouver’s distinct communities, including those whose heritage is Chinese, First Nations, Japanese, South Asian, Latin American, Southeast Asian, African, and Middle Eastern, as well as a few defined by disability.

A large majority of those consulted reported that their projects had been successful, although many had difficulty translating these one-time projects into long-term change, mostly for financial reasons. About a quarter of those consulted indicated that CCI had a lasting impact on their organization’s programming, staff composition or outreach. These organizations were generally more able to take on the costs of continuing to implement the changesinitiated during their CCI project. Few organizations undertook equity training for staff and board members, but those who did emphasized its value.

While mainstream and distinct community organizations had the same grant approval rate, a majority of applicant organizations (73%) were from the mainstream. Many distinct community groups indicated that they did not have the organizational resources to undertake intercultural initiatives.

The review indicted that the highest priority need related to diversity in the arts at present is the development of organizational and artistic capacity in arts groups from distinct communities, especially those involved in new creation or interpretation. As articulated during the consultations, artists in distinct communities cannot access the organizational infrastructure and administrative skills required to secure the funding and other resources they need to develop and present their work to a community-wide audience.

Recommendations

Based on the review, staff are not only recommending changes in CCI, but in the other component of the Incentive category, Organizational Development, so that it can more effectively address organizational development needs related to diversity. Taken as a whole the recommendations prioritize support for organizational and artistic development in distinct communities (defined by ethnicity, race and disability), but don’t exclude intercultural initiatives by mainstream organizations. The support available through CCI and Organizational Development is intended to be strategic, complementing the City’s main sources of assistance to arts and cultural organizations, Operating, Project and Rental grants.

(1) Organizational Development:

Organizational Development has a 1998 budget allocation of $30,000, half of which supports needs assessment, strategic planning, board development and related activities through Arts Partners in Organizational Development (APOD), funded by the City and other agencies; the other half provides grants for arts administration training and audience development. Some of the organizational and human resource development needs identified in the review could be addressed through these grants, which members of distinct communities have rarely accessed. In addition to improving program communication and outreach, staff recommend the following:

a) Discussions should be initiated among the APOD funding partners to see whether the program can be revised for next year to respond to the organizational needs of emerging arts groups from distinct communities.

b) Equity training, recently part of the CCI program, should be moved to Organizational Development. Grants would be available to arts organizations for staff and board member training covering intercultural relations, hiring equity, and strategies for inclusion.

c) Audience development assistance, currently available for innovative joint audience development initiatives, should be expanded to include cross-cultural audience development initiatives by two or more groups from distinct communities. This would cover some of the audience education activities previously eligible for support through CCI.

(2) Diversity Initiatives:

To help develop artistic capacity in distinct communities, staff recommend that CCI be revised (and renamed Diversity Initiatives to draw attention to the change), retaining collaborative and training components of CCI, including a component to assist with artistic development. The two components of the CCI program that would not be retained are public dialogue on intercultural issues and expert training in the art of distinct communities, for which there have been very few recent applications. Eligible activities would be:

a) Leadership skills development (mentorships, internships) to provide Vancouver-based experiential training for artistic directors, curators, etc. from distinct communities.

b) Artistic partnerships/collaborations (including residencies) between arts groups from distinct communities, or distinct community and mainstream organizations.

c) Initiatives focusing on the development, production and presentation of work by artists from distinct communities in the performing, visual and media arts. This support targets new creation or interpretation, representing a stage of development for the applicant, and is not intended to replace Project grants, which are available to smaller non-profit groups working in all cultural traditions. Projects will not be eligible for both types of grant in a given year.

To facilitate access to Diversity Initiatives, staff recommend that there be two deadlines (starting in 1999: only one this year), a simple application form, and, as for CCI, provision for the sponsorship of groups by non- profit cultural organizations.

Budget Implications

The revised programs recommended in this report will be funded by the existing 1998 budget allocation of $80,000 for the Incentives category ($30,000 for Organizational Development and $50,000 for Cross-Cultural Initiatives). Staff are not proposing any change in the budget distribution between Organizational Development and Diversity Initiatives at this time, but anticipate that a change may be necessary in the future.

CONCLUSION

Staff believe that the changes recommended in this report will help to address current priority needs for diversity in the arts, as identified by the CCI review, providing for developmental assistance to distinct communities, while maintaining some incentives for intercultural initiatives by mainstream organizations. Staff are also aware that, to be effective, the changes will have to be clearly communicated, and that issues related to diversity apply to all civic Cultural Grant programs.

* * * * *

APPENDIX A

CROSS-CULTURAL INITIATIVES GRANTS PROGRAM

CCI was set up as an incentive grant program at the end of 1989. A review in 1993 supported continuation of the CCI program and resulted in guideline revisions and improved communication. The program has been available to large and small non-profit arts and cultural organizations based in Vancouver, for the following activities:

Partnerships:

Partnerships/collaborations between artists from different communities, including artistic residencies and the creation and/or presentation of artworks

Training:

Apprenticeships and other forms of experiential training that can lead to employment opportunities in the arts for members of distinct communities (as defined by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability)

Expert training related to the art of distinct communities, not normally available in Vancouver

Equity training for staff and board members of arts organizations

Community Outreach:

Forums, workshop and other public events designed to promote increased understanding and interaction between groups from different cultural traditions

Community and educational outreach to raise awareness of cultural diversity in Vancouver and promote audience development

APPENDIX B

CROSS - CULTURAL INITIATIVES REVIEW CONSULTATIONS

The following individuals participated in the series of small group consultations about the CCI program and current priorities for diversity in the arts held in June 1998:

Carmen Aguirre, Latino Theatre Group
Amir Alibhai, Roundhouse Community Centre
Glen Alteen, Grunt Gallery
Tricia Baldwin, Ballet BC
Camyar Chai, New World Players
Barb Clausen, New Performance Works
Marie Clements, actor, playwright, producer
Susan Edelstein, Artspeak Gallery
Leila Getz, Vancouver Recital Society
Jay Hirabayashi, Kokoro Dance
Diane Kadota, principal, Arts Management
Riitta Katajamaki, Department of Canadian Heritage
Lucy Komori, Children’s Arts Umbrella
Cheryl Meszaros, Vancouver Art Gallery
Bill Millerd, Arts Club Theatre
Helen O’Brian, Vancouver Society of Storytelling
Kathy Shimizu, Powell Street Festival
Pritam Singh, India Music Society
Donna Spencer, Firehall Arts Centre
Baldwin Wong, Social Planning Department
Gloria Wong, B.C. Chamber Orchestra
Saintfield Wong, Chinese Cultural Centre
Jim Wong-Chu, Asian-Canadian Writer’s Workshop
Winston Xin, Video In
Beverley Yhap, Playwright and Arts Administrator

* * * * *

(c) 1998 City of Vancouver