Mass Culture / Mobilisation culturelle

Mass Culture is looking for someone to assist us with our outgoing communications this summer! We are planning to launch a new activity at the end of the summer, and the Communications Coordinator will have the opportunity to take the creative lead on this project’s promotional campaign. Plus, they will be invited to meet with Mass Culture’s Working Group members and participate in project meetings for such projects as Data Narratives for the Arts, among others.

To find out more about the position and eligibility, check out the job posting: massculture.ca/internship

Shelley Lepp, Chief Executive Officer of the Writers Collective of Canada, shares insights gained through the organization’s journey with evaluation.

"...there is no funding available for magic. So, from its early years, WCC has learned how to measure the impact of the magic our program creates."

Read the article now: https://massculture.ca/2024/05/measuring-magic-how-writers-collective-of-canada-went-beyond-statistics-to-quantify-its-programs-life-changing-impact-by-shelley-lepp/

Full time vs Part time in four sectors
Comparing different arts practices based on the number of employees, it's interesting to note that the performing arts sector employs far more part time workers relative to full time workers than film, dance and visual arts.

There was a steady growth of full time employees in the performing arts sector from 2018-20, while the other sectors remained stable.

As for part time employees, the number rose slightly from 2018-19 for the performing arts and dropped significantly from 2019-21. The other arts practice remained mostly constant with slight drops.

The Arts Data Platform is a comprehensive resource for the arts sector, offering an aggregated dataset of 4000+ charitable arts organizations, drawn from charities’ data submitted to the CRA through the annual charitable return, the T3010.

Thank you to our partners who helped make this project possible: .foundation .council .heritage .gc

Mobilisation culturelle élargit son équipe!

En 2020, Mobilisation culturelle a accueilli les premiers membres de son personnel travaillant à temps plein : Robin Sokoloski, directrice du développement organisationnel, et Kathryn Geertsema, gestionnaire de bureau. Depuis, l’organisation a connu une croissance importante, menant diverses initiatives de recherche, comprenant l’élaboration d’outils d’évaluation qualitative et quantitative des répercussions des arts, ainsi que des programmes de formation et l’organisation d’événements pour réunir et soutenir la communauté artistique. En raison de cette expansion, Mobilisation culturelle a atteint un point dans son parcours où il est temps d’accueillir un troisième membre du personnel à temps plein pour œuvrer aux côtés de Robin Sokoloski, Kathryn Geertsema et d’un corps dirigeant composé de plus de 30 personnes dévouées et activement engagées.

La personne titulaire du poste collaborera avec la directrice des programmes et de la mobilisation du réseau (Robin Sokoloski) et la gestionnaire du bureau et des communications (Kathryn Geertsema) dans le but de piloter les efforts de l’organisation visant à remplir son mandat, qui consiste à renforcer la mobilisation équitable relative à la recherche sur les arts et la culture.

Ce poste assurera un leadership stratégique en élaborant et en mettant en œuvre des objectifs organisationnels, en surveillant la gestion financière, en assurant la viabilité au moyen de vérifications annuelles et du maintien de la santé financière de l’organisation, en dirigeant des initiatives de collecte de fonds, en entretenant des partenariats visant le renforcement organisationnel et en appuyant une communication efficace avec le personnel, le corps dirigeant, les bailleurs de fonds et le réseau de Mobilisation culturelle. Nous sommes à la recherche d’une personne de nature entrepreneuriale capable de générer de nouvelles recettes, car elle jouera un rôle essentiel dans la croissance financière et la viabilité de l’organisation.

Pour en savoir plus : massculture.ca/recrutement

Mass Culture is expanding its team!

In 2020, Mass Culture welcomed its first full-time staff members: Robin Sokoloski, Director of Organizational Development, and Kathryn Geertsema, Office Manager. Since then, the organization has experienced significant growth, leading various research initiatives, including the development of qualitative and quantitative arts impact assessment tools and training programs, as well as organizing events to convene and support the arts community. With this expansion, Mass Culture has reached a point in its development where it is ready to welcome a third full-time employee to complement Robin and Kathryn, alongside a governance body comprising over 30 actively engaged and committed individuals.

The Managing Director will work with the Director of Programs and Research (Robin Sokoloski), along with the Office and Communications Manager (Kathryn Geertsema), to drive the organization's efforts in fulfilling its mandate to enhance the equitable mobilization of arts and culture research.

This role will provide strategic leadership by developing and implementing organizational goals, overseeing financial management, ensuring sustainability through annual audits and financial health maintenance, driving fundraising initiatives, cultivating partnerships for organizational enhancement, and supporting effective communication with staff, the governance body, funders, and the Mass Culture network. We are seeking someone entrepreneurial with the ability to generate new revenue, as they will play an essential role in driving the organization's financial growth and sustainability.

Find out more: massculture.ca/hiring

Music & Sound charities’ scale of operations was smaller during lockdown than in previous years, as both total revenue and total expenses also decreased. Total revenue did increase in 2021, but couldn’t reach the same level as before 2020.

The Arts Data Platform is a comprehensive resource for the arts sector, offering an aggregated dataset of 4000+ charitable arts organizations, drawn from charities’ data submitted to the CRA through the annual charitable return, the T3010.

Thank you to our partners who helped make this project possible: .foundation .council .heritage .gc

Utilizing the filter function on Arts Data Platform, we can filter the data based on arts category and be able to generate a snapshot of charities related to a certain arts practice or discipline for a given year.

For example, we can easily pull out the numbers of the visual arts charities in 2021 on the platform.

The Arts Data Platform is a comprehensive resource for the arts sector, offering an aggregated dataset of 4000+ charitable arts organizations, drawn from charities’ data submitted to the CRA through the annual charitable return, the T3010.

Thank you to our partners who helped make this project possible: .foundation .council .heritage .gc

The dance sector had a larger surplus in 2021 compared to previous years, thanks to increased revenue from the federal government. It’s likely that this was at least in part due to pandemic-related subsidies made available in 2020 and 2021.

These bar-charts were created with assistance from the Arts Data Platform. By utilizing the filter function, we can filter national charity data based on arts category. This allows us to identify trends of a certain arts practice in Canada as a whole.

The Arts Data Platform is a comprehensive resource for the arts sector, offering an aggregated dataset of 4000+ charitable arts organizations, drawn from charities’ data submitted to the CRA through the annual charitable return, the T3010.

Thank you to our partners who helped make this project possible: .foundation .council .heritage .gc

CARFAC Ontario and ALAS invite artists experienced with, or interested in, the creation of public art to join our legal drop-in session!

From murals to sculptures and interactive installations, public art is unique in its ability to engage broader audiences, transform public spaces and foster a sense of community. But it is not without its risks and challenges. Artists must navigate a range of complex and oftentimes confusing logistical details, stakeholder expectations and technical challenges, many of which entail potential legal considerations.

This virtual session provides a relaxed space for artists interested in public art to learn both from each other and from our expert facilitators—Curtia Wright (multi-disciplinary fine artist, mural artist, and arts educator) and Lina El Mugammar (business and intellectual property lawyer). Designed as a community-led forum, participants are encouraged to bring and share their questions, experiences, struggles, and successes with their peers and facilitators.

This session is primarily aimed to provide individual artists and collectives with community support on best practices and legal information while also contributing to CARFAC’s ongoing development of the new public art fee schedule and public art toolkit. To ensure we can create a space that is comfortable and encourages artists to share their questions and experiences, this session is intended only for artists. Commissioners, arts administrators, project managers, organizations, government bodies, and other types of administrative or third party roles are not permitted to join.

Date: March 20th, 2024
Time: 5 - 7pm EDT
Virtual via ZOOM
This session will not be recorded.
ASL interpretation and auto-captioning will be provided. Additional access accommodations can be requested at registration.

FREE to attend

Register: bit.ly/CARFACPublicArt

From Patchwork to Pathways: Insights to deepen collaboration amongst dance arts service organizations - written for DUO by Mass Culture / Mobilisation culturelle 🩷

Building off of the Canadian Dance Assembly (CDA)-commissioned research in 2017, “Re-Imagining Service Organizations: Decolonizing Dance”, Mass Culture / Mobilisation culturelle conducted a landscape analysis of the eighteen arts organizations that currently provide services to support dancers and dance companies.

In October 2023, Dance Umbrella Ontario commenced a research initiative involving Robin Sokoloski and Soni Dasmohapatra from Mass Culture. Their collaborative efforts culminated in the completion of eighteen interviews and an online gathering with organizations dedicated to serving the Canadian dance community. For a comprehensive list of the interview questions, please refer to the appendices. The central objective of these interviews was to gain insights into the current and future services provided by these organizations, as well as to discern the unique positions they hold within the intricate patchwork of the dance sector.

Read the final report and watch the session to collectively discuss the dance sector and collaborative pathways at the button below!

https://danceumbrella.net/dasoreport/

In this conversation with David Maggs, our Director of Organizational Development discusses reframing perspectives on evaluative practices. Find out more ⬇️

Art After This with Robin Sokoloski - Metcalf Foundation "“Evaluation should never be an endpoint. It needs to be integrated into programming, development, outreach — whatever’s happening inside an organization."

Brock University is seeking a highly motivated bilingual (English-French) postdoctoral fellow to support the Staging Better Futures/Mettre en scène de meilleurs avenirs research partnership (SBF/MSMA). The successful candidate will support the project in developing knowledge synthesis and governance processes to ensure “equality of relationship” among project members. The position also includes a structured mentorship plan to support the employee’s career, intellectual, and creative development. This fellowship is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC-CRSH) Partnership grant.

The Postdoctoral Fellow will be co-supervised by Dr. Jennifer Roberts-Smith, Co-director of SBF/MSMA and partner organisation Mass Culture’s Director of Organisational Development Robin Sokoloski. It is expected that the successful candidate will work full-time, and in close collaboration with a team of graduate students, and other project teams. It is expected that the fellow will have a flexible work schedule for some activities that involve occasional evening and weekend work.

Find out more and apply now:

Post Doctoral Fellow - Staging Better Futures / Mettre en scène de meilleurs avenirs This position is part of the Temporary Research Positions (Employee Group) One of Canada’s leading comprehensive universities and a Top Employer in Hamilton-Niagara, and named one of Canada’s Best Employers compiled by Forbes and Statista, Brock University is an inclusive, welcoming campus commu...

In December, the Designing Your Data Narrative Learning Intensive heard from Joy Robson and folks from Data for Good to understand their approach to developing data questions.

Below are some highlights from the session that have helped shape our approach:
✨ Questions are incredibly important for driving discovery, focus, and gaining meaningful insights from data. Good questions allow us to uncover new relationships, trends, and understandings that weren't apparent before. They reveal what isn't known and guide the exploration of the unknown.
✨ Data alone does not provide context or perspective and so, the questions you ask of the data will guide how the data is interpreted and applied to real-world situations. Ultimately, asking questions of the data will help turn information into actionable knowledge and recommendations.
✨ The questions you ask of the data can be presented as a framing mechanism. Throughout your process, reviewing and refining questions based on findings can lead to asking the “better question”. By allowing the gaps you uncover to inform your approach, you ensure your process remains adaptive and, therefore, relevant.

What has helped you in shaping good questions to ask of data? What helpful parameters do you have in place?

Thank you to these organizations, who've made this project possible:
Metcalf Foundation The Azrieli Foundation Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada Calgary Arts Development Canadian Heritage City of Toronto Toronto Arts Council Ontario Trillium Foundation Canadian Red Cross Employment and Social Development Canada Community Foundations of Canada United Way Centraide Canada

Brampton Arts Organization
Sled Island
Page 1 Theatre
The Yukon Arts Centre
The River Clyde Pageant
Klondike Institute of Art & Culture (KIAC)
The James Black Gallery
Vallum Poetry
AACO- Alliance of Arts Councils of Ontario
Lunenburg Doc Fest
Hispanic Arts Society
Arnprior Life
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
ECAH - Esquimalt Community Arts Hub
Dance Umbrella of Ontario

The Creative Community Commons (CCC) @ School of Cities invites you to attend 'Another crayon in the box: Impact investing, arts, and culture' via ZOOM on Thursday, January 11th from 9:30-11:30am . Register now: https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pdO6qqjkuHtMo7k-tz29NiHOGnDq4xh4D

Conversations have picked up in Toronto (and across Canada) about bringing impact investing’s tools (and its financial capital) to the arts and culture sector. Several organizations have already been using these tools and are willing to share their use cases to inspire further uptake. Join
- Chris Lee, Director of Programming, Inspirit Foundation
- Christina Loewen, Executive Director, Association for Opera in Canada
- Rudy Ruttimann, Founding Director, SKETCH Working Arts
- Robin Sokoloski, Director of Organizational Development, Mass Culture / Mobilisation culturelle
as they share their work using debt, equity, and investment to further their organizations’ missions, moderated by CCC’s own Jamie Bennett.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn from a series of short presentations and then engage with the cases in small groups to see what opportunities they can surface to multiply the work. There will also be opportunities for Q&A.

For the launch of the Designing Your Data Narrative Learning Intensive last week, Samantha Zimmerman provided an in-depth walkthrough of the T3010 Charitable Return as it relates to the Arts Data Platform.

Learnings that emerged from that session include:
✨ Donations received through CanadaHelps.org needs to be reported on line 4510 “Total amount received from other registered charities”.
✨ This is because CanadaHelps, as a charity, directly reports donations it receives to the CRA.
✨ Further considerations relating to donations are provided by CanadaHelps at https://charityhelp.canadahelps.org/en/articles/about-tax-receipting/

Getting to a shared understanding gets us to a shared dataset.

We will continue to share learnings as they emerge.

Thank you to these organizations, who've made this project possible: Metcalf Foundation The Azrieli Foundation Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada Calgary Arts Development Canadian Heritage City of Toronto Toronto Arts Council Ontario Trillium Foundation Canadian Red Cross Employment and Social Development Canada Community Foundations of Canada United Way Centraide Canada

✨

More about Samantha Zimmerman, Digital Strategist & Nonprofit Finance Consultant

Samantha Zimmerman (she/her) is a dynamic and accomplished Digital Strategist and Nonprofit Finance Consultant who has seamlessly transitioned from her roots as a proficient bookkeeper into a specialty in digital strategies and change management. With a career spanning over 15 years in the nonprofit arts sector, Samantha has proven herself to be a trusted leader and invaluable partner to organizations seeking to enhance their financial management, leverage new technologies, and streamline operations through automation.

Samantha's expertise lies in developing and implementing transformative strategies that encompass financial management, organizational operations, and people management to drive the realization of strategic initiatives. Her adept approach involves meticulously identifying pain points, clarifying needs, and finding right-sized digital solutions for lasting improvements. Samantha's belief in the power of employing the right tools is evident in her work to empower organizations to heighten efficiency, minimize manual tasks, and maintain accurate, up-to-date information.

In addition to her consultancy services, Samantha holds the positions of Executive Director at the Guelph Youth Music Centre and Board Chair of CANVAS (Canadian Arts Resources Foundation for Ontario). She holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with a Fine and Performing Arts Option from the University of Waterloo, a Graduate Certificate in Arts Administration and Cultural Management from Humber College, and most recently a Graduate Certificate in Change Management from Royal Roads University.

SPARC Expert Chats - Leverage The Arts Ecosystem To Influence Local Prosperity with Cate Proctor Cate Proctor talks to us about her research, her book and her career. We touch on relationship building, valuing the arts and artists, and municipal engagem...

Yesterday, the Data Cohort attended Module 1 of 7, which was led by Samantha Zimmerman, who spoke about the Arts Data Platform, a new shared dataset created for the arts sector using data from the CRA.

We felt inspired to ask our community: why is it important to you that the arts sector has access to shared datasets?

For us, the Arts Data Platform as an example of a shared dataset offers these benefits, to name a few:

✨ It allows arts organizations to quickly understand trends in the sector, such as occupancy costs over time or differences between provinces.

✨ Individual organizations can use the Arts Data Platform to paint a picture of the sectoral landscape for their own analyses and storytelling through data narratives.

✨ Comparing one’s own data to the shared datasets provided in the Arts Data Platform helps organizations benchmark themselves and better understand how they compare to peers.

✨ As a shared resources, the Arts Data Platform benefits all arts organizations by provided access to aggregated financial and organizational information.

Let us know why shared datasets are important to you!

Find out more about the Arts Data Platform: bit.ly/adp-dna

Thank you to these organizations, who've made this project possible:
Metcalf Foundation The Azrieli Foundation Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada Calgary Arts Development Canadian Heritage City of Toronto Toronto Arts Council Ontario Trillium Foundation Canadian Red Cross Employment and Social Development Canada Community Foundations of Canada United Way Centraide Canada

This month's Artifex: From the Vault's focus is Arts and Governance!

Check out Cate Proctor's picks relating to governance and the arts from the Artifex vault! Artifex is your hub for a collection of publicly available arts and culture research materials for the Canadian arts sector.

Given current systems of board governance in the arts sector, Cate Proctor, Founder/Principle at Proctor Shift Consulting, has chosen to highlight resources that investigate "emerging governance alternatives [which are] offering creative options—with more weight on ‘trust’, shared decision-making, smaller Boards" etc. You can read Cate's full writeup here: https://preview.mailerlite.io/preview/469153/emails/104855264812861226

Of Artifex itself, Cate shared that "access to these resources, ideas and considerations is tremendously helpful to move the needle on this foundational issue en masse, both at the Boardroom table and at a systems level."

Become empowered, informed and connected, submit your resources to Artifex: bit.ly/artifex-cdmi

Artifex enables the arts community to be better connected, using the diverse resources available to support better understanding of the arts, its impact and its future.

This ground-breaking endeavour, first launched in 2021, is a collaborative effort between Mass Culture and the Creative Hubs and Networks Database (CHND) at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), and receives invaluable support from the UTSC Critical Digital Methods Institute (CDMI). The work done over the past year to review and revise Artifex was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, and was executed by Laurence Dubuc, Mass Culture’s first Postdoc Researcher, and Mary Elizabeth Luka at University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC).

| CULTUREPÉDIA | Entrevue en ligne 🎉

Fondatrices de LaCogency, Andrée Harvey et Véronique Marino sont impliquées dans le projet depuis ses prémices. Dans cette entrevue, elles revisitent pour nous les principales étapes de l’élaboration de Culturepédia.

Lisez l’entrevue 👉 https://www.culturepedia.ca/entrevue-lacogency/

We are excited to present the 15 organizations that will make up the 2023/24 Designing Your Data Narrative learning intensive Cohort. We are inspired by the eagerness of the arts sector to engage in data-driven initiatives, and we eagerly anticipate sharing insights gained from this process in the months ahead. As stewards of this endeavour, we feel a deep sense of accountability to foster knowledge exchange and contribute to the collective growth of the arts community.

To find out more about each of these organizations, and some of the key data questions they have going into this process, visit our website: bit.ly/DataNarrativeDNA

Brampton Arts Sled Island Page 1 Theatre The Yukon Arts Centre The River Clyde Pageant Klondike Institute of Art & Culture (KIAC) The James Black Gallery Vallum Poetry AACO- Alliance of Arts Councils of Ontario Lunenburg Doc Fest Hispanic Arts Society Arnprior Life Toronto Symphony Orchestra ECAH - Esquimalt Community Arts Hub Dance Umbrella of Ontario

Metcalf Foundation The Azrieli Foundation Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada Calgary Arts Development Canadian Heritage City of Toronto Toronto Arts Council Ontario Trillium Foundation Canadian Red Cross Employment and Social Development Canada Community Foundations of Canada United Way Centraide Canada

How can we advance equity in data collection and sharing? Soni Dasmohapatra, MPA reflects on Meena Das's October session, part of Mass Culture's "Unlocking the Power of Data" series of complimentary learning sessions.

If you missed the session and are looking for a recap, or you did attend but are keen to revisit the ideas and resources shared, have a read and share your own reflections!

https://massculture.ca/2023/11/complex-narratives-require-careful-data-design-by-soni-dasmohapatra/

Exciting news! Mass Culture is in the spotlight with a featured article in . "At Mass Culture, there is a through line from open-ended inquiry to evidence-based action, from those first salons to the new data projects, that connects back to that first question from Sokoloski: 'What else is out there?'"

https://thephilanthropist.ca/2023/11/redefining-advocacy-research-and-funding-in-the-arts-sector/

Photos by and .snow.

Image 1: Parul Pandya (Community Impact Consulting) and Heather George (Canadian Museums Association) during the Play-Go-Round event at the A*O Convergence in January 2023.

Image 2: Skye Louis holds a paper that reads “Artists are brilliant and vital to our survival. I want a diversity of experiences, voices, and approaches to be included. We can go further together,” while co-facilitator Shanice Bernicky looks on.

Image 3: Jagroop Mehta and Taiwo Okunola Afolabi chat during the opening reception of the national conference.

Image 4: Ermalinda Cela, Shannon Bowler, Manon Henrie-Cadieux, Carla Stephenson, and Clayton Windatt at the A*O Convergence in January.

1 week left to add your name to the roster of Data Coaches! bit.ly/ApplyDataCoach

Are you interested in making a difference in the world of arts organizations? Join us on an exciting journey to help them grow their impact!

From January to March 2024, each cohort member will have the opportunity to select a Data Coach to provide vital support to arts organizations in their data-driven growth.

If you're a changemaker through the use of data and you feel you have the data knowhow to support one of these organizations don't miss this chance to be part of something incredible. Let's work together to unlock the potential of data for arts organizations! Coaches who are selected by an arts organization will be paid $125 per hour.

Metcalf Foundation The Azrieli Foundation Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada Calgary Arts Development Canadian Heritage City of Toronto Toronto Arts Council Ontario Trillium Foundation Canadian Red Cross Employment and Social Development Canada Community Foundations of Canada United Way Centraide Canada

Exciting News! Mass Culture is in the spotlight with a featured article in The Philanthropist Journal. "At Mass Culture, there is a through line from open-ended inquiry to evidence-based action, from those first salons to the new data projects, that connects back to that first question from Sokoloski: 'What else is out there?'"

With mentions from Ontario Trillium Foundation, Creative PEI, Culture Days | Fête de la culture.

Redefining advocacy, research, and funding in the arts sector - The Philanthropist Journal Guided by concepts of participatory governance and bottom-up decision-making, national arts service organization Mass Culture is building networks across the arts sector with the long-term goal of fundamentally changing Canadians’ relationship to the arts.

From Canada to the US and all the way to Australia, governance models need space for reimagining and testing new ways of working. Thank you, Kate Larsen for articulating this so well and for amplifying the wise words of Yvette Nolan and Erin Kang, Ontario Nonprofit Network.
"Beyond the Governance Gaps": https://larsenkeys.com.au/2023/10/12/beyond-the-governance-gaps/
Looking at arts governance as a systems issue, not a people issue, is hugely empowering. It makes it something we can review and improve, rather than resigning ourselves to expecting too much or throwing money at training that won’t stick.
Read "Future of Arts Work – Board Governance in the Arts: Emerging Ideas" by Jeanne LeSage and Dr. Shawn Newman, a great resource to facilitate necessary change: https://massculture.ca/the-futures-of-arts-work/

Beyond the Governance Gaps Past and present board members and those who support our boards—I want to thank you. In the machine of arts, cultural and not-for-profit governance you are one of our most necessary cogs: legislate…