B.C.’s arts leaders gathered at the Annex on Thursday (June 8) to discuss how to engage the public with the creative arts in the face of a rapidly changing world.

Revolution: Engaging Human Creativity was the theme for this year’s BC Alliance for Arts & Culture conference.  Keynote speaker Ben Cameron and executive director Brenda Leadlay addressed a sold-out delegation of arts leaders, students, and community members about the importance of adaptability during a time of political, technological, and cultural upheaval.

Cameron, a Minnesota-based arts advocate, spoke about how the social contract involving the arts has expanded, with audiences demanding more involvement.

 “The way we talk about the arts is deeply alienating to the public,” said Cameron, discussing the divide between the arts and their increasingly disengaged communities. He illustrated his colourful talk with real-world examples of how artistic groups with small budgets have reinvigorated their communities and taken up the social responsibility they have to their audiences.

Leadlay’s opening remarks complimented Cameron’s sentiments nicely – her introduction called for readjusting the mindset that artists are a special interest group, emphasizing the inherent creativity that all human beings have. She also expressed her goal to double the B.C. Arts Council budget.

The attendance breakdown at the conference consisted of mostly Alliance members – 99 members, 12 non-members, and 39 students, as well as a few sponsors and board members, with a total of 155 registrations.

Attendees chose to participate in two out of six break-out sessions, focusing on reconciliation in the arts, arts advocacy, citizen engagement in the arts, the ethics of virtual reality, the next generation’s role in arts leadership, and building an anti-racist solidarity.

The featured panel of the day, available to all participants, explored cultural diversity in artistic practice. Moderator Nina Buddhev spoke with classical tabla player Sunny Matharu, theatre practitioner Fay Nass, professor and performer Dr. Michelle La Flamme, Bharata Natyam dancer Sudnya Mulye, and South Asian Studies professor Dr. Thomas Hunter about their thoughts on cultural diversity in the arts and their personal obstacles.

An emerging theme was a need for more context, history, and effort to understand diverse artistic forms from both artists and audiences.

Matharu spoke to the issue of placing Indian classical music under the umbrella term “world music,” without effort to understand its nuances.

“Indigenous ways of knowing are essential to understanding where we are in North America,” said La Flamme, who also discussed the importance of listening to the lesser-known narratives that make up our national identity – in particular, the stories of Canada’s missing and murdered indigenous women.

Matharu and Mulye discussed how accessing funding can be difficult for artists working outside of western forms. Matharu brought up how many of his initiatives to bring Indian classical musicians to Vancouver have been self-funded, and Mulye mentioned that it can be difficult to receive grants when your artistic practice has taken place outside of the Canadian mainstream. 

Theatre practitioner Fay Nass reminded the conference’s attendees to avoid putting artists with diverse identities in a box, saying “we are not doing a charity work” by creating art that reflects identity. Instead, she’s tried to carve out a place for herself both inside and outside the mainstream.

After the panel, Sunny Matharu spoke to The Georgia Straight about his hopes that the panel will go beyond a dialogue.

“It’s a start, I’d like something more,” said Matharu, and expressed his wish that this conference wouldn’t be “one of those things where people come, eat their sandwich, go home after the discussion and forget about it.”

Speaking on his own artistic practice as an Indian classical musician, Matharu re-emphasized that more context and history are essential to a complete audience experience – but ultimately with music, “we’re not listening to understand the technical use, we’re listening for the feeling it gives us.”

 The eight-hour day ended with a session where participants discussed their goals for the year with a partner, with the intention of reconnecting to see if those goals were met.

Attendee Laura Efron spoke to The Straight about the conference’s purpose as an important means to leave the isolated bubbles members of the community often find themselves in.

“It’s a good opportunity for those of us in different disciplines to remember that it’s a wider community than we thought.”