This summer, the Ladysmith Arts Council received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund (DSF) to organize two events for Island/coastal artists.

The first event, a webcast on July 25, asked the question: can our Vancouver Island/coastal area be Canada's arts and culture powerhouse? There were 56 participants, representing a wide variety of organizations, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous tourism and economic development associations, arts councils, government agencies (local, regional, provincial, federal) and artists. The response from attendees was extremely positive. Participants showed a great deal of readiness for conversations about deepening collaboration for mutual benefit. Here is a summary report that also outlines next steps.

Now we’re organizing a second meeting, on August 15 at 4pm, to see who from this initial group wants to work with us to obtain more DSF funding to continue to explore the ‘arts and culture powerhouse’ concept.  Feel free to join us on August 15. Here is the link.

The second event is a free digital skill building workshop for artists, taking place on August 8. So far we have over 625 artists registered, and expected hundreds more to join us via our Facebook live page. Once completed, this will be the largest gathering of Island/coastal artists, and will help further our conversation about the ‘arts and culture powerhouse’ as well as building digital literacy for individual artists. we’re also producing short how-to videos, such as the one posted below about digitizing art, and these ones on our Crowdcast channel page: Artists rights in the digital age, with April Britski from CARFAC and an interview with Jane Marston, artist and elder from Stz’uminus First Nation, on Cultural Appropriation and Respect.

Check back soon for more resources on this page. Want to get on our email list for future events like this? Email us at [email protected]