Preface
Wellspring
Noun
- The head or source of a spring, stream, river;
fountainhead. - A source or supply of anything, especially when considered inexhaustible: a wellspring of affection.
Accessibility
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Land acknowledgement
We honor and acknowledge the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples who have nurtured and protected this land now called Canada since time immemorial.
From our office in T’karon:to (Toronto), we express our gratitude for the opportunity to work, travel, live, and gather on the ancestral lands of the Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississaugas of the Credit. These territories are part of Treaty 13 and the Dish with One Spoon Two-Row Wampum Belt Covenant. We are also grateful to gather and connect communities in digital spaces and recognize and respect the many diverse Indigenous nations from across Turtle Island and their enduring presence and contributions in all realms of life.
We recognize Indigenous peoples as the customary keepers of the Great Lakes watershed and all of Turtle Island. We honor their traditions, cultures, and legacies of care for all living things on Earth and commit to amplifying their stories and values.
We acknowledge the harmful histories of oppression faced by Indigenous peoples, including the destruction of ancestral lands, erasure of languages and traditions, impact of residential schools, loss of data sovereignty in online spaces, and other colonial policies. We commit to supporting Indigenous rights to self-determination, self-reliance, and self-government, and to advancing the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
We believe that arts and culture play a vital role in healing and decolonizing. Through our commitment, we support Indigenous-led initiatives such as education reform, language revitalization, health and wellness programs, economic development, environmental stewardship, the Land Back movement, financial support for residential school survivors, and other forms of restitution and reparation. We strive to create a world where Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities can thrive together.
Message from the Founder and CEO
Welcome to Wellsprings, a Care Plan for ArtsPond’s second decade to 2033.
Through this plan, we are delighted to introduce 20 interrelated pledges and paths that we embrace on our journey towards a thriving future, led with, by, and for equity-deserving communities of all kinds.
For us, wellsprings symbolize the timeless creativity and care that sustains both human and natural life in familiar and unexpected ways.
In these perilous times, wellsprings invite us to share courageous transformations and everyday remedies in many diverse realms of life, promising harmonious nourishment, growth, and renewal. Like gentle streams shaping stones across countless generations, the enduring nature of wellsprings bolsters within us the spirits of fearless determination and patient evolution so crucial to the challenging roads ahead.
This plan is both a dream and a strategy. It is crafted to remain open and adaptable to the evolving needs of communities impacted by our uncertain and precarious world. As a living document, we welcome your suggestions to deepen our connections and accountability to the needs of our dynamic ecologies.
Together, we can shape a world of boundless promise and possibility.
Jessa Agilo
Founder and CEO
ArtsPond / Étang d’Arts
Plans
Visual summary
Purposes
Why we exist
Nourish positive change and care with, by, and for creatives of all kinds.
Mission
Our mission is to nurture thriving ecosystems of care in all realms of life via the wisdom and creativity of arts and culture.
Vision
Our vision is to empower artists and other creatives from the margins to guide positive community change and shared personal care within and beyond their usual surroundings.
We will realize our vision by equipping creatives of all kinds to overcome obstacles and crises that hamper their potential to nurture bright and caring futures in an uncertain world. By doing so, we believe we can help boost their capacity to grow springs of wellness with, by, and for us all.
Mandate
Our mandate is to strengthen prosperity and wellbeing by cultivating cultures of creative care in both human and natural life.
We work with precarious artists and other creatives from across Canada and beyond to respond to the complex challenges that amplify vulnerabilities in their lives and communities.
We seek to address the various causes and consequences of precarity. These include spatial, social, environmental, economic, digital, disability, accessibility, and other concerns. Our aim is to promote justice and support thriving cultural ecosystems in solidarity with other social impact movements.
In alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, to date we have worked on arts and culture-led remedies and therapies to urgent issues that threaten our society. These include gentrification, digitalization, economic exploitation, pandemic disruption, regional and disciplinary disconnection, and social injustices such as racism, colonialism, and ableism. In the future, we also aim to encourage creative responses to environmental disasters, such as the climate crisis and freshwater conservation.