October 19, 2018
On September 12th, performing arts professionals gathered in St. Catharines on the day before Ontario Contact for the 2018 Facility Managers' Meeting.
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us! Special thanks to meeting sponsor The Burlington Performing Arts Centre, and sponsor and facilitator ArtsBuildOntario.
Minutes from the meeting can now be found here.
Key topics covered include:
- Space rentals
- Alcohol
- Cannabis
- Greener spaces
- Health and safety
- Future meetings
Following up on the conversation around future meetings, reps from Ontario Presents [OP]and ArtsBuild Ontario [ABO] met to debrief and review key recommendations made, which were:
- meet more than once a year
- work from an agenda (predetermined items) but also leave room for ad hoc
- include those who weren't in the room
In order to involve those who were't in the room, a more inclusive title for these discussions could be "Operating Creative Spaces: How to Create the Best Experience for All." This would allow for a more holistic discussion on how to manage spaces of all genres, no matter what the ownership model. It could incorporate topics such as access and inclusion, FOH, ticketing, volunteerism, etc in addition the traditional topics such as safety, liquor licensing, security. Hopefully this new approach will attract more participants to these discussions to enrich them.
Over the next few months OP and ABO propose to distribute a short survey to help focus the re-design of these discussions, and hope to convene a conversation, perhaps via phone/video, early in the New Year to shape the next iteration of this ongoing discussion. The tentative goal is hold the next gathering in May/June (location/format TBC). Please work with us to make this happen by completing the survey (to be distributed at a later date) and contributing to the Discussion Board found at this link: Operating Creative Spaces: Ongoing Discussion. There are initial topics suggested here, please feel free to suggest more.
OP and ABO look forward to working with and learning from a range of professionals involved in operating creative spaces!