Franklin Beecham, Visual Artist

For two days, the arts community in York Region had the opportunity to be enlightened by seminar sessions covering all aspects of arts development, promotion and management. This was the York Region Arts Council’s, Arts Exposed Arts & Culture Conference, held at the Markham campus of Seneca College, April 1st & 2nd.

Day 1 was opened by renowned speaker Dr. Richard Florida – target audience, socio-economic development leaders.
Day 2, was opened by Jian Ghomeshi, CBC Radio personality – target audience, artists, arts management stakeholders.

Main Atrium

I attended Day 2, Saturday morning. It was bright and sunny, yet cold and windy, and I was early – typical! My day started off at the conference being greeted by a wonderfully draped facade by interior space designer, Elaine Cooledge. It was a cool thing to see the logo I designed for Arts Exposed, on posters and banners, and on name tags and loot bags. Then I saw Herbert Pryke of Artcures. Herbert was avidly self-promoting his Artcures programs and sold me a stack of greeting cards. Later in the day he would be a speaker in the “Healing Arts” session.

Table settings by Elaine Cooledge

After registering I proceeded down to the main presentation room where I was met by a waft of coffee aroma and Elaine Cooledge dusting and tweaking her amazing table settings, which consisted of long red spiraled zippers. [The zipper, as you may know, was the theme that I developed for the conference branding, a la Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers album]. As I was feeling the buzz of my first cup of coffee, I was joined by several people — an inquisitive arts student from Unionville High, Director of Culture, John Ryerson, an artist from Mount Albert, a representative from Latcham Gallery and fellow visual artist, David Clubine. (Forgive me for not remembering your names. Put it down to the early hour and lack of that first coffee). Soon the room was full and the formalities about to begin. Looking around I saw several familiar faces.

I haven’t heard his radio show, but I have seen the filmed versions on YouTube — Jian Ghomeshi was the keynote — an extremely intelligent and candid speaker portraying himself as an immigrant Iranian from Thornhill who realized he had a skill to communicate with the masses. He definitely had that talent. He reminded us to “own our experiences“, “own our diversity“, and “change our elite prejudices about pop culture“. Illustrating the fact that 10 years ago, iPhones, iPads, Twitter and Facebook didn’t exist. Time flies! He told us that “we are our own brands” (something I’ve been preaching for years). These were words that I wish more of my peers were able to hear. His statement that “art is accessible – its how we treat and present it that isn’t” really struck home as well — he even gave us an anecdote about how an elitist error in judgement by a national gallery had the potential to reject a much larger audience of understanding by offering a bad first impression. His words rang deep within me.

Afterwards, I met up with fellow artist Samantha Rodin to go to the first session. Samantha was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the York Region Arts Council and aptly chose this session. As a former Board member of the Markham Arts Council, I too was interested in “The Nuts & Bolts of Arts Management: Board Development, Governance & Succession Planning, led by speaker, Jennifer Steele. To me, this session was the most important of the conference. It illustrated the roles of the Board member versus the role of staff. In a nutshell, the role of an Arts Board is to manage governance, policies and strategic planning. Day-to-day operations including marketing, communications and events are reliant on staff and committees.

The next session I took was “Help Wanted: Volunteer Recruitment & Management“. This was an extension to the previous session as it dealt with the trials and tribulations of volunteering. How to motivate volunteers, and more importantly, the need to show them appreciation.

The final session and an awe-inspiring one at that, was “Healing Arts: Art Therapy” with five speakers. The most captivating was by Corene Jonat of DeafBlind. Her presentation showcasing imagery of people with major sensory handicaps was an amazing experience. To a blind person it is a valuable exploration in expression. Music therapy was discussed by another speaker who was currently working in palliative care using music as an emotional stimulant. Several years ago as a therapeutic tool, my wife re-introduced me to art to help overcome personal grief. This session proved that there is more to art than meets the eye.

I met several new people and was happy to mingle with friends during the long day. Great to see Helen Argiro, (the new Executive Director of the Markham Arts Council), but wish other MAC representatives were present also. Throughout the social breaks, we were entertained by a variety of artists including The Good Brothers, First Nations performers, an exotic belly dancer, youth singers from Ovation, and many more. An interesting array of tasty treats was also available during lunch and the closing reception. (note to self: bring a tray next time). The wine bar ticket sure came in handy too.

All-in-all, I wasn’t disappointed with the conference. The staff and volunteers were exceptional, and the venue was ideal. I look forward to the next version and stress to my peers that this conference was set up for you. Take advantage of it and learn. There were many sessions I wished I’d taken, but there’s only so much one can take in during the allotted time.

Many thanks to Nancy Bodi, Judi McIntyre and the entire Conference team! I know it was a tremendous amount of work. I can safely say that you did a great job exposing the arts. Well done!