SAA Bulletin – July 2010

July 2010

In this issue?

• Summer Hours
• SAA Annual General Meeting and Community Forum
• 2010 Arts Congress: State of the Arts
• SAA Research
• Indexes
• Arts Professions Act
• Appointments
• Culture Days
• Creative City News
• SAA Board of Directors

SUMMER HOURS

Please note that the SAA office will be closed from July 12 to August 13.

SAA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND COMMUNITY FORUM

Saturday, September 18, 2010

11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

MacKenzie Art Gallery

T.C.Douglas Bldg, 3475 Albert St, Regina.

Everyone is invited to attend the Community Forum and Annual General Meeting. This is an ideal opportunity to meet with your colleagues and help the Board of Directors shape SAA?s future initiatives. The forum will begin at 11:00 am followed by a catered lunch and annual general meeting.

If you are interested in, or know of someone who is interested in serving as a director, please forward the names to the Nominations Committee:

c/o Saskatchewan Arts Alliance

205A 2314-11 Ave.

Regina, Sk. S4P 0K1

Email: info@artsalliance.sk.ca

Phone: 780-9820

2010 ARTS CONGRESS: STATE OF THE ARTS

About 100 delegates and speakers gathered at the Bassment in Saskatoon for the 2010 Arts Congress, held on May 7th & 8th. In her keynote address, Dr. Maria Jackson discussed cultural vitality and the importance of local conditions when designing indicators for the arts. That was followed by a panel discussion with Dwayne Baker, Susan Hetu, Peter Sametz and Gary Young.

Terrence Heath reminisced about the province?s arts scene in the 1960s and ?70s, recalling the energy created by the convergence of artists in the province, and gave advice for the challenges currently being faced. In his luncheon address, Henry Woolf discussed his lifelong passion for the arts, noting that while art is not real it is truer than life. A conversation between Terry Fenton and Susan Hetu, gave delegates insight into Government?s current perspectives on the arts sector. Vincent Varga, Laura Margita and Elwood Jimmy discussed current directions and issues facing the arts.

David Kyle spoke about the direction the Arts Board is going and its relationship to the Ministry, and Rose Gilks and Peter England gave an overview of the support SaskCulture provides to the arts. The popular Stories form the Art featured artists Kent Allen, Wally Dion, Taylor Leedhal and performances by sound poet Charles Hamilton, soprano Danika Steckler and pianist Mark Turner.

At Coffee with the SAA Board of Directors, SAA?s community consultation, delegates raised serious concerns about the closing of Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN). They noted that the closure impacts more than the film and television industry; visual artists, performers and writers will also suffer. SAA wrote to Premier Wall expressing delegates? concern and received a response from the Premier.

SAA RESEARCH

SAA recently published two research reports that focus on aspects of the Saskatchewan arts sector. Both reports are available from the SAA.

Hill Strategies Research was commissioned to analyse government spending on the arts and culture in Saskatchewan using Statistics Canada?s 2007/08 data, the latest data available. Provincial Government Spending on the Arts and Culture in Sask., in 2007 ? 2008 examines government spending in various culture areas, and provides a comparison of spending among the provinces. The report includes sections on total provincial government spending on culture, spending on the arts and cultural industries, spending on specific cultural line items, grants to the arts and culture, changes since 2003/04, and detailed tables. Among the provinces, Saskatchewan ranks 3rd in per capita spending for all the culture areas (arts, cultural industries, libraries, heritage and other), ranks 7th in per capita spending in the arts, and ranks 2nd in per capita spending in cultural industries.

SAA commissioned Marnie Badham to write the discussion paper The Menace of Measurement: A discussion about arts indicators. (A draft paper was included in the 2010 Arts Congress packages.) The paper provides an overview of the argument about measurement and the arts, gives a detailed theoretical review of international arts and cultural indicators, and proposes some thoughts for steps forward for arts indicators in Saskatchewan. SAA thanks Reference Committee members for their input, and also those who reviewed the draft paper: Dr. Nancy Duxbury, Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra; Kelly Hill, Hill Strategies Research; and Don Kerr, SAA Board of Directors.

INDEXES

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) is creating a single, composite index for measuring the wellbeing of Canadians using a set of indicators to track Canada?s progress in eight interconnected categories, one of which is the Leisure and Culture Domain. The recently released Leisure and Culture Domain Final Report includes a literature review and recommends eight headline indicators for inclusion:

• Percentage of time spent on the previous day in social leisure activities
• Percentage of time spent on the previous day in arts and culture activities
• Average number of hours in past year volunteering for culture and recreation organisations
• Average monthly frequency of participation in physical activity lasting over 15 minutes
• Average attendance per performance in past year at all performing arts performances
• Average visitation per site in past year to all National Parks and National Historic Sites
• Average number of nights away per trip in the past year on vacation trips to destinations over 80 kilometres from home
• Expenditures in past year on all aspects of culture and recreation as a percentage of total household expenditures.

The National Arts Index, another single composite index, was developed by the Americans for the Arts to measure the health and vitality of the arts in the United States. The Index is composed of 76 national-level research indicators produced by the federal government and private research organizations. A report covering the index from 1998 to 2008 can be found at National Arts Index.

ARTS PROFESSIONS ACT

The Arts Professions Act, which came into force on June 1, requires professional artists who are in independent contractor situations (i.e. not employees) to have written contracts with those who engage them. The Act outlines the elements that the contract must contain such as legal names, dates, terms and conditions of pay. See the Act for a complete list. In anticipation of the Act, CARFAC Sask. initiated the Best Practices Development Project which provides a series of articles for the visual arts sector on industry standards and best practises. Artists in other art forms may also find the information helpful. For musicians, SaskMusic provides a Live Performance Contract, written in accordance with The Arts Professions Act. As well, Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport provides information on the Act and contracts on its website.

APPOINTMENTS

Hon. Bill Hutchinson is the new Minister of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport (TPCS) having moved from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Hon. Hutchinson, an architect, was first elected to the legislature in 2007, and before that sat on the Regina City Council. In May, Premier Wall gave each Ministry a new mandate letter outlining government priorities for the next 18 months. Among the priority initiatives for TPCS are implementing the cultural policy Pride of Saskatchewan and investigating options for strengthening the film industry.

The Government appointed three new people to the Board of Directors of the Sask. Arts Board: Charlie Baldock, Mary-Ann Kirkby and Lyndon Tootoosis.

CULTURE DAYS

Culture Days, September 24 ? 26, is a collaborative, pan-Canadian initiative designed to increase the awareness, accessibility, participation and engagement of all Canadians in cultural activities in their communities. Organizations are encouraged to feature free, hands-on, interactive activities that invite the public to participate in the ?behind-the-scenes? world of arts and culture. More information can be found at Culture Days. Register your activity here.

CREATIVE CITY NEWS

The June 29 Creative City News featured an editorial written by Kevin Kitchen, City of Saskatoon Community Initiatives Manager. The editorial discusses developments in Saskatchewan?s culture sector.

SAA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Cynthia Dyck, President

Terry Fenton, Vice-president

Amy Nelson-Mile, Secretary

Don Kerr, Treasurer

Kim Houghtaling, Past President

Pam Haig Bartley

Mary Blackstone

Tera Maguire

Karen Reynaud