CCA Bulletin 01/11- From the Desk of Alain Pineau: A nice way to start the year!

I hope the holiday break was great for all of you! It sure was for the CCA secretariat and frankly, it’s a good thing because we have a very busy calendar ahead of us! On the policy front, Bill C-32 and copyright are major priorities, but there are also the upcoming CRTC hearings regarding the purchase of CTVglobemedia by BCE. We are in the final stages of preparation for our third Thinking Culture forum (on copyright on January 25). Internally, the secretariat is organizing the upcoming election of CCA board members and is in the process of planning the new board’s first strategic session in June. We have also launched a call for nominations for the 2010 CCA awards. And of course, there is the possibility of a federal election in the spring which could throw a wrench into the works!

I returned to work last week to a piece of good news. The Department of Canadian Heritage has published the results of the five-year summative evaluation of the Arts, Culture and Diversity Program under which the CCA and the Coalition for Cultural Diversity (CCD) are funded. Since we are the only two recipients of this program, its evaluation amounts to a third party appraisal reviewing not only how the program fits in with the government’s priorities, but also how well the two organizations deliver through their contribution agreements with Heritage. This report is therefore critical to the future funding of the CCA and the CCD. As you will see below, the report also includes conclusions of interest for the whole arts, culture and heritage sector. (more)