Current 
Projects

• October 2023: We're doing a LOT of grant writing / grant supporting these days:

  • To pilot Creative Economic Development Officer Positions in Tofino and Alert Bay.

  • To try to secure funding for existing (Qualicum Beach, Comox - see below) and desired Digital Creation Hubs (Victoria Native Friendship Centre, Tofino Arts Council, and in Port McNeill or Alert Bay. 

  • To remove barriers for Indigenous artists to access new Indigenous funding programs at BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and more.

  • To enable the Alberni Valley Makerspace to obtain stable funding to fulfil its potential as a driven of economic diversification and a builder of a culture of innovation.
     

• In May 2023 we submitted a proposal to Heritage Canada (May 2023) called ResourceFULL to test a new model of fractional support for arts organizations. Here is a summary of this proposed project. 

  • Leverage existing research and shared services partnerships

  • Apply fractional strategic marketing and fundraising resources to remove structural barriers related to organizational capacity and market viability and visibility

  • Bring sector stakeholders together to map and understand the current state of the arts, culture and heritage ecosystem and the constraints and enablers within that system as they relate to creative economic development

  • Measure the economic impact that occurs when our proposed new set of resources and conditions are in place, along with other indicators of community development and wellbeing. 

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• ​Our Central Island Digital Creation Hub pilot ran from the fall of 2022 to the spring of 2023, and provided excellent learning in how physical spaces, modern technologies and digital coach can offer transformative supports for artists and creative entrepreneurs. Funding provided by the Canada Council for the Arts ArtCoach initiative (digital tools) and the BC Arts Council (digital coaching). Read the final report. In March 2023 the Comox Valley Arts opened a second DCH and has sufficient funding for coaching til next March. More about these hubs on our ArtCoach page. 
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• We are starting to get much interest in our asset mapping exercise and are encouraging communities to use our dead simple and free template to create their own (which we can then feed into the super-regional map). Get in touch to start making yours! 
   

• We're doing a remarkably good job keeping the all-islands event calendar current. And they said it couldn't be done! Help us by using the short submission form at the bottom of the calendar page AND by hashtagging all your events with #creativecoastbc 
   

• ​Our 'Meet me in the middle' podcast will hopefully get going again soon, but in the meantime, make sure to check out earlier episodes on our youtube channel (and subscribe!) or via the podcast page. Nathalie Grice's interview is the top-most viewed at the moment! We also have some excellent resources on our ArtCoach page.
   

• We're involved in several impact measurement and data empowerment initiatives with Canadian universities, including a 2-year, $500k Government of Canada New Frontiers In Research Special Call grant focused on Vancouver Island/rural Islands super-region, co-led by Simon Fraser University (Sheelagh Carpendale, Canada Research Chair in Information Visualization, and her students from Simon Fraser University Interactive Experiences Lab) and Creative Coast! Read our recent blog post about data empowerment. This NFRF project intersects beautifully with MassCulture's Data Narratives for the Arts (and they have a much bigger budget) so we anticipate a strong collaboration emerging as these projects get underway in the fall of 2023.