AGM 2020 Annual Reports

Sep­tem­ber 17, 2020 at 1 pm EST

Agenda

1. Ver­i­fi­ca­tion of Quo­rum and open­ing of meeting
2. Approve the Agen­da (vote)
3. Approve min­utes from last AGM, of Sep­tem­ber 24, 2019 (vote)
4. Receive the President’s Report — Juli­et Palmer reviews the 2019–20 sea­son as CNMN president
5. Receive the Work­ing Group reports of the 2019–2020 season
6. Receive the Finan­cial State­ments  for the year end­ed 30 June 2020
7. Appoint the audi­tor for the finan­cial year 2020–2021 (nom­i­na­tion and vote)
8. Present the new Board Mem­bers (Rob Thomson & ?)
9. Oth­er business
10. Adjourn­ment

President’s Report

Report by Juli­et Palmer, Sep­tem­ber 14, 2020

This year has been like no other.

The glob­al pan­dem­ic has brought home the inter­con­nec­tions between all liv­ing beings. Suf­fer­ing and vio­lence stem­ming from sys­temic injus­tice, racism, and colo­nial­ism have been laid bare in ways that chal­lenge those with priv­i­lege to exam­ine how we might remake the world to ensure a just and secure future for all. What is the role of cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions in per­pet­u­at­ing priv­i­lege? How do we har­ness cre­ative imag­i­na­tion in ser­vice of soci­etal change? These are some of the ques­tions we face as a net­work ded­i­cat­ed to con­nec­tion, learn­ing and advocacy.

The pan­dem­ic brought our plans for FORUM to a sud­den halt. This year’s event in Regi­na promised an inspir­ing and chal­leng­ing mix of inter­na­tion­al, Cana­di­an and local per­spec­tives, thought­ful­ly curat­ed by Ter­ri, in part­ner­ship with the plan­ning com­mit­tee — Helen Prid­more, Po Yeh and Megu­mi Masa­ki. Luke Nick­el, Ian Crutch­ley – and pro­duc­er Jeff Mor­ton. Lis­ten Up was to be a cel­e­bra­tion of the spir­it of activism and inclu­sion through five themes: Access, Com­mu­ni­ty, Indige­nous Resur­gence, Land and Technology-Innovation.

That spir­it of inclu­sive inno­va­tion found new expres­sion in the months that fol­lowed, as CNMN rapid­ly piv­ot­ed to sup­port new ways of con­nect­ing. A series of online com­mu­ni­ty con­ver­sa­tions sup­port­ed com­pas­sion­ate and thought-pro­vok­ing com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions. Guest speak­ers informed and engaged, shed­ding light on issues rel­e­vant to this moment, and also to the future. Com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers met from around the coun­try in break-out rooms, to dis­cuss the chal­lenges fac­ing both the artis­tic and broad­er Cana­di­an cul­ture, con­sid­er­ing pos­si­ble futures that avoid a return to an unjust and unsus­tain­able “nor­mal”.

With pan­dem­ic restric­tions to in-per­son gath­er­ings pre­dict­ed to wax and wane through­out the com­ing year, CNMN is com­mit­ted to grow­ing our online pres­ence and deep­en­ing our lev­el of engage­ment with the community.

The Con­ver­sa­tion series con­tin­ues with a focus on Decol­o­niza­tion. Cul­ti­vat­ing new con­ver­sa­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties for mutu­al learn­ing, guest cura­tors include: Olivia Shortt, Cur­tis Left­hand, Parmela Attari­wala, and Remy Siu.

A huge range of par­tic­i­pa­to­ry cre­ative music projects have been doc­u­ment­ed under the ener­getic lead­er­ship of Louise Camp­bell for the PCM Hub. Over the com­ing year work­shops and show­cas­es will raise the pro­file of this resource and the poten­tial to spark the cre­ativ­i­ty of all mem­bers of our soci­ety —includ­ing those in schools, hos­pi­tals, pris­ons and long-term care.

As we shift gears and glimpse an unfa­mil­iar future, many of us in the cre­ative sec­tor are seek­ing guid­ance and men­tor­ship. CNM­N’s Con­nex­ions pilot pro­gram was con­ceived in pre-Covid times, but is prov­ing to be a par­tic­u­lar­ly use­ful offer­ing for peo­ple embark­ing on new ven­tures. The response to the pro­gram has been pos­i­tive, with more demand than we have the funds to sup­port. Online men­tor­ships are under­way and about to lift off!

The CNMN Board con­tin­ues to be engaged and active: from the FORUM, Strate­gic Plan, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Equi­ty and Diver­si­ty, and Men­tor­ship Advi­so­ry com­mit­tees, to those offer­ing feed­back on the nev­er-end­ing round of grants that Ter­ri so capa­bly writes. The board­’s sup­port, ener­gy and valu­able skills are deeply appre­ci­at­ed and we look for­ward to anoth­er year work­ing together.

Dur­ing the year we were thrilled to wel­comed Rob Thom­son to the board. Rob brings valu­able expe­ri­ence in arts man­age­ment, cura­tion and per­for­mance through his work at Full Cir­cle and Talk­ing Stick Fes­ti­val. This year we farewell Pierre-Olivi­er Roy after two year on the board and thank him in par­tic­u­lar for his work on the Strate­gic Plan. Clemens Merkel stepped down from the board dur­ing the year and we thank him for his con­tri­bu­tion over the years to CNMN, espe­cial­ly to dis­cus­sions of tour­ing and mentorship.

It has been a plea­sure to work close­ly this year with Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Ter­ri Hron, whose intel­li­gence and com­pas­sion have ensured that CNMN has been ready to face a time of tremen­dous upheaval with cre­ativ­i­ty and insight. I look for­ward to work­ing with the Board and staff, along with our fund­ing and part­ner orga­ni­za­tions to strength­en CNM­N’s role as an acti­va­tor of ideas, a home for learn­ing and exchange, and as a cat­a­lyst for trans­for­ma­tion­al change.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Report by Ter­ri Hron, Sep­tem­ber 14, 2020

Com­mit­tee mem­bers: Juli­et Palmer, Megu­mi Masa­ki, Rob Thom­son, André Cormi­er, Julie Richard.

The EDI group’s work this past year main­ly focused on the cre­ation of an EDI pol­i­cy doc­u­ment that was adopt­ed by the board and will be avail­able in both lan­guages on our web­site by the end of Sep­tem­ber 2020. This doc­u­ment was large­ly writ­ten by past-pres­i­dent Jen­nifer War­ing and board mem­ber Megu­mi Masa­ki – we thank them for their hard work on this!

Forum Planning

Report by Ter­ri Hron, Sep­tem­ber 14, 2020

Com­mit­tee mem­bers: Ian Crutch­ley, ED, Dar­ren Miller, Megu­mi Masa­ki, Jeff Mor­ton, Luke Nick­el, Juli­et Palmer, Helen Pridmore

The Forum Plan­ning com­mit­tee worked hard to curate an excit­ing edi­tion of Forum around activism and advo­ca­cy with the theme Lis­ten Up and the top­ics Access, Com­mu­ni­ty, Indige­nous Resur­gence, Land and Tech­nol­o­gy-Inno­va­tion. 32 invit­ed pre­sen­ters includ­ing 5 keynotes, 4 inter­na­tion­al guests, and 12 suc­cess­ful open call appli­ca­tions make up a pro­gram that was to take place at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na, First Nations Uni­ver­si­ty of Cana­da and down­town venues in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cathe­dral Vil­lage Arts Fes­ti­val. All infor­ma­tion is avail­able on the FORUM Web­page. 

For the first time, CNMN was able to offer trav­el and par­tic­i­pa­tion sup­port, and was just about to allo­cate funds to appli­cants when COVID-19 hit.

The CNMN board has decid­ed to post­pone the event until spring 2021. Arrange­ments for hous­ing, trav­el and reg­is­tra­tions were also under­way, and we were luck­i­ly able to make the nec­es­sary changes with­out losses. 

Stay tuned for take two!

Communications & Membership

Report by Juli­et Palmer, Sep­tem­ber 11, 2020

Com­mit­tee Mem­bers: ED, PR, Juli­et Palmer, Lin­da Bouchard

Activ­i­ties:

Sup­port­ing Ter­ri as she imple­ments the Mem­bee sys­tem for the mem­ber­ship data­base, includ­ing: review­ing orga­ni­za­tions in the exist­ing data­base to ensure the list­ing is rel­e­vant and up to date; and resolv­ing issues around how to deal with unpaid dues and lapsed mem­ber­ships, cre­at­ing a cat­e­go­ry for receiv­ing news updates only.

Sup­port­ing Ter­ri and Aurore (our PR per­son) in out­reach and com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Over the year this includ­ed help­ing pub­li­cize oppor­tu­ni­ties for par­tic­i­pa­tion in the FORUM through the Open Call, access­ing the Trav­el sub­sidy fund, shar­ing news about the Con­ver­sa­tions series and build­ing inter­est in the pilot Men­tor­ship pro­gram CONNEXIONS. 

The cre­ation of the PR posi­tion and a coher­ent social media strat­e­gy has been a huge boon over this past year. We look for­ward to sup­port­ing the grow­ing aware­ness of CNMN’s activ­i­ties in an engag­ing and inclu­sive way over the com­ing year. 

Mentorship

Report by Helen Prid­more, Sep­tem­ber 12, 2020

Com­mit­tee: Nor­man Adams, Müge Büyükçe­len, Ter­ri Hron, Juli­et Palmer, Helen Pridmore

In June 2020, CNMN launched a new men­tor­ship pro­gram.  Enti­tled Con­neX­ions, this pro­gram is intend­ed to sup­port and guide artists and arts work­ers in dif­fer­ent areas of cre­ative music and sound prac­tice.  The pro­gram match­es artists who have a project in mind, with an expe­ri­enced mentor/coach to guide and offer advice on the project.  Between one and four meet­ings will be sched­uled between men­tor and mentee. 

Appli­ca­tions were accept­ed on a rolling basis through­out the sum­mer, from June until the end of August.  17 appli­ca­tions have been received, and to date four have been con­firmed with men­tors cho­sen and accept­ed.  One appli­ca­tion has been post­poned until next year.  The remain­ing appli­ca­tions are in process:  either men­tors are being select­ed, approached and con­firmed; or the appli­ca­tions them­selves are still in the delib­er­a­tion process by the committee.

It has been excit­ing to read the incom­ing appli­ca­tions and see the won­der­ful vari­ety of music and sound projects under­way in Cana­da, con­nect­ed to CNMN.

Conversations

Report by Juli­et Palmer, Sep­tem­ber 11, 2020

Com­mit­tee: Ter­ri Hron, Matthew Fava (CMC), Ian Crutchley/Sophie Dupuis (CLC), Juli­et Palmer, Aurore Blondet

CNMN’s Con­ver­sa­tion series active­ly engages with CNMN’s mem­ber­ship and beyond. Begin­ning with the Rolling Nation­al Con­ver­sa­tions on Diver­si­ty (2017, Hal­i­fax, Mon­tréal and Vic­to­ria), the series con­tin­ued through 2019 in Vic­to­ria (Sus­tain­abil­i­ty) and Win­nipeg (Equi­ty and Diver­si­ty). In 2019–20 we moved to an online for­mat in response to the pan­dem­ic and to ensure wider access to mem­bers and com­mu­ni­ties across Cana­da. The themes evolve in response to changes in our cul­tur­al land­scape and wider soci­etal upheavals. 

• April 22: Earth Day with Andrew Bal­four, Tere­sa Marie Con­nors, Hel­ga Jakob­son, Tanya Kalmanovitch, Tina Pear­son, Jen­ni Schine and mod­er­a­tor Ellen Waterman
• May 6: New Nor­mal with Cur­tis Left­hand, Keiko Devaux, Andrew Reed Miller and Ilana Waniuk and mod­er­a­tor Stacey Brown
• June 4: Mul­ti-Arts post­poned to July 2 in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Black Lives Matter. 
• June 18: Fund­ing and Pol­i­cy with host Jeff Mor­ton, and fea­tured speak­ers / En com­pag­nie de notre mod­éra­teur Jeff Mor­ton et avec pour con­férenciers vedettes : Jes­sa Agi­lo (Art­sPond), James Mis­sen (Cana­da Coun­cil for the Arts | Con­seil des arts du Cana­da), Charles C. Smith (Cul­tur­al Plu­ral­ism in the Arts Move­ment Ontario (CPAMO), Michael Trent (Met­calf Foun­da­tion), Stephen Williams (Edmon­ton Arts Coun­cil), & Po Yeh (Prairie Debut)
• July 2 Mul­ti-Arts Mod­er­a­tor / L’an­i­ma­trice Nik­ki Shaf­feeu­lah with fea­tured speak­ers / avec pour con­férenciers vedettes : Neema Bick­er­steth, Col Cseke (Inside Out The­atre), Lind­say Dob­bin, & Ger­ry Mori­ta (Mile Zero Dance)

Fol­low­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with the invit­ed guests and mod­er­a­tor, we meet in small­er break-out groups to dig in deep­er. Our dis­cus­sions have ranged from mutu­al­ly sup­port­ive and inti­mate shar­ing around strate­gies for men­tal health and com­mu­ni­ty-build­ing to gal­va­niz­ing calls for fund­ing and pol­i­cy changes to address con­tin­ued and sys­temic inequity expe­ri­enced by Black and Indige­nous artists. 

We have increased our fees for cura­tors and speak­ers to adhere to CARFAC guide­lines and are seek­ing addi­tion­al fund­ing to sup­port this much-need­ed boost. We are so pleased to have both CMC and CLC as part­ners for our upcom­ing sea­son – this marks the first joint project between the three ASOs.

Our Fall 2020 series focus­es on decoloni­sa­tion series and is curat­ed by:

Octo­ber 22: Dylan Robin­son & Mitch Renaud
Novem­ber 12: Parmela Attari­wala
Decem­ber 2: Olivia Shortt
Jan­u­ary 14: Remy Siu
Feb­ru­ary 11: Cur­tis Left­hand
March 11: fran­coph­o­ne pan­el, cura­tor still TBA

Participation/Engagement

Report by Louise Camp­bell, Sep­tem­ber 16, 2020

The Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry Cre­ative Music Hub is a 2.5‑year ini­tia­tive to research, cre­ate, imple­ment and dis­sem­i­nate an on-line resource for Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry Cre­ative Music with the goals of shar­ing resources and build­ing con­nec­tiv­i­ty. 2020–21 rep­re­sents the first year of the project, and has advanced by leaps and bounds over the course of the past year. 

Mar­ket research and com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tions showed a field full of prac­ti­tion­ers work­ing with great pas­sion in a wide vari­ety of venues, sec­tors and peo­ple. Over the course of the year, we have engaged pilot project con­sul­tants to share their exper­tise to help us cre­ate an online plat­form that responds to the wide range inher­ent in the prac­tice, and the needs and inter­ests of the com­mu­ni­ty. Work­ing in a vari­ety of sec­tors from edu­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty asso­ci­a­tions, social ser­vices, cor­rec­tions to health care, these con­sul­tants include: 

Bev Foster, Chelsea Jones, Chris Brown, Daniel Oore, Germaine Liu, Guillaume Jabbour, Helen Pridmore, Jeff Morton, Jodi Proznick, Kathryn Cobbler, Meredith Bates, Michel Frigon, MariEve Lauzon, Moe Clark, Nikola Tosic, Opéra de Montréal, Ruth Eliason, Ruth Howard, Steve Wright

Stay tuned for the Hub launch com­ing up soon!