ShiftChange starts this month - register now!

ShiftChange 2022, sponsored by Side Door, is moving online! ShiftChange 2022 will take place on February 23rd, February 24th, March 2nd, and March 3rd from approximately 1:00 - 2:30 pm AST each day.

ShiftChange equips festival and event presenters and producers with innovative strategies to make their organizations and events stronger, smarter, and more sustainable. Discover what is new and trending from leading experts, share ideas and collaborate with colleagues, and develop your festival-planning skills! Are you a Venue or Series Presenter who wants to come to ShiftChange but aren’t sure it's up your alley? Don’t worry, everything we are planning will be relevant to you, too!

The two-week long digital conference features four 90-minute professional development workshop sessions, each one delving into an important and timely facet of arts presenting: "Fundraising through a Social Justice Lens" with Cindy Wagman; "Using Google Ad Grants for Non-Profits" with Peter Sima; "Insurance and Risk Mitigation" with Melanie Needham; and "Reconciliation Statements" with Tosh Southwick and Davida Wood!

We're keeping ShiftChange affordable this year at $35 for members and $50 for non-members. One registration covers your entire organization. You can also choose to "pay it forward" during registration and purchase an additional $35 pass for someone in need.

REGISTER HERE

We encourage everyone to share our invite with their colleagues and networks.

EnAbling Change: Accessibility for the Performing Arts  - Conference

Orchestras Canada, in collaboration with Ontario Presents and Réseau Ontario, and in consultation with disability arts consultant Rachel Marks – is presenting six expert-led webinars titled EnAbling Change: Accessibility for the Performing Arts. Topics will include: An introduction to accessibility legislation (specifically, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act); marketing; venues; programming (for performers, workers AND audiences); and community collaboration and partnerships.

The webinars are 2-hour long and each webinar will be augmented with an informal virtual Coffee Chat with experts. Interpretation options: French-English simultaneous interpretation, ASL, LSQ and closed captioning in English. Audio Description will be available for the March 29 session.

This project is generously funded by the Government of Ontario

Webinar Dates (Tuesdays, 1:30-3:30pm ET): February 8 & 22, March 8 & 29, April 19 and May 3, 2022.

Coffee chats follow each webinar on Fridays, 10:30-11:30am ET.

Cost: Free

Register here.

Statistics Canada releases data showing major impacts on sector

Statistics Canada recently released their first economic report on the performing arts sector since 2018, painting a stark picture of the effects of COVID and associated shutdowns and putting revenues at their lowest since first tracking the data in 2014 due to the impacts of COVID. 

From its last report in 2018, StatsCan reports a 31% drop in operating revenue - that’s 1.8 billion - putting industry revenues at their lowest since StatsCan began tracking the data in 2014. Further, for-profit companies have been hit hardest with operating revenues dropping 40%. Non-profit counterparts have experienced a drop in revenue of $166.3M.

Share the story of how COVID has impacted our live music industry here.

Read the full report here. 

News from Linked Digital Future

Linked Digital Future just launched the second edition of their Linked Digital Future Initiative (LDFI) newsletter. 

The newsletter contains information on:

• Wikidatacon Award for the Performing Arts
• Making Your Images Findable and Reusable with Wikimedia Commons
• Sharing Your Cultural Venue Info with Wikidata
• 5 steps to improve your digital presence
• Schema structured data - making your performing art events easier to find!
• And more!

Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund

The purpose and objective of the Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund (CPAWRF) is to:

• retain Canadian skilled workers through a temporary program that invests in sector-led and delivered initiatives, which improve the economic, career, and personal circumstances of independent and self-employed workers in the live performance sector

The expected results of the CPAWRF are to:

• fund organizations to provide programs and services to independent and self-employed workers in the live performance sector
• enable as many workers in this sector as possible to access programs and services
• improve or stabilize employment levels for workers in the sector

The CPAWRF is a temporary funding program for fiscal year 2022-2023

Who can apply:

To be eligible for funding, the applicant must serve or represent workers in the live performance sector and be a:

• union or guild
• artist association or arts service organization
• benevolent fund with a mandate related to the sector
• Indigenous peoples institution or organization that represents workers in the sector

More information is available here.

Reminder - Stats Can Pilot Study on Everyday Well-being

Below is an invitation from Statistics Canada to participate in the Pilot Study on Everyday Well-being, an app-based pilot project. The Vitali-T-Stat app asks Canadians in-the-moment questions about their activities and feelings to gain a better understanding of how everyday activities contribute to a person’s overall well-being, particularly cultural activities, which is the main focus of this pilot. This initiative is a collaboration between Statistics Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, and Canadian Heritage. 
 
Invitation from Statistics Canada:

We are delighted to invite you to participate in an exciting new project. Statistics Canada will soon be conducting the Pilot Study on Everyday Well-being, in collaboration with Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Heritage. The survey will run from January 10 to March 31, 2022. This project will use a new mobile-phone application called Vitali-T-Stat to test a new way of collecting data.

This pilot study asks Canadians in-the-moment questions about their activities and feelings. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence well-being, particularly arts and culture activities, which are the main focus of this pilot. This initiative is in collaboration with Canada Council for the Arts and Canadian Heritage. The data will provide insight on the connections between activities and well-being, and could be used to develop programs that enhance people’s lives. 
 
Although voluntary, your participation is appreciated and will help ensure we gather accurate information about the well-being of Canadians.
 
Download the app to get started! 

• Visit Google Play or App Store, search for Vitali-T-Stat by Statistics Canada and download the app onto your mobile device (Android or Apple).
• Open the app—read the Getting Started instructions, accept the Terms and Conditions, create a password and customize your notifications.
• Click START and answer the first questionnaire. You will be asked if you received an invitation from Statistics Canada. Click YES and enter the code provided below then continue participating. 

Code: CULTURE
 
After you set up the app, for the next 30 days you’ll receive two notifications daily to answer a few questions about what you are doing and how you are feeling in that moment. If you like, you can increase the notifications up to five per day.

OUR FUNDERS