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CAO Annual Report 2000 - 2001
PRESIDENT'S REPORTOur everyday heroesThis year, Canadians are marking the International Year of Volunteers and celebrating the achievements of those whom Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson has called "Canada's everyday heroes." Certainly no organization could be more grateful for the dedication of its own everyday heroes that the Council for the Arts in Ottawa. In fact, the CAO could not exist without the generous efforts of an outstanding group of people who routinely dedicate some of their leisure time to enriching their own community. Every single event that we have sponsored this year has depended on volunteers for success: last July's Arts in the New City Forum, September's pre-election Mayoral Debate on the Arts, February's Sweetheart Lunch, April's State of the Arts report, and dozens of other initiatives that have helped build a better city. Just as our events depend on the generosity of volunteers, the smooth management and focussed direction of the CAO also depends on its Board of Directors – another dozen volunteers who represent the interests of the community and share their talent, their experience and their love of the arts. Volunteerism aside, the work of the Council for the Arts in Ottawa has perhaps never had more impact than during this transitional year of one-tier city government. We have had great success in keeping the arts in the political spotlight and on the media agenda largely because of the outstanding efforts of our Executive Director, Peter Honeywell. The CAO's new Eye on the Arts program, designed to keep the arts agenda in the spotlight as the city moves forward with amalgamation, has received a $70,000 grant over two years from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. As a result, we will be able to hire a new Communications Officer to assist with community arts promotion and other outreach activities. As the CAO approaches its 20th anniversary, I'd also like to salute our other partners whose long- time support has allowed us to participate in the ongoing development of Ottawa's arts community: the City of Ottawa, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation as well as corporate and private donors, and, of course, our members. And to anyone who has a few hours to spare and wants to help make a make Ottawa an even better city in which to live... please give us a buzz! Charles Reynolds EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORTThis has been a remarkable year for the CAO. Last year at this time, we anticipated change and developed a strategy to ensure that we could meet the challenges. The CAO modified our committee structure and focused activities. Newly acquired resources have allowed the CAO to bring new expertise and experience into the office in support of our members and our programs. Following a year of extraordinary volunteer contribution by Zoë Ashby, she has now joined us at the staff level. A special thank you is due to Michael Carty who worked with us last summer through the Experience 2000 summer employment program, and in the days ahead we will bring the skills of a Communications Director to our organization. The Board of Directors have once again given generously of their time and talents. The Board worked together creatively to solve problems and ensure that our programs were delivered. A special note of thanks is due to the members of the Executive Committee, Charles Reynolds, Marie Keasey and Christian Perry. Change was also experienced with arts administration at the City of Ottawa. We welcome the new cultural team led by General Manager Dick Stewart, Director Colleen Hendrick, and Manager of the Office of Cultural Affairs, Debbie Hill. Our initial meetings have been very positive and we are confident that we will have an effective working relationship in the year ahead. In addition to administering the CAO's numerous projects, this year saw the completion of the office renovations and the installation of Jerry Grey's exhibition Rare Spirits at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Our sincere thanks is offered to the many corporate and community partners who made contributions. Two endowment funds, the Corel Arts Endowment Fund held at the Community Foundation of Ottawa and the CAO Endowment fund at the Ontario Arts Council Foundation continue to grow and provide annual interest for specific program and administrative needs. There were successes for many of our members. The most recent example was the presentation of the YMYWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Arts & Culture to Jan Irwin. Congratulations to the many individuals and groups who excelled with their arts endeavours this year. The community was also saddened by the loss of a number of individuals including; John Robertson, David Hill, and Gunter Nolté. Their vision and work with artists in our community made a great contribution. COMMITTEE REPORTSAdvocacyRepresentation of local artists interests has been central to the work of the CAO for the past nineteen years. Those who have been involved have realized that progress is often slow, and reduction of resources (especially in the last five years) caused set-backs and fatigue. The CAO concentrated efforts on municipal issues as we experienced an advocacy roller-coaster which began hours after our AGM in June 2000. The feeling of optimism following the June 14th Regional Council decision to increase the arts grants program by $500,000, was dashed two months later when the Ottawa Transition Board refused to accept the elected council decision. The CAO in collaboration with the Gloucester Arts Council launched a public protest that received extensive media coverage and built public awareness of the funding issues. Political awareness of the arts was a central focus for the CAO as we approached the municipal election. A Mayoral Candidates' Forum was held at the National Arts Centre in September in cooperation with the Ottawa International Writers' Festival, and the Arts Vote 2000 report released in late October, provided residents with candidates' opinions about arts issues. City Council's recent approval of the $500,000 increase was welcome news for individual artists, arts groups, and members of the public who will benefit in the year ahead. There is however, significant work to do in the upcoming months as we work to ensure that the increase is included in next year's municipal base budget. The recently released State of the Arts Report highlights a number of key issues and identifies some priority recommendations for action. The creation of the Ottawa Arts Advisory Committee promises to provide an important new advocacy partner. The CAO intensified our relationship with the Gloucester Arts Council and CARFAC in the past year and we look forward to working co-operatively with those groups and others in the future. The experience of the advocacy committee in the past year clearly demonstrates that collective action will move Ottawa's arts community toward the goal of reaching our full artistic potential. We encourage everyone in the community to stay informed and be involved. Peter Honeywell, Chair Outreach CommitteeCommunicationsThe CAO Web site, has continued to grow in importance as the number of unique hits increases, and as more and more members and arts groups establish an on-line presence. The Committee has spent some time re-configuring the site to keep up with user demand and changing technologies. An earlier conclusion that additional resources are now required to manage the site has been met by the grant awarded to the CAO by the Trillium Foundation. Some of the communications highlights in the past year include:
AwardsThe CAO welcomes the input of our members and the public, who are encouraged to nominate candidates or submit applications to our recognition/award programs. This years' Victor Tolgesy Arts Award was presented to Ottawa Chamber Music Festival founder Julian Armour. The award is a joint venture between the CAO, the City of Ottawa and the law firm Gowlings. The Corel Arts Endowment Fund continues to grow and this year awards were granted to three projects including: $800 to assist with a visual artists' group exhibition, Currents, to take place at the Karsh-Masson Gallery, $500 to assist Anik Bouvrette with the development of a new choreographed piece in conjunction with a dancer-in-residence program, and $500 towards the completion of a film, Devouring Budda, by film maker Korbett Matthews. Business Recognition Awards were presented to the National Arts Centre, for their development of the Fourth Stage, and Manulife Financial for their support of the visual arts project Rare Spirits - A Personal Tribute to Vintage Elders. The awards were presented at the Mayor's Sweetheart Lunch for the Arts on February 14, 2001. EducationEducation programs were held in conjunction with other community partners and CAO committees. A workshop on Writing Grant Applications, held in October 2000, was hosted jointly by the CAO and the City of Ottawa. The Committee would like to extend a sincere thanks to Dennis Landry, former Cultural Consultant with the City of Ottawa, for helping to make these workshops happen. A Facility Issues Round Table was held January 26, 2001 with Toronto consultants Catherine Smalley and Sandra Tullock, and on April 2, 2001, the workshop Artists and Income Tax, was held in cooperation with CARFAC and was led by local accountant Ian Hendry, partner of Paterson Hendry Chartered Accountants. The committee is organizing a number of professional development opportunities for the year ahead and we welcome members' advice on future topics of interest. Jane Sadler (Chair), Charles Reynolds, Jane Stewart FUNDRAISING & MEMBERSHIPFundraisingAccording to Rosa Harris-Adler, editor of the Ottawa City magazine, the 12th Mayor's Sweetheart Luncheon represented the new synergy of the amalgamated Ottawa region. A sold-out room of arts supporters gathered in the Salon of the Canadian Museum of Nature, who generously sponsored the venue for the third time. With the resulting thirteen media hits focusing on community involvement in and support of local artists, and receipts of $7500, the committee takes pride in a task well done. The Luncheon celebration provide a rousing salute to Julian Armour, artistic director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the National Arts Centre for establishing the 4th stage, and Manulife Financial for underwriting Jerry Grey's Rare Spirits exhibition. The committee is very grateful to the following; Mayor Bob Chiarelli our host, Diane Holmes, our emcee, Phil Jenkins, our poet, Dale Dunning, Anna Frlan, Marie-Pierre Kroetsch, Juliana McDonald, Ilona Murto, and Jim Thomson, the artists whose works decorated the tables, Noah's Catering and Ken Zalba for creative food, the numerous businesses who contributed to the balloon draw, the Julio Jemenez Trio for their music, Marion Dewar, Jim Durrell, Jacqueline Holzman and Jim Watson, past mayors who were recognized for their support of the CAO and our volunteers who were thanked a reception on March 7. Plans are under way for the 13th Sweetheart Luncheon, February 14, 2002. We invite all interested members to join the committee for next year. As well a second fundraiser, a film night is being planned, tentatively for December, with the aim of raising $2000. Finally I have the most pleasant duty of thanking the co-chairperson of the committee, Zoë Ashby, along with members Marie Keasey, Shuh-kuen Chen, Dominique Hussey, Shebah Tatz and Victoria Steele who have kept this rookie chairperson on task. Gerard Lavelle, Committee Co-Chair MembershipThis past year has been a very busy and successful one for the Membership Committee. We had a goal of increasing membership by 25% during our program year that runs from our last AGM to this one. In fact we had an increase of 31% that represents 63 new members. Our fiscal year end on February 28 recorded an increase of 38% of membership revenue over our previous year-end. The CAO is delighted with this success story and thank all new members for their interest in our organization and all existing members for their continued support. Our membership drive in late September 2000 helped increase our membership base, particularly in our group categories. At this time the CAO Profile was developed to give potential members a clearer understanding of what the CAO does and also to list the membership benefits that we offer. We anticipate the development of a new membership brochure over the summer. This brochure will replace the CAO Profile and include new initiatives that will increase membership benefits. Our enhanced website has also encouraged membership and we have had many new members at the individual member rate as a result. We plan to increase the ease with which members can take out their memberships via our website. This past year we have also contacted members with updates via e-mail. This is a convenient way of keeping members up to date with information between our bi-monthly mailout. If you have an e-mail address, please let our office know and please keep us informed if your e-mail address changes. Our workshops have also provided opportunities for recruitment. Information has been made available on these occasions about the CAO and many members have joined as a result. October 2000 was a busy time at our office as we finalized many renovation projects to be ready for our Donors Reception on November 8 2001. The evening event in the Micaela Fitch room gave the CAO an opportunity to show off our newly renovated space. The CAO wishes to thank all the donors who supported us in transforming our space: Advanced Business Interiors, Allseating Corporation, City of Ottawa, Co-Creations Lighting Design Inc., Creative Friction, Formica Canada Inc., Fulline Business Interiors Inc., Giamberadino Contracting Inc., Groupe Lacasse, Miliken Carpet, National Decor, Ottawa Office Environments Inc. and Randall's Paints. The following week on November 15 we had another opportunity to present our new look at a Members' Open House. More than 50 people turned up over the course of 6 hours. It was a great opportunity for many of them to visit our offices for the first time. It was also a chance for us to meet many members who we had only known by name, and for members to meet other members as well. In light of this successful occasion we plan on making this an annual event. A new student membership category was initiated in the new year. We plan on increasing awareness of this new category in the coming year. Our mailouts have been regularly going out on a bi-monthly basis. Many members have taken advantage of the opportunity to include flyers, brochures and notices of their upcoming events with these mailouts. We hope all members mark on their calendars the dates of mailouts. These dates are given in advance in the News and Updates. This is a valuable membership benefit that we hope all members continue to take advantage of. Zoë Ashby, Committee Co-Chair
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