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.

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.

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.

ArtBridges created 3 bilingual videos.

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