AGM 2021 Annual Reports

Octo­ber 14, 2021 at 1 pm EDT

Agenda

  1. Ver­i­fi­ca­tion of Quo­rum and open­ing of meeting
  2. Approve the Agen­da (vote)
  3. Approve min­utes from last AGM, of Sep­tem­ber 17, 2020 (vote)
  4. Receive the President’s Report — Juli­et Palmer reviews the 2020–21 sea­son as CNMN president
  5. Receive the Work­ing Group reports of the 2020 21season
  6. Receive the Finan­cial State­ments for the year end­ed 30 June 2021
  7. Appoint the audi­tor for the finan­cial year 2021–22 (nom­i­na­tion and vote)
  8. Present the new Board Mem­bers (An-Lau­rence Higgins)
  9. Oth­er business
  10. Adjourn­ment

President’s Report

by Juli­et Palmer

Anoth­er twelve months have rolled by in the dis­ori­ent­ing drag and rush of pan­dem­ic time. The qui­et of the past year has been both a gift and a chal­lenge. I miss the inti­ma­cy and con­nec­tion of live music-mak­ing, the unpre­dictable con­ver­sa­tions in the line-up for tick­ets, the ran­dom glimpses into each other’s lives and work. I crave con­nec­tion, the alive­ness that comes from mak­ing music togeth­er, and the sim­ple joy of shar­ing space — one per­son among many atten­tive and rapt lis­ten­ers. I know it’s com­ing back, this world of con­certs and instal­la­tions and improv ses­sions and fes­ti­vals. In some towns and cities it’s already here — in oth­ers, a con­cert seat is still a com­fy spot in front of a com­put­er screen. 

In the mean­time, CNMN has tak­en to heart its man­date to con­nect and nur­ture rela­tion­ships amongst the wide and diverse sound and music com­mu­ni­ties of Cana­da. The Con­ver­sa­tion series con­tin­ued with a focus on decol­o­niza­tion, invit­ing us to move beyond dis­cus­sion to take tan­gi­ble action that address­es sys­temic inequity. We look for­ward to the evo­lu­tion of this series as it expands from FORUM 2021 with its focus on activism in cul­tur­al practice. 

Under Louise Campbell’s steady hand, the Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry Cre­ative Music Hub has grown apace, with a vibrant library that sup­ports cre­ative musi­cal engage­ment in pris­ons, hos­pi­tals, schools and oth­er less-traf­ficked areas of musi­cal life. 

The Con­neX­ions men­tor­ship pro­gram offered vital oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth and con­nec­tion in a time of uncer­tain­ty and finan­cial insta­bil­i­ty. We are thrilled to offer the pro­gram once again this year — the dead­line is rolling, so find out more and apply online. 

FORUM is under­way, even as I type, in a gen­tle ten week dig­i­tal unfold­ing that spans five full-length videos, twen­ty cameo videos and four events by Prairie pro­duc­ers. “Lis­ten Up!” cel­e­brates the inno­va­tion and par­a­digm shifts of music and sound prac­tices out­side the con­cert hall.  Thanks to the stead­fast work of pro­duc­er Jeff Mor­ton, ED Ter­ri Hron and the FORUM com­mit­tee (Helen Prid­more, Megu­mi Masa­ki, and Po Yeh). Expe­ri­ence FORUM and Lis­ten Up! on our web­site, Youtube chan­nel and social media feeds.

This year we wel­comed An-Lau­rence Hig­gins to the board. An-Lau­rence brings expe­ri­ence and per­spec­tive as a per­former and cre­ator devot­ed to col­lab­o­ra­tion and thought­ful inquiry into cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. We say farewell and offer heart­felt thanks to André Cormi­er for his years of ser­vice as a Board mem­ber, in par­tic­u­lar for his work as a bilin­gual advis­er. We are indebt­ed to the mem­bers of the Board for their per­sis­tence and ener­gy over this unique­ly long year in keep­ing our active com­mit­tees active: from FORUM, Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Equi­ty and Diver­si­ty, to the Men­tor­ship Advi­so­ry. The board’s wis­dom, expe­ri­ence and com­mit­ment to the net­work are deeply appre­ci­at­ed and we look for­ward to anoth­er year work­ing togeth­er. Maybe this year we will final­ly meet in person!

I’ve learned much over the course of the year col­lab­o­rat­ing close­ly with Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Ter­ri Hron. Her ded­i­ca­tion and sharp wit have helped CNMN nav­i­gate an uncer­tain year with grace and cre­ativ­i­ty. CNMN is a grow­ing team and I’m delight­ed to thank our media spe­cial­ist Aurore Blondet, admin­is­tra­tive assis­tant Suzu Enns, book-keep­er Math­ieu Leclair and web design­er Jason Camp­bell for their skills and team work behind the scenes. I look for­ward to work­ing with the Board and staff, along with our fund­ing and part­ner orga­ni­za­tions to strength­en CNMN’s role as a hub of learn­ing and exchange, an agent of change and a cat­a­lyst for new ways of cre­at­ing and connecting. 

Forum Planning

Report by Ter­ri Hron

Com­mit­tee mem­bers: ED, Megu­mi Masa­ki, Jeff Mor­ton, Juli­et Palmer, Helen Pridmore

The 2020–2021 sea­son was ded­i­cat­ed large­ly to reimag­in­ing the Forum as an online celebration.

In Decem­ber, the deci­sion was tak­en not to host a post­poned, in-per­son event and to pro­ceed with our first online version. 

The pan­dem­ic year pro­vid­ed us with many exam­ples of online pre­sen­ta­tions and pan­els, and it also became clear that there was a lot of fatigue with real-time, online events. For this rea­son, the Forum team decid­ed to focus on pre-record­ed con­tent and a deploy­ment of events over a longer time — ten weeks , with the hope of increas­ing our reach and vis­i­bil­i­ty on social media, as well as engage­ment through our newslet­ter. In the end, we decid­ed to focus on the fol­low­ing for the  14th edition:

  • 5 videos on Land, Access, Indige­nous Resur­gence, Inno­va­tion and Com­mu­ni­ty issues, with the voic­es and work of artis­tic leaders;
  • A show­case of 20+ short videos of cre­ative music and sound artists from across the coun­try and artis­tic practice;
  • 4 events pro­duced by pre­sen­ters from the heart of Cana­da on the Prairies.

In order to have enough time for this pro­duc­tion, the launch of Forum was set for late Sep­tem­ber. At the end of June 2021, we were well under­way with the pro­duc­tion of the 5 the­mat­ic videos, in con­tracts with the Prairie pre­sen­ters, and the Forum Show­case appli­ca­tions were about to open.

While this is a report on last year, at the time of this AGM, Forum is well under­way and all activ­i­ties can be found on the FORUM page.

Communications & Membership

Report by Ter­ri Hron

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

In the past year, com­mu­ni­ca­tions have become more reg­u­lar with min­i­mum bi-week­ly social media post­ing and reg­u­lar newslet­ters to announce calls, online events and membership/profile reminders. The strat­e­gy and deploy­ment was designed and exe­cut­ed by PR assis­tant Aurore Blonde­lot, and our num­ber of fol­low­ers and engage­ments on social media keep increas­ing. Our newslet­ter num­bers stay steady with new mem­bers and inter­est­ed par­ties join­ing and often old­er con­tacts unsubscribing. 

Since all our activ­i­ties were online in this past year, the YouTube chan­nel, our web­site and social media have been close­ly linked with Face­book Live Con­ver­sa­tion events, PCM Hub videos on the YouTube chan­nel and all things search­able on the website. 

Improve­ments to the web­site con­tin­ued, with a new page about dig­i­tal acces­si­bil­i­ty and at-home-activ­i­ties for music cre­ativ­i­ty.

After con­ver­sa­tions at each board meet­ing about mem­ber­ship and how best to sup­port artists dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, it was vot­ed in June 2021 that we would switch to a pay-what-you-can mod­el for the com­ing year. We look for­ward to see­ing how peo­ple respond and whether this encour­ages more peo­ple to become full members. 

Mentorship

Report by Helen Pridmore

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

The CNMN Con­nex­ions project was suc­cess­ful in its first year of oper­a­tion.  The project pairs appli­cants with spe­cif­ic projects, with men­tors from our com­mu­ni­ty who meet with them for one to four ses­sions to devel­op these new projects.  The pro­gram is open to any­one inter­est­ed in cre­ative music and sound prac­tices.  In the first year, we were able to sup­port 14 match­es. To see the list of mentees and men­tors, please vis­it the Con­neX­ions Men­tor­ship page. 

We sub­mit­ted an appli­ca­tion to Cana­da Coun­cil for the Arts Sec­tor Inno­va­tion and Devel­op­ment for this project for upcom­ing years, but our appli­ca­tion was not deemed applic­a­ble since we had men­tioned this project as a pos­si­ble new project should we receive a fund­ing increase (which CNMN was not accord­ed). We will con­tin­ue to seek pos­si­ble fund­ing sources. 

We will con­tin­ue with the project in 2021–22 with a rolling appli­ca­tion dead­line start­ing in August and end­ing mid-October.

Conversations

Report by Juli­et Palmer, Octo­ber 7, 2021

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

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. 

Our 2020–21 series focused on decoloni­sa­tion. All con­ver­sa­tions are avail­able on Youtube — edit­ed and with closed cap­tion­ing.  Fol­low the links below!

Octo­ber 22 Cura­tors: Dylan Robin­son & Mitch Renaud “Decolo­nial Imag­in­ings”
Set­tler composers/ com­pos­i­teurs : jake moore, Joce­lyn Mor­lock, Juli­et Palmer, Luke Nick­el, Kel­ly Ruth
Respondents/ répon­dants : Tina Pear­son & Tama­ra Levitz 

Novem­ber 12 Cura­tor: Parmela Attari­wala “Can West­ern Art Music ever be Equi­table in Prac­tice and in Per­cep­tion?”
Guests: Pat Carrabré, Ian Cus­son, Lise Vau­geois, Dinuk Wijer­atne 

Decem­ber 2 Cura­tor: Olivia Shortt “Process vs Prod­uct”
Guests: Olivia Davies, Kim Sen­klip Har­vey, Mar­i­on New­man, Tyler J. Sloane 

Jan­u­ary 14 Cura­tor: Remy Siu “We can’t play their game, their way”
Guests: Gabriel Dhar­moo, Melody McK­iv­er, Nan­cy Tam & Leslie Ting. 

March 11 Cura­tor: Cur­tis Left­hand “Songs We’ve Always Known”
Guests: Matthew Car­di­nal, Black Belt Eagle Scout,Wyatt C. Louis, Han­nah Owl Child

April 22 Cura­tor: Gabriel Dhar­moo “Décolo­nial­ité et diver­sité : per­spec­tives d’artistes en musiques nou­velles”
Guests: Daniel Añez, An-Lau­rence Hig­gins, Corie Rose Soumah, Rouzbeh Shapdey

Participatory Music Hub

Report by project lead Louise Campbell 

In 2019, CNMN received fund­ing through the Cana­da Coun­cil’s Dig­i­tal Strat­e­gy Fund to cre­ate an on-line Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry Cre­ative Music Hub. Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry cre­ative music is a vari­ety of prac­tices in which all peo­ple involved have active input into the process of cre­at­ing music. A facil­i­ta­tor may guide and par­tic­i­pate in the process, and deci­sion-mak­ing and author­ship is shared. The Hub is full of inspir­ing, inno­v­a­tive projects hail­ing from the fields of edu­ca­tion, health, com­mu­ni­ty, social ser­vices and incarceration.

The key achieve­ment of the 2020–21 sea­son was the launch of the online Hub user-based plat­form. Feed­back from prac­ti­tion­ers work­ing in the tar­get sec­tors indi­cates that the Hub is respon­sive to the depth and range of PCM activ­i­ties. Prac­ti­tion­ers respond­ed with excite­ment about the rel­e­vance and exis­tence of such a resource and the poten­tial for strength­en­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty and the prac­tice as a result. 

Hub activ­i­ties in 2020–21 sea­son included:

·       15 Pilot Projects & 6 Tips & Tools arti­cles com­plet­ed and released

·       +125 com­mu­ni­ty consultations

·       17 con­sul­tants hired to pro­vide expert advice 

·       8 suc­cess­ful Open Call projects com­plet­ed by RECAA Choir, Piece of Mind Col­lec­tive, Thais Mon­ta­nari, Paramorph Col­lec­tive, Geremia Loren­zo Lodi, Dina Cin­dric, Guil­laume Jab­bour and Deirdre Potash

·       First steps in dis­sem­i­na­tion in the fields of edu­ca­tion and music therapy

We’re thrilled to announce that we have been award­ed sub­stan­tial funds from the Cana­da Council’s Dig­i­tal Strat­e­gy Fund to con­tin­ue expand­ing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing the Hub.

This sea­son, we will con­tin­ue to con­duct com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tions in order to cre­ate a respon­sive and use­ful resource for prac­ti­tion­ers, and best posi­tion the Hub for use by var­i­ous stake­hold­ers. If you or any­one you know is inter­est­ed in being part of the Hub, or poten­tial con­tacts for dis­sem­i­na­tion please let us know!

For more infor­ma­tion, and to share your expe­ri­ences, please con­tact Louise Camp­bell.