Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

Director, Office of Cultural Affairs

SUBJECT:

1999 Diversity Initiatives Grants: Second Deadline

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

The Diversity Initiatives program guidelines were approved by Council on July 28, 1999.
Approval of grant recommendations requires eight affirmative votes.

PURPOSE

This report makes recommendations for six Diversity Initiatives grants totalling $46,500.

SUMMARY

For the second Diversity Initiatives deadline, 11 grant applications were received. Of these six groups are recommended for grants, as listed in Table 1, following.

Table 1
Diversity Initiatives Recommendations

Organization (Sponsor)

Requested

Recommended

Firehall Arts Centre

$10,000

$10,000

Gallery Gachet Society

$7,353

$3,000

Indigenous Media Arts Group

$6,200

$0

La Luna Productions (View Performing Arts Soc.)

$8,000

$8,000

Latino Theatre Group (View Performing Arts)

$7,000

$0

Nestor’s Latin Dance (Norte-Sur Arts Assoc.)

$10,000

$0

Pangaea Arts Society

$10,000

$0

Rice Girls Performing Arts Group (Headlines)

$10,000

$5,500

Society for Disability Arts and Culture

$10,000

$10,000

Theatre Terrific Society

$10,000

$0

Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company

$10,000

$10,000

TOTAL

$98,553

$46,500

BACKGROUND

The Diversity Initiatives program is designed to support cross-cultural artistic partnerships and artistic development in distinct communities (as defined by race, ethnicity or disability). Applicants must be based in Vancouver and activities must take place within the city of Vancouver. The program applies to the performing or visual arts, and 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 mor distinct communities. Projects must include new creation or interpretation.

(3) Cross-Cultural Artistic Projects: to assist with collaborative artistic 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 cultural organization from a mainstream or other distinct community.

A total of $60,000 was approved for the Diversity Initiatives budget this year. In September 1999, three grants totalling $19,000 were approved, leaving a balance of $41,000.

After reviewing the applications currently under consideration, staff are recommending that an additional $5,500 be transferred into the Diversity Initiatives budget from Organizational Development, which will have an unallocated balance $8,550 if Council approves staff recommendations for APOD grants presented in a separate report. Transfer of these funds will result in a budget of $46,500 for Diversity Initiatives grants.

DISCUSSION

For this year’s fall deadline, 11 organizations have applied for Diversity Initiatives grants amounting to $98,533. Grants totalling $46,500 are recommended, as listed in Table 1, and discussed in more detail, as follows:

Firehall Arts Centre
The Centre has applied for a $10,000 grant to support a ten-month artistic residency for First Nations actor and playwright Marie Humber Clements. As artist-in-residence, Ms. Clements will work on the development of a play based in the Downtown Eastside, while conducting readings and workshops for women in the neighbourhood, who will also have an opportunity to work on the play. Staff recommend a $10,000 grant.

Gallery Gachet Society
A $3,000 grant is recommended for the art exhibition component of the Society’s “Up and Out” program. Gallery Gachet assists artists who are also consumers of mental health services and/or are survivors of abuse. The “Up and Out” program will help present these emerging artists to the wider public by engaging a professional guest curator to select works for an art exhibition; providing an established artist to advise them on communicating with the public, critics, and curators; and undertaking extra publicity for the exhibition.

Indigenous Media Arts Group (IMAG)
The Society requests assistance with the creation of two media arts installations by two Vancouver-based aboriginal media artists. A grant is not recommended as the application does not meet the requirements for artistic development projects as set out in the criteria. Staff note that the activity does fit the criteria for the Project Grant category of the regular Cultural Grants program, and the organizers have been advised that they may apply for the December 9, 1999 deadline.

La Luna Productions
La Luna Productions, which operates View the Performing Arts Society, has requested a grant of $8,000 for “The Reclaiming Project”, a cross-cultural inter-generational play that will trace the journeys of young people and their families to Vancouver, and their subsequent experiences. Lead by two experienced theatre artists, Mercedes Baines and Marcus Yousseff, the project will involve young people in its research and creation, and will culminate in a theatre presentation by youth and professional adult actors. The project is intended to be the first stage in the development of a multi-youth theatre company associated with La Luna. Staff recommend a grant of $8,000.

Latino Theatre Group
The Latino Theatre Group, under the auspices of View the Performing Arts Society, has applied for a $7,000 grant towards its next project, “Northern Spics”. Since 1994, the City has provided a number of grants to assist with the development of the Latino Theatre Group, through the Cross-Cultural Initiatives and Diversity Initiatives programs. While the group is still eligible for a Diversity Indicatives grant, and while staff continue to be supportive, in the context of other projects seeking funds from this developmental grant program, staff are not recommending a grant at present. However, staff suggest that the group apply for assistance in the Project grant category.

Nestor’s Latin Dance Team
This group is proposing a presentation of a musical based on the history of Latin dance and music and has applied for assistance with an Artistic Development project under the auspices of Norte-Sur Society. The work has already been developed by the team’s leader, choreographer, director and teacher, Nestor de la Zerda. In the context of the applications received, a Diversity Initiatives Grant is not recommended. Staff however, suggest that if the group follows through on plans to register as a non-profit society, it may be eligible for a Baxter Grant for use of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre.

Pangaea Arts Society
This group has proposed a very interesting and challenging work - to translate and produce an adaptation of a Chinese novel, stage play and screenplay, East Palace, West Palace, which deals with issues of homosexuality in China. The script adaptation and translation is not yet complete and is part of a university thesis by one of the artists. While the preparation of the script is a critical component, it is not within the purview of the Diversity Initiatives Program. Staff recommend that once the script is further developed and translated, the applicant consider a Diversity Initiatives request for assistance with the theatrical development and presentation of this work.

Rice Girls Performing Group
Rice Girls Performing Group, a group of women theatre professionals from diverse cultural backgrounds, has applied, under the auspices of Headlines Theatre, for a $10,000 grant to assist with the development of its first full-length play. The project will be created with the participation of women from diverse cultures, using the techniques of popular theatre. Staff recommend a $5,500 grant towards the development and a rehearsal presentation of the play.

Society for Disability Arts & Culture
The Society’s objective is to celebrate the unique perspectives, strengths and creativity of artists and performers with disabilities. Their primary goal is to organize and present kickSTART!, a celebration of disability arts in the summer of 2001. A $10,000 grant is recommended to assist the Society with the artistic development of a choral group and a series of dance workshops leading to a performance. These steps will enable Vancouver-based disabled artists to show their work in the community and to be well prepared for kickSTART! and for other opportunities to contribute to the city’s cultural spectrum.

Theatre Terrific Society
The Society has requested a grant for an artistic development project to provide support for a disabled actor to perform in a play co-produced by Touchstone Theatre, Theatre Terrific and the Belfry Theatre in Victoria. The proposal does not meet the criteria for the Diversity Initiatives program on several counts. Among other things, organizations which, like Theatre Terrific, receive City operating funding, are not eligible for artistic development grants. Staff are supportive of the work being done by Theatre Terrific and will take into account the full range of this group’s activities in reviewing its Operating grant request.

Vancouver Playhouse
A $10,000 grant is recommended to support workshop and performance opportunities for two theatre artists from distinct communities who had previously not been included in Vancouver Playhouse programs. Both artists have been invited to join with two other emerging directors in a program which offers four young directors opportunities to work within a large regional theatre company. In addition to working with Playhouse mentor/directors on a mainstage production, each emerging director will be invited to workshop a scene from a classical text, working with an ensemble of Playhouse actors and presented in two public performances at the Vancouver Playhouse Production Centre in June, 2000.

CONCLUSION

Approval of the recommendations in this report will leave no unallocated balance in the Diversity Initiatives component of the Cultural Grants budget and $3,300 in the Organizational Development component.

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