We are excited to share a sneak peek of some of our activities you can expect in the coming year. Stay tuned for many job postings for 2022!
AccessArt
As a part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Arts 2021-22, AccessArt will continue mapping the accessibility of outdoor public art and explore how to improve the public art commissioning process in order to bolster access to creative public spaces for Deaf / Neurodiverse / Disabled artists. An interactive map of accessible public art will be integrated into the Ecosystems Map module of Hatch Open that is also being developed simultaneously alongside mapping knowledge and other resources in digital support services for DigitalASO (see below).
DigitalASO
Phase 2 of this multi-year effort will come to a close in early Summer 2022 with two key milestones including the design of a new Ecosystems Map and publication of a final report, So Far: Collective steps toward a positive digital future in Canadian arts and culture. New storytelling roundtables are also planned for Central Canada, Atlantic Canada and Maritimes, and Quebec in the Winter and Spring. Ecosystems Map will eventually be released as an interactive storytelling module of the Hatch Open platform. It will help better connect digital champions, knowledge, and resources with people in need for DigitalASO, and accessibility of public art for AccessArt (see above). So Far final report will help share the tremendous wisdom gathered during DigitalASO’s national roundtables including a detailed knowledge framework, summary manifesto, and case studies on international digital transformation alliances, networks, and other types of ecosystem-building structures that may help guide the evolution of Canada’s digital arts services ecosystems now that Canada Council for the Arts’ Digital Strategy Fund is done.
Groundtrust
Early in 2022, we will be undertaking our first feasibility for Groundtrust (a proposed cultural land trust in the Greater Toronto Area), with generous support from Department of Canadian Heritage and others. We will be working on a land/capital asset acquisition and (re)development strategy plus a social finance capitalization strategy. We will produce creative commons toolkits on these topics to be available for public dissemination by Summer 2022.
Hatch Open + Artse United
We are excited to launch multiple coding intensives for our Hatch Open arts management software platform in the first half of 2022. We will focus on financial management (invoicing, payment processing, budgeting, and automated report generation of actuals to Canada Revenue Agency, CADAC, and others for individuals and organizations) and Ecosystems Map module briefly referred to above for AccessArt and DigitalASO. We expect to release an initial beta for community input by Fall 2022.
Together There
We can’t wait to officially launch Phase 1 of this new multi-year digital justice creative leadership residency program in January 2022. We will be hosting creative leadership labs with Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other racialized artists, rural-remote artists, and Deaf / Neurodiverse / Disabled artists, arts workers, and allies for the next two years. We will also be planning the next edition of the Digital Arts Services Symposium for 2023 with a focus on digital justice needs and innovations within these same equity-seeking communities in Canada, and participating artists in residence.
