Arts Service Organizations
Travel back in time with us to understand our relationship with Arts Service Organizations and the work we’ve done to support their vital role in the Canadian arts and culture sector.
Image: ASO Confluence, Ottawa, November 2024
The Arts Service Organization Convenings were an effort to broaden an exchange amongst Arts Service Organizations, discuss pressing issues in concert with funders, and create an intentional and well-supported space to think through possible ways forward.
The themes of the Arts Service Organization Convenings are as follows:
- Understanding The Health of the Arts Sector Through Data. Read the summary HERE.
- Climate Mitigation Strategies for the Arts. Read the summary HERE.
- Financial Resilience. Read the summary HERE.
- The Wellbeing of Arts Workers. Read the summary HERE.
These culminated in Confluence, hosted by Canada Council for the Arts, an event that brought together Arts Service Organizations with territorial, provincial, and municipal arts funders to share knowledge, develop ideas, and take action in building a shared vision for the future of the arts sector.
- Read the report HERE.
Images: ASO Conference, Toronto, January 2023
Credits: Sariena Luy and Jazmine Snow
Led by Mass Culture, this was a year-long collaborative enterprise that culminated in a hybrid conference in January 2023.
Check out:
Image: Excerpts from interviews with ASO leaders
To complement Mapping Canadian Arts Service Organizations as Culture Research Conduits (2019-20), Mass Culture collaborated with Arts Service Organizations to collect their oral histories. Mass Culture worked with students from Humber College’s Arts Administration and Cultural Management program to uncover the stories that make up the history of the arts sector through the eyes of Arts Service Organization leaders. Our hope is that this will further enrich the existing research on Arts Service Organizations, as well as ensure the voices of the sector are heard and preserved.
The students interviewed:
- David Woods, Black Artists' Network of Nova Scotia
- Alica Hall, Nia Centre
- Kadon Douglas, BIPOC TV & Film
- Susan Xianshu Huang, Montréal Chinese Culture and Art Foundation
- charles c. smith, Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario
- Karen Carter, Black Artists Network in Dialogue
- France Trepanier and Chris Creighton, Primary Colours
Image: Robin Sokoloski and Dr. Miranda Campbell, Toronto, 2019
In partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, this initiative sought to provide insight into the Arts Service Organization sector in Canada, with specific attention paid to the role Arts Service Organizations play in generating research. The project produced a living map, as well as a report by Dr. Miranda Campbell, Calla Evans and Lucy Wowk.
Check out:
Image, clockwise from top left: Diane Davy, Katherine Carleton, Glodeane Brown, Susan Nagy
Watch Mass Culture’s MC Minds Video, where Glodeane Brown explores the importance of Arts Service Organizations as she interviews Diane Davy of WorkInCulture, Katherine Carleton of Orchestras Canada, and Susan Nagy of Lakeshore Arts.
Watch Part 1 HERE.
Watch Part 2 HERE.
