News and Information

Hello Everyone,

Every arts organization around the world is currently navigating the new and uncertain world of how to operate safely during the pandemic, but different sectors experience their own unique challenges.

This Electric City Culture Council (EC3) Bulletin will focus specifically on the Performing Arts.  The challenges are great for music, theatre, and dance right now, being a sector that largely relies on mass gatherings.  Venues and presenters are trying to figure out how to keep artists, staff, and audiences safe, while still being able to present work live.

This Bulletin gathers reopening resources from across the internet, including government regulations, advice from industry associations and arts services organizations, and real-world examples of the performing arts organizations that are finding a way to open their doors. Click on the links below to explore the resources.  These resources are also available through EC3’s COVID-19 Updates page, and we will conitue to provide updates as they arrive.

In the coming weeks, EC3 will also be running a webinar with Peterborough Public Health on health and safety for live performance.  See the bottom of this Bulletin for details, and watch for a full announcement coming soon.

Please also see our previous Bulletin, “Door Open? Will They Come Back? When? How? Guides and Advice for Reopening Arts and Culture Organizations,” for more general advice and resources about reopening.

And if you have any other resources that you have found useful, please forward them to EC3 and we will share them around.

Public Health Guidelines and Reglations

The Government of Ontario has released extensive documents on preventing COVID-19 in the workplace.  You can also dive into the actual Ontario legislation with Rules for Areas in Stage 3, the official law relating to Stage 3 reopening.  Section 11 ‘Performing arts’ is particularly relevant.

Locally, Peterborough Public Health has put together an excellent page, Reopening Safely: Guidance for Workplaces & Retail.  This collects lots of resources, including general advice and sector-specific resources, including, notably, a section on Live Shows, Performing Arts and Movie Theatres.

The Government of Canada offers advice on Risk mitigation tool for gatherings and events operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also see the World Health Organization’s advice for large event organizers, which many national service organizations that we checked in with have been sharing around.

Reopening Guides

The Event Safety Alliance has published an extensive Reopening Guide covering everything event and venue professionals need to consider.

The Performing Arts Center Consortium has published an extensive Guide to Reopening Theatrical Venues (PDF).

The Public Services Health & Safety Association has published lots of sector-specific guidance for COVID-19 health and safety, including Health and Safety Guidance During COVID-19 For Entertainment, Museum and Gallery Employers.

Ontario workplace safety not-for-proft Workplace Safety & Prevention Services also has a number of guidance documents, including Guidance on Health and Safety for Television Film and Live Performance Sector During COVID-19 (PDF) and Outdoor Recreation and Drive-in/Drive-Thru Entertainment Settings During COVID-19 (PDF).

Resource Lists

BC arts and entertainment health and safety association ActSafe Safety Alliance has put together an excellent list of COVID-19 Resources for the Arts and Entertainment.

The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) has a long list of Online Industry Resources, such as the research paper The Long Runway to Return: The Role of Anchor Cultural Institutions.

During the pandemic, CAPACOA and Ontario Presents have joined forces to create a shared document, Coronavirus Response for the Live Performance Sector, including a wide variety of resources for people and organizations in the performing arts.  The document is still being updated on a very regular basis.

Articles and Ideas

The Canadian Association for the Performing Arts (CAPACOA) held a webinar (now available as a recording) titled A Clean Slate for Reopening about public safety and reopening.

Chorus Connections discusses What Community Chorus Leaders Should be Doing Right Now, which also includes a link to download their document, A Season Planning Guide Amidst COVID-19.  Lots of useful advice for anyone planning their upcoming performance season.

Performing arts consultants Charcoal Blue have an excellent article, Performance Buildings in a Post-Pandemic World.  It was published early in the pandemic, but looks at real-world data from past pandemics and offers excellent advice about how to make performance venues work post-COVID.

Real-World Examples

We are starting to see a few examples across the country of performing arts attempting to put frameworks in place and reopen their doors.  The Orillia Opera House held its first show on August 19 – read their Health and Safety Protocols (PDF).  The FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in St. Catharine’s is also holding outdoor events now – read their Public Safety Gudelines document.

Ontario Presents has a growing collection of Reopening Plans from various Ontario performing arts venues.

Take a look at the Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Pandemic Plan, which the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) has made available online for free.

Announcing: EC3-Peterborough Public Health Webinar on Health and Safety for the Live Performance Sector

EC3 is working with Peterborough Public Health’s Public Health Promoter Keith Beecoft to host a webinar for artists and arts organizations on health and safety for live performance venues and facilities.

To get the ball rolling, Keith recommends taking a look at the Government of Ontario’s Rules for Areas in Stage 3, the official law relating to Stage 3 reopening; and in particular Section 11, ‘Performing arts.’

This webinar will take place in the next few weeks – watch EC3’s social media and future Bulletins for a full announcement.

Please stay well and let us know how we can help.
TRACK THE IMPACT.

As always, keep checking the EC3 Facebook page, @ECThreePtbo on Twitter, @ec3ptbo on Instagram, and the COVID-19 Updates page on EC3’s website, where we are providing daily updates on programs and services available for ACH workers and organizations.

Be safe, stay healthy, and please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Su Ditta and the EC3 Board and staff

Contact
Su Ditta
Executive Director
Electric City Culture Council (EC3)
electriccitycc@gmail.com
www.ecthree.org
705 749 9101

Hello Everyone,

This Bulletin brings some welcome news on long-anticipated and much-needed COVID-19 response and recovery funding for the arts, culture, and heritage (ACH) sector from the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and Ontario Presents.  Our thanks goes out to these organizations.  In addition, Peterborough Public Health has released some excellent online guidelines for safe reopening and we will be announcing details on information and training sessions shortly.

As the summer continues, many businesses and organizations are continuing to reopen their doors and resume their operations, programs, and services with COVID-19 safety measures in place, but many artists and arts, culture, and heritage (ACH) organizations are still a long way away from being able to resume “normal” activities. Health restrictions can make it all but impossible to find box office and other financial models that will work. Organizations are working hard to stabilize and survive, looking for innovative ways to adapt to this new situation and provide alternative forms of programming.

Over the past few weeks there has been a new crop of funding opportunities for individual artists and for ACH organizations and venues, including special relief and recovery grants from the Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, and Ontario Presents. This bulletin serves as a roundup of these new funds.

In addition, the Electric City Culture Council (EC3) also wanted to share a new document from Peterborough Public Health, offering sector-specific guidance for those organizations who are getting ready to reopen (or have already done so). There are a number of generally useful ideas in there, as well as guidelines specifically for ACH organizations.

Ontario Arts Council: Arts Response Initiative

The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) has announced $1.6 million in new grant funding to “support activities and expenses focused on research, training and planning for ways to adapt artistic practices and activities in response to the COVID-19 context. OAC’s project programs continue to support arts creation, production, presentation or dissemination and arts engagement activities, many with expanded eligibility related to COVID-19.”

Who is eligible? There are three separate streams of funding: individuals; ad hoc groups, collectives, and organizations; and organizational partnerships between multiple organizations. Individuals and groups who do not currently receive OAC funding are still eligible for these funds, as long as they would be eligible for at least one other OAC project program. See more on eligibility.

How much? $4,000 for individuals; $15,000 for organizations; and $30,000 for partnerships.

Deadline? October 20, 2020 for individual grants; November 3, 2020 for organizations and partnership grants.

Find out more here.

Ontario Trillium Foundation: Resilient Communities Fund

The Ontario Trillium Fund (OTF) “is investing in projects of eligible non-profit organizations to aid their medium to longer-term recovery efforts, help with their stabilization and build their capacity and resiliency in the aftermath of COVID-19. This fund is providing a flexible range of activities over two deadlines to address the diverse needs of organizations and to support them where they are at in their recovery and rebuilding.”

Who is eligible? Not-for-profit and charitable organizations working primarily in Ontario. See the full eligibility guidelines.

How much? From $5,000 to $150,000.

Deadline? OTF is rolling this program out with two deadlines: September 2, 2020 and December 2, 2020.

Find out more here.

Ontario Presents: Engagement Microgrants for Community Presenters

Ontario Presents is offering “small grants to presenters who wish to partner with a local artist to craft a project that will engage the community with the performing arts.”

Who is eligible? “Any not-for-profit, small-hall, community presenters (volunteer or professional) in Ontario. Applicants do not need to be members of Ontario Presents, nor must they be venue-based. Please note that this program is intended for rural/remote communities – presenters must be not be located in the GTA or other urban centre.”

How much? $5,000.

Deadline? August 21, 2020.

Find out more here.

New Reopening Guidelines from Peterborough Public Health

Peterborough Public Health has recently issued a comprehensive document with guidelines and many links to resources for safe reopening of workplaces and retail.

These include general guidelines that any organization should take a look at, as well as many sector-specific resources. Particularly relevant to the ACH sector are the sections on Interactive Exhibits at Museums, Attractions and Heritage Institutions; Libraries; and Live Shows, Performing Arts and Movie Theatres; among others. This document is well worth a look.

Please stay well and let us know how we can help.
TRACK THE IMPACT.

As always, keep checking the EC3 Facebook page, @ECThreePtbo on Twitter, @ec3ptbo on Instagram, and the COVID-19 Updates page on EC3’s website, where we are providing daily updates on programs and services available for ACH workers and organizations.

Be safe, stay healthy, and please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Su Ditta and the EC3 Board and staff

Contact
Su Ditta
Executive Director
Electric City Culture Council (EC3)
electriccitycc@gmail.com
www.ecthree.org
705 749 9101

Listen to The Electric City Culturecast Reprise, a new project from EC3

In case you missed it, here is a roundup of some of what the Electric City Culture Council (EC3) has been sharing online in the past two weeks.

Be sure to follow EC3’s Facebook page, @ECThreePtbo on Twitter, and @ec3ptbo on Instagram, where we’re posting updates every day.

From the Electric City Culture Council

EC3 launched The Electric City Culturecast Reprise, a curated playlist of clips from EC3’s Trent Radio show and podcast, The Electric City Culturecast. Our hope is to highlight some of Peterborough’s talented and fascinating artists and creators, during a time when many avenues for artistic expression and performance remain closed. Read our Bulletin about the project.

Arts and Culture Roundtable, with EC3, Minister Monsef, and local arts and culture leaders

EC3 was proud to work with local MP and Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development Maryam Monsef, on an Arts & Culture Roundtable at the end of July (see photo at right).  It was an insightful and productive conversation, and EC3 sincrely appreciates our MP taking the time to hear from local arts and culture leaders about the challenges our sector is facing.

Join the conversation on Peterborough Arts Alive on SLACK, a digital space where artists can meet to discuss and share ideas and resources.

Donate today to the Peterborough Arts Alive Fund, a fundraising effort to provide grants for local arts organizations.

Local Spotlight

Job alert: Public Energy is currently hiring an Interim Administration and Marketing Program Director, and the Art Gallery of Peterborough is hiring a Visitor Services Receptionist.

4th Line Theatre had to cancel their season this year, but they are mounting a special play this fall. Bedtime Stories and Other Horrifying Tales is a newly written, limited-run play that will be performed outdoors to socially distanced audiences.

The Art Gallery of Peterborough is now re-opened. Visiting is by appointment only, and with specific restrictions in place.

Subscribe to Artspace‘s Flashback newsletter, full of art and video pulled from Artspace’s archives. The latest issue features an interview with Dorothy Caldwell.

Watch this entirely heartwarming new video from local band Little Birdie:

 News and Information

The Canada Council for the Arts announced the appointment of Anishinaabe writer and broadcaster Jesse Wente as the new Chair of the Board.  Read The Toronto Star‘s interview with Wente. The Council is also seeking input on their five-year strategic plan, on their new website ReimagineTheArts.ca.

The Ontario Trillium Fund launced the Resilient Communities Fund, providing support to not-for-profit organizations for COVID-19 recovery and rebuilding.

Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault announced the details of Phase 2 of the $500 million being distributed to help Canada’s culture, heritage, and sport sector. Phase 2 includes funding for independent news and journalism, FACTOR, and other groups who did not receive funding in Phase 1.

Ideas and Thinkpieces

The Arts Are Beautiful. The Culture Is Not by Dorothy Woodend, The Tyee

Looking at Vancouver’s lack of representation for BIPOC artists by Sára Molčan, Medium

Bail Out Artists, Not Arts Managers by J.J. Charlesworth, ArtReview

Art, After Virus: Seven Questions for a Sector on the Edge by David Maggs, The Philanthropist

A Message from EC3

Hello everyone,

As Ontario continues to adapt to Stage 3, and we hear more and more stories about businesses and organizations re-opening their doors, one sector remains notably quiet: arts, culture, and heritage (ACH). The large majority of local ACH organizations remain closed or are operating at drastically reduced capacity, and a number of local performing groups and venues have announced that they will remain shuttered until at least the end of the year. Everyone is hard at work devising plans to open again as soon and as safely as they can.

The Electric City Culture Council (EC3) would like to remind everyone that Peterborough is a community rich with talented and insightful artists making exceptional work, with The Electric City Culturecast Reprise, the latest initiative in our Peterborough Arts Alive suite of COVID-19 response and recovery programs.

The Electric City Culturecast Reprise (listen here) is a playlist of clips curated by our Program Coorinator Gabe Pollock from over a dozen interviews with local artists and ACH workers, originally broadcast on EC3’s Trent Radio show and podcast, The Electric City Culturecast.  On this show, EC3 Executive Director Su Ditta sits down with local artists and ACH workers to talk about their lives, their work, and their ideas about what they do and why.

The Culturecast is currently on hiatus, but The Electric City Culturecast Reprise is a way to open up the archives, and remind people of some of the extraordinary artists and ACH workers in our city.

Have a listen, seek out more of these creators’ works, and keep the arts alive in your mind during these challenging times.

You can listen to the full episodes of The Electric City Culturecast on the Culturecast’s website, or by subscribing to the RSS feed.

EC3 would also like to thank Trent Radio, Peterborough Independent Podcasters, Eva Fisher, and Lester Alfonso for their hard work on the Culturecast!

Please stay well and let us know how we can help.
TRACK THE IMPACT.

As always, keep checking the EC3 Facebook page, @ECThreePtbo on Twitter, @ec3ptbo on Instagram, and the COVID-19 Updates page on EC3’s website, where we are providing daily updates on programs and services available for ACH workers and organizations.

It’s a tough time for sure. Everyone is feeling the pressure. Hope these tools help along the way. Be safe, stay healthy, and please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Su Ditta and the EC3 Board and staff

Contact
Su Ditta
Executive Director
Electric City Culture Council (EC3)
electriccitycc@gmail.com
www.ecthree.org
705 749 9101

John Boyle, RL207, 1982, serigraph in baked porcelain on steel, Gift of the artist, 2003. Collection of the Art Gallery of Peterborough. Featured in the Kawartha Autumn Studio Tour, which returns this fall.

In case you missed it, here is a roundup of some of what the Electric City Culture Council (EC3) has been sharing online in the past two weeks.

Be sure to follow EC3’s Facebook page, @ECThreePtbo on Twitter, and @ec3ptbo on Instagram, where we’re posting updates every day.

From the Electric City Culture Council

Join the conversation on Peterborough Arts Alive on SLACK, a digital space where artists can meet to discuss and share ideas and resources. In the past two weeks, conversations have included Ann Jaeger on how artists can reclaim autonomy after COVID, and Elizabeth Jenkins with a powerful poem on feeling unsafe during ‘safe at home.’

Registration is now full for EC3’s Digital Uplift program of digital consultations for artists and arts organizations. We would like to thank all the participants, and Sofie Andreou of 123DigitalPower for her hard work!

Donate today to the Peterborough Arts Alive Fund, a fundraising effort to provide grants for local arts organizations.

On July 6, the newly formed Alliance of Arts Councils of Ontario, co-chaired by EC3’s Executive Director Su Ditta submitted a presentation to the Ontario Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs in response to the provincial government’s COVID 19 Economic Update. Read the delegation, and feel free to get in touch with your feedback, or contact our local MPP Dave Smith to let him know that the arts are important to you.

Local Spotlight

The Canadian Canoe Museum is reopening its doors, starting Saturday, July 25. Read their announcement here.

The First Friday Art Crawl may not be crawling right now, but they currently have a call for proposals for a mural for the Commerce’s Building’s alley.

A hotly anticipated annual event, the Kawartha Autumn Studio Tour is happening this year, albeit in a modified term. Check out the website to find out more.

Artspace held their first exhibition since the pandemic earlier this month. Company Town explores the complex legacy of General Electric in Peterborough. The exhibition is still up online for your perusal. And read more about it in The Peterborough Examiner.

Trent students: if you’re interested in getting involved in campus media in September, Trent Radio and Arthur Newspaper are holding a weekly Zoom gathering every Thursday at 2pm. Chat, meet the staff, find out about opportunities.

Local musician Evangeline Gentle released a video for their beautiful song “Sundays,” off their self-titled debut album, produced by Jim Bryson:

News and Information

The Government of Ontario has announced that Peterborough, and most of the province, has officially entered Stage 3 of reopening. Most businesses are now permitted to open, and gathering sizes have increased to 50 for indoor gatherings and 100 for outdoor gatherings.

75,000 artists across Canada, including the Electric City Culture Council, have signed A Public Letter from the Arts Community for a Basic Income Guarantee. There will be an upcoming webinar about the letter on July 29 at 2pm – register here.

The Ontario Arts Council has released initial results from their Audience Outlook Monitor survey, exploring the attitudes of Ontarians about returning to the arts.

The Government of Canada released details of Phase 2 of their plan to distribute $500 million to the culture, heritage, and sport sector. This includes funding for independent media and radio, live music, and other sectors not covered by Phase 1 funding.

Voices of Today is an online poetry competition happening August 11 to 15. Check out the events online, or sign up to be a volunteer!

Today, artists, writers, technicians and performers are calling on Prime Minister Trudeau to create a permanent basic income guarantee.

Link to: “A Public Letter from the Arts Community for a Basic Income Guarantee”

The pandemic’s wrath on lives has been swift. Millions are still out of work, venues shuttered, and livelihoods lost. In this new precarious reality, poverty can become a reality for all of us, abruptly, without warning.

“As stakeholders of the arts and culture sector, we ask you to give Canadians the chance not only to survive, but to live.”

“A Basic Income Guarantee would build on existing programs, including CERB, and provide financial security to meet people’s basic needs, regardless of their work status.”

This public letter, signed and endorsed by many of the largest arts and culture organizations in Canada and many prominent talents [link to list], calls on the government to think outside the box and implement a “basic income program that guarantees an income floor to anyone in need.”

In the pandemic’s wake, Canada can rise from the disease, hardships, and ruptures in social behavior with a basic income. “The opportunity for change is here and now,” write the letter’s co-authors: Craig Berggold, Zainub Verjee and Clayton Windatt.

“It’s time for a basic income,” say Canadian talent from coast to coast to coast: from the North’s Gwaandak Theatre; the Acadian artists in New Brunswick; the Conseil québécois du théâtre; Toronto’s South Asian Visual Arts Centre; Alberta’s celebrated Kehewin Native Dance Theatre; I.A.T.S.E. stage and film technicians; the Canadian Federation of Musicians, the visual artists of CARFAC; the francophone Fédération culturelle canadienne-française; the Canadian Actors’ Equity; to opera singer Adrianne Pieczonka, O.C., writer Judy Rebick, filmmaker John Greyson, and many more…

George Elliot Clarke, the 7thParliamentary/Canadian Poet Laureate composed On Basic Income for our campaign. The poem’s opening lines provide a dark glimpse of the solitude and unexpected hardship, through no fault of their own, felt by many Canadians: [link to poem]

“The economy’s an abyss whose bottom is a grave,

And each tightrope walker wobbles as a mere wage-slave.

And those who freefall, screaming, screeching, as they go,

Clutching for handholds or toeholds, only hope to slow, …”

Join the co-authors of the public letter at the webinar The Case for Basic Income for the Arts, on July 29th, at 2pm EST, hosted by Basic Income Calgary and Ontario Basic Income Network.

Register here [link].

For more information visit: www.obin.ca/the_case_for_basic_income_for_the_arts

– 30 –

For media enquiries and to arrange interviews please contact:

Craig Berggold, m: 647-328-9383 e: craigberggold@gmail.com

We are facing a critical time for the arts, culture, and heritage (ACH) sector. As the pandemic creates global economic instability, governments at all levels are facing significant deficits in the current fiscal year, and are starting to look at their budgets for 2021.

As municipal deficits climb, municipalities across Canada have been lobbying federal and provincial governments for COVID-19 relief and recovery funds. All across the country, arts councils and other advocacy organizations are fighting to ensure that funding for the ACH sector will be forthcoming, both for recovery aid, and to ensure that ongoing operating funding remains stable and is not on the chopping block for the upcoming fiscal year.

The Electric City Culture Council’s (EC3) Executive Director Su Ditta is currently Co-Chair of the newly formed Alliance of Arts Councils of Ontario and served on the task force that developed a presentation to The Ontario Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, in response to the provincial government’s COVID-19 Economic Update. This was a written delegation submitted to Queen’s Park on July 6, 2020.

Read a copy of the delegation HERE (PDF).

Please feel free to get in touch with your feedback and to contact our local MPP Dave Smith if you support the recommendations included in the delegation. The ACH sector, frequently cited as “lifeline” of community recovery has also been identified as the “first to close and the last to open” during the pandemic. Strategic support from the provincial government is essential to a successful recovery and successful relaunch.

For more information on presentations and delegations from other ACH organizations in the province, check out this link.

Please stay well and let us know how we can help.
TRACK THE IMPACT.

As always, keep checking the EC3 Facebook page, @ECThreePtbo on Twitter, @ec3ptbo on Instagram, and the COVID-19 Updates page on EC3’s website, where we are providing daily updates on programs and services available for ACH workers and organizations.

Su Ditta and the EC3 Board and staff

Contact
Su Ditta
Executive Director
Electric City Culture Council (EC3)
electriccitycc@gmail.com
www.ecthree.org
705 749 9101

“Premier Doug Ford praises Peterborough drive-thru testing” (EC3 at bottom) by Joelle Kovach, The Peterborough Examiner.

“Town Ward: If you pedal to work or school in Peterborough, B!KE wants to hear from you” (EC3 discussed at bottom) by Naomi Stock, The Peterborough Examiner.

“Electric City Culture Council assisting arts groups dealing with COVID-19” by Steve Guthrie, CHEX/Global.