ArtBridges’ History

ArtBridges' Ten Year History (2008 to 2018)

Organization:

April 2008: Seanna Connell and Kate Austin came up with the idea for ArtBridges and began research and development for the project. Seanna came from 18 years of founding and directing a community arts charitable organization (ArtHeart), Kate founded and operated three successful arts business ventures.

January 29th, 2009: ArtBridges/ToileDesArts was accepted as an official Project of Tides Canada Initiatives, a shared platform that supports social change initiatives across the country with shared in-house governance and administration.

2015–2016: Explored options for sustainable models of operation: Completed research and exploration of potential organizational models for ArtBridges re: best possible options for long-term sustainability. Had guidance and collaboration in this process from a M.A.S. (Management Advisory Services) volunteer consultant.

October 2018: ArtBridges was designated as a Registered National Arts Service Organization and became a registered charity by Canadian Heritage and the CRA. ArtBridges was also incorporated as a not-for-profit (May 2017).

December 2018: ArtBridges began to operate as its own organization and officially left Tides Canada, after 10 great years.

2008–2018: The ArtBridges office has been based in Toronto, however, staff and consultants have also worked from other parts of Canada including Calgary, Montreal, Halifax, Sudbury, and Sault Ste. Marie.

2014: ArtBridges created and implemented an Intended Impact Statement and Theory of Change with Innoweave. http://www.artbridges.ca/about/about_glossary?lang=en

2014–2016: ArtBridges created an Evaluation framework with an external evaluator, Nayar Consultants, and conducted 2 years of formal project evaluation. These evaluations positively informed and drove project activities, long-term strategic plans and organizational direction.

2017: ArtBridges worked on a Strategic Planning process facilitated by volunteer Michelle Smith (Senior Manager in Strategic Initiatives with the United Way of Greater Toronto). It evolved from outcome and directions from our Year 2 External Evaluation and builds upon our current Theory of Change. The strategic plan provides direction for activities over the next three years.

Mapping and Identifying Community Arts Across Canada:

2009–2018: Staff spent the first three years intensively mapping and identifying community-engaged arts initiatives across each province and territory in English, French, and First Nations, Metis and Inuit (FNMI) in under-resourced/under-serviced communities. To date, 395 community-engaged arts initiatives have become community partners, and the list is growing.

Funding Support:

2008–2018: The ArtBridges project grew with the support of generous grants, individual donations, sponsorships, and membership fees including The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation multi-year grant in the amount of $298,005, The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) multi-year grants in the amounts of $279,400 and $158,000, and Canadian Heritage Support for Interpretation and Translation grants.

Student Involvement:

2011: ArtBridges was a client project for students from Centennial College New Media and University of Toronto/Centennial College Joint New Media programs.

2012: ArtBridges was a case study for George Brown College Faculty of Business, Arts & Design third-year marketing students.

2013: ArtBridges was a case study for The Strategic Foresight and Innovation Masters Programme at Ontario College of Art and Design University. Students helped ArtBridges create a vision statement, identify stakeholders, purpose and goals.

2013–2014: A Bishop Strachan School student volunteered to help promote ArtBridges and inform students about community-engaged arts and arts for social change in Canada at a school assembly.

2014: ArtBridges provided an internship placement for a Humber College, Post Graduate Certificate, International Development Program student.

Membership Program and Annual Recognition Awards:

Autumn 2013: ArtBridges launched the Membership Program. Since its launch, there have been a total of 95 distinct members, (47 individuals and 48 organizations); growing steadily up from the goal of 75 members. Each year 60% of the membership is new. The number of Community Partners has grown 42%: 2015: 248, 2016: 323, 2017: 353, 2018: 396. Of the 395 community partners, 95, or 24%, have at some time been a member. The Membership Program has raised over: $6500 from annual fees since its inception! Annual Membership fees range from $15 to $75.

2015–2018: ArtBridges held its 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Annual Recognition Awards and conducted nominations, jury and sponsored awards. The awards showcase remarkable work in community-engaged arts in Canada in three categories: Innovation!, Resiliency! and Creativity! There were over 75 submissions for ArtBridges’ 4th Annual Recognition Awards. During the first two years, the Awards were only open to fee-paying members, during the last two years they were open to all community partners.

Resources and Content:

2014-2018: ArtBridges created 3 bilingual videos.

September 2013: artbridges.ca was launched, a new, robust, interactive, bilingual on-line forum and hub: artbridges.ca ArtBridges explored an array of online applications and accessible technologies to reach and connect community partners across vast geographies of Canada. ArtBridges posted hundreds of affordable and accessible community-engaged arts initiatives, information resources, learning and classified opportunities, and events about community-engaged arts and arts for social change taking place in Canada and disseminated material across Canada, and beyond, via our Community Blog, Facebook page, Twitter and newsletters in English and French. ArtBridges has established a unique voice for community-engaged arts and arts for social change in Canada. ArtBridges has gathered a breadth of knowledge about community arts models, culture, and leadership.

2010–2018: ArtBridges has gathered and shared several thousand resources including professional development, educational and training opportunities on artbridges.ca  Learning and Resources section. ArtBridges also disseminated surveys, newsletters, trend reports, stories and evaluations about developments in the field. These were written collaboratively in-house and by contributing community partners. ArtBridges commissioned community partners to write about their unique experiences to share in our Tips and Tools series: i.e. “The Stuff of Community Engagement” by Annalee Adair; “Training for Artists Working with Seniors in the Deaf or Disability Communities” by Peter Wolf, H’Art Centre; Creating Indigenous Art Spaces in the City” by artists Aura and Chief Lady Bird.

2015: ArtBridges created a Community Arts 101 Audio Series with several community partners. 

2008–2018: ArtBridges has grown with the field in Canada over the past 10 years. We found it essential to keep the content and focus of ArtBridges` work Canada-based. It would be very easy to go beyond Canadian borders. However, intensive focus on the community-engaged arts and arts for social change field and practice in Canada provides a Canadian context and story. A story about what's going on in the field, who's involved, innovative practices and models, content, information and resources, ways of doing the work based on regions, resources, cultures, languages, issues, communities and geography. As Canada is a geographically large country with a spread-out population, there is enough work to focus on in rural, urban, remote and northern communities as well as within the diverse demographics and interests of each community. We have also worked with communities of interest (not defined by geography) including: disability arts, seniors community arts, LGBTTQ2 community arts.

Site Visits:

2015–2018: ArtBridges’ staff went on over 250 site visits across Canada to meet community partners and see community-engaged arts initiatives in action. We learned that operational and delivery models of community-engaged arts initiatives range based on where the initiative is located (which city, community or region), cultural context, available resources, leadership, and community need and interest. During our site visits, we had the opportunity to tell people how important and valuable their work is, as well as hear issues, needs and ideas. When relevant, we offered feedback, connections, resources and ideas. The time to talk, listen and go deeper on a subject as well as see the community arts initiative first-hand provided a depth and context that is hard to get via virtual and remote communication.

Conferences, Presentations and Workshops:

2011: ArtBridges presented at Arts Network for Children and Youth: Creative Communities for Children and Youth Symposium at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.

2013: ArtBridges’ Project Director participated in a week-long session at Wasan Island with a “group of approximately 20 cultural workers, artists, resiliency thinkers, funders, and socially engaged individuals (…) to share knowledge, and to build greater awareness of socially engaged artistic practices, drawing on examples from around the world; and to draft a position paper on the role that the arts must play to increase resiliency in cities” by the Musagetes Foundation, The J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, and The Breuninger Foundation.

2014: ArtBridges conducted two presentations at York University to 2nd and 4th year Community Arts Practice students about the ArtBridges hub and its resources and services, to raise awareness with students.

2015: ArtBridges facilitated an “ArtBridging” interactive workshop and was on a panel at a conference: Dream Big Northern Conference for the Arts in North Bay, ON. The conference brought together artists and arts organizations (community-engaged initiatives, councils, galleries, etc.) from across northern Ontario. ArtBridges was part of panel (Making Connections Through Technology) and facilitated a workshop for “increasing your network.” The workshop also provided valuable insight into the issues and topics with which initiatives in northern Ontario need support.

2015: At the Michaelle Jean Foundation’s 3rd Annual Power of the Arts National Forum at Carleton University in Ottawa, ArtBridges delivered a bilingual presentation called “New Technologies and Social Change.” Attendees included the US Ambassador to Canada, Cultural Envoy, and Jean Daniel Lafond.

2015: ArtBridges was invited to be a on panel about being a project that is both a client of a shared platform and providing platform services to other arts projects. This was hosted by a consortium of arts funders — the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and Metcalf Foundation and held at the Arts and Letters Club.

2015: ArtBridges presented in a webinar for the Ontario Arts Council in both French and English about the value of having an online presence and how to write about and document your arts education project for the web, tips and strategies about amplifying impact, leveraging your work and examples of how ArtBridges shares stories about community-engaged arts and arts education projects from across Ontario and Canada.

2015: ArtBridges conducted a presentation to students in OCAD University’s Art and Social Minor Program.

2017: ArtBridges presented about current priorities and trends in the field at the Art of Changing the World Conference on: knowledge-sharing and dialogue on the landscape of community-engaged art in Canada (Ottawa); and at CAPACOA: The Culture of Community - Hand in Hand: Community Engagement and Community-Engaged Arts Practice, Ottawa. ArtBridges staff also participated in a roundtable discussion with Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage (Montréal), and presented to the Fine Arts Society of Milton (Milton).

2018: ArtBridges’ Project Director was the notetaker at the Mass Culture Gathering in Thunder Bay about Impacts, Challenges, and Collective Capacity of Community-Engaged Arts/Artists Working in the Rural, Remote and First Nation Contexts of Northern Ontario.

2018 Analytics:

2018: Five (p/t) staff reached out and connected (in English and French) with 395 community partner initiatives across Canada, via social networking tools which included artbridges.ca (Classifieds, Events, Map and Profile Directory, Memberships, Learning and Resources, Community Blog), newsletters, Twitter, Facebook, videos, surveys and webinars. ArtBridges' website was updated so that community partners can edit organizational profiles themselves. June 2017 to October 2018: On the website: 12,645 independent users, 41,328 page views, PLUS daily subscribers/followers on the Community Blog: 123, Facebook: 530, & Twitter 1109 =1762 per day x 5 days wk = 8810 wk x 68 wks = 599,080 potential audience/viewers. (This does not include re-tweeting/following community partners’ posts.) Newsletter subscribers approximately: 1167 x 2 newsletters = 2334 potential audience/readers. Survey to 380 community partners x 2 = 760

Service:

2010–2018: ArtBridges provided service to people who called or wrote in for mentorship, connections, ideas, and collaborations. People and community served found connections and resources via self-help on artbridges.ca, or by reaching ArtBridges staff directly for service. Service requests are diverse and require time and attention. People reach us with special requests for help with finding resources, needs in mentorship such as: how to start an art program, where to find community arts initiatives in their area, how to fundraise, need for a letter of support, how to access free arts supplies, where to donate arts supplies, etc. We help connect people to those who may be able to help, or we directly assist & offer mentorship, based on our knowledge, and connections.

Examples include:

• Someone wrote that she had a carload of visual arts supplies, but didn’t know where to take them, ArtBridges matched her with MABELLEarts, a community-engaged arts organization in her area.
• Workman Arts used ArtBridges Map and Profile Directory to find community-engaged arts initiatives across Ontario for potential collaborations for their Scaling Project.
• Niagara-based arts and health groups with Brock University have been meeting to set up an “ArtBridging Niagara” chapter and are learning about the ArtBridges model.
• Centennial College started a new program of study: Arts Education & Community Engagement, and met with ArtBridges to discuss program ideas and to get help promoting it widely.
• ArtBridges wrote letters of support for community-engaged arts initiatives’ collaborative project ideas including: Thinking Rock Community Arts, Arts Network for Children and Youth; as well as for OCAD U’s proposed new Masters program in arts for social change.
• ArtBridges assisted the SSHRC, ASC! Project with a survey to all of ArtBridges community partners, as well as collaborated on a Big Data project with Simon Fraser University using ArtBridges’ online data.
• First major ‘ArtBridging’ with a museum. The Textile Museum of Canada wished to offer rug-hooking instruction and materials to women who haven’t had this kind of opportunity before. The community outreach would tie in with their current exhibit: Home Economics: 150 Years of Canadian Hooked Rugs. ArtBridges connected the Museum with a number of community-engaged arts initiatives that work with women in Toronto. ArtHeart, Workman Arts, Sistering and SKETCH are now all set up to receive introductory sessions in rug-hooking at the Museum, followed by four workshops on site at each of their studios. This is a wonderful example of ‘ArtBridging’ and more importantly- how more Museums and Galleries are engaging diverse communities beyond their walls.
• First long-term ongoing mentorship with a community partner, a start-up community arts initiative in rural ON: Arts Space Essex. ArtBridges regularly mentored Arts Space Essex through its project’s growth and development from inception for over two years.

Indigenous Community-Engaged Arts:

2009–2018: ArtBridges identified, mapped, promoted, and connected Indigenous community-engaged arts initiatives. 109 initiatives, approximately 25% of ArtBridges’ community partner initiatives, work within or with Indigenous communities. Connected with, discussed and brainstormed about how community-engaged arts initiatives can support and learn from each other and help to provide more arts resources and opportunities in urban, rural and remote FNMI (First Nations, Metis and Inuit) communities. Created blog posts and shared relevant information about Indigenous community-engaged arts initiatives in Canada.

2015–2016: Shared ideas, issues and concerns amongst FNMI initiatives in a google hangout series over the course of a year for “Community-Engaged Arts for Indigenous Communities & their Allies in Solidarity.” Discussion topics included: High costs for transportation and shipping arts supplies to remote communities; Cultural protocols vary and can cause tension – how do we respect everyone’s point of view and navigate these issues appropriately as visitors in a community?; Are there connections between traditional teachings and restorative transformative justice that can help us deal with difficult situations when they arise?

2015: Set up a Facebook group: ArtBridges’ FNMI and Northern Community Arts.

Francophone Community Engaged Arts:

2009–2018: Identified, learned about and promoted Francophone and bilingual community-engaged arts and arts for social change initiatives and activities across Canada on artbridges.ca, (158 out of 395 initiatives across Canada that have uploaded their organizational content on artbridges.ca identify as Francophone or bilingual). Fostered community partnerships and collaborations. Connected groups via site-visits, google hangouts, online and on the phone. Increased French content on the site via a Heritage Canada translation grant. Created a video about community initiatives focused on arts for social change in Montréal with Montréal community partners.

Research:

2013–2018: As a community partner, ArtBridges assisted the ASC! Project! (Arts for Social Change) with research about community-engaged arts across Canada, so that they could conduct advocacy to increase visibility and resources for initiatives working in the field. Some examples included: assisting the SSHRC, supported ASC! Project with a survey to all of ArtBridges community partners, and collaborating on a Big Data project with Simon Fraser University using ArtBridges’ online data. ArtBridges also assisted with the “State of the ART: A report on Art for Social Change in Canada”