In December 2022, Kimmortal—a Filipinx artist, musician and writer based in Vancouver—shared a written response to some of the themes that emerged from our recent workshop, Alternative Revenue Streams for LGBTQ2S+ Artists (view the recording here). Read on for a great source of inspiration for “weirdos” and people of all walks of life!

1

I have learned that I don’t need to know the answer to every question and that it is okay to not understand. I can go at my own pace when I am learning. I have learned that my art doesn’t need to speak on everything. I am not a bad person if I don’t check all the boxes and if I don’t know all the answers. I don’t need to capture everything, everywhere, everyone in my work. I have learned that coming from my own experience in my body and spirit is enough. People will project on you. You will try to please every single person. So please grow your self-compassion and self-forgiveness and self-kindness when you inevitably will make mistakes baby. Keep going and do better next time while staying curious about love, liberation, and the gems within your journey.

2

Cultivate a private routine of rest and rejuvenation. Do nothing. Sleep. Stay in bed. Take breaks from creative output, social media. Value private projects that are in the realm of expanding that inner space for just you. Value that just as much as you value your creative tangible output. Seek outlets for reflection and healing. Journaling? Walking? Dancing? Tell not a single soul about it. Know you are worthy of inner peace and deep rest. What do you need to show up as you are fully in this world?

3

Learn about what the circles of support around you can look like. Making your artistic visions reality are exciting but can be stressful if pursued alone. Start with intention when seeking a team around you. Self-managed? Manager(s)? Co-manager(s)? Mentors? Advisors? Life coaches? A sound board made up of trusted artists and friends? The idea is to create a circle that feels exciting and supportive to you and that you can imagine allows you to thrive in the process of creation. You are not a burden for asking for help or to be held accountable to your goals. People also learn for themselves what support can look like for them when you ask for help. Remember to listen for people’s boundaries and capacity levels before working together. Our collaborators won’t always be our friends and our friends won’t always be our collaborators. Appreciate and stay in gratitude for what is given because what a miracle it still is.

My core team is still forming as I type and I know it may change in the future. A lot of the folks in my circle are people I have been in relationship with for years, and others are people who I’ve felt safe around and who’s values resonate with mine. Others I am still in an extended trial period with, testing grounds, and in light communication with. I move with instinct and consult with my best friends. I also consult with my ancestral council—my inner spirit realm accessed through meditation and journaling. Be patient as your circle shrinks, plateaus, grows. From what I’ve learned of the music industry, it is competitive and can feel isolating. To stay sane, I stay true to valuing healing in community over competition, and over industry. Reflect and create relationships and communities that defy white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy.

4

Only say “yes” to collaborative projects that deeply excite you. Stray away from doing projects out of obligation. Dodge stretching yourself too thin. You do not have to answer to any offer right away. “No” is a welcome answer. For each “no,” you leave space for what excites you. Look forward to “yes” projects where you can be fully present.

• Some ideas of questions to ask before getting into a project:
  • Does the work genuinely excite you? What is your capacity? Does this project align with your values and your desires for growth? Will your energy be reciprocated?

In any work relationship or collaboration, clear communication is key to make sure no one leaves feeling like they wasted their time or is taken advantage of.

• Start by asking questions:
  • What do you want from me and what will I get in return?
  • What will the project be used for?
  • What is the turnaround time?
  • Where and how will I be credited?
• Get it in writing:
  • Clearly lay out expectations through email and phone.
  • Make sure you are clear about what type of creative input you are giving. There have been issues in the past where my collaborator has also wanted me to help in another aspect of creation. Make sure you choose to do it instead of slowly getting roped into it.
• Do your research:
  • Before working with an artist or company, do your research, through their social following and/or website. Who and how big is their audience? Do you want to be professionally associated with them/their brand? It is not selfish to think about what you are getting out of a project.
• Have clear boundaries with your time and energy, especially how much time you are willing to give for what you are getting.

Source: https://blog.society6.com/collaboration-how-to-make-it-mutually-beneficial/

5

Many layers of emotions: As someone who deals with neurodivergence and social anxiety, it can be extremely uncomfortable and vulnerable for me at any stage of my artistry so I make sure to prepare as much as I can. Friends, a therapist and my own rituals hold me down. In the release process of art, you can feel many things at once. When I have put my art out into the world or after I get off stage, I have felt joy, discomfort, happiness, depression. I thought there was something wrong with me but I am slowly learning to accept how there are many emotions at once. Seek support/grow rituals that can support you around the release process.

6

Organization/admin hacks!: Sometimes this artistic career just feels like a bunch of fuckin admin work! Lol! But we gotta do it. Organizing my life in a way that works for me allows me to thrive as an artist. Get yourself motivated to do that shit. I bought myself a comfy ass chair to get excited about sitting at my desk. I set an alarm to do at least 30 min each day to label, arrange and organize my files, both digital and physical. On my computer: audio files, folders for different art projects. Keeping good records of income and expenses for my taxes, receipts. It will all pay off in the end. I customize through colour coding and having cool retro icons. I reward myself with a coffee or reading in my book when I get that done. Whatever you need to do to, know where all your shit is. Do that!

7

Be cool with your untrainedness cos there’s a lot of potential play and inventiveness there that trained people want. Focus on your skills and dope perks. Comparing yourself to others is not the way to go. We all do it on this endless scroll. A great podcast that looks into the psychology of comparing yourself to others is right here.

8

Remember to play. Are you having fun? Are you tickled? Are you excited about what you are making? You might be on the right path. Does it feel like obligation, a task to check off, boring? Yikes. Keep inspiration close to you—expose yourself to the work that pumps you up or makes your head bob. I would also recommend seeing an art therapist to help you out if you are feeling that creative stagnancy.

9

What is meant for you will not pass you by. It is never too late. No need to rush even though you are convinced other people are ahead of the game. It’s not a race. It’s very personal to you. Trust your process, it is beautiful!

10

Imagine and write down what a successful career as an artist means to you. I had a conversation with my friend Superknova about what success means to us in our careers and she said something that really stuck with me that she learned via Ari Herstand:

“I’m not Starbucks. I’m not in every single state and I’m not a chain. I’m that one awesome café in the corner that people feel safe at and feel good in.”

I am obsessed with this metaphor because it made me excited for the niche space I occupy as a weirdo queer nb filipinx artist. I don’t have to live up to this singular road to success as a musician who achieves thousands of seats stadium status or has huge teams behind them. For now, I am smiling just thinking about having a long career, selling out 150–200 seat venues, making art that excites me, making portals that give a glimpse of liberation and hold space for queer spiritual deepening, and where I can be a part of making weirdos feel less alone.

Do you have an idea for a project that focuses on arts and culture? Grants from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance (CKCA) could help.

These grants—funded by Columbia Basin Trust and overseen by the West Kootenay Regional Arts Council—are available for all art disciplines, for both individuals and arts and culture organizations in the Columbia Basin.

To learn more about these grants and how to apply, attend one of our FREE grant-writing workshops.

The first available session will include an explanation of all CKCA programs, plus a short period for questions and answers:

• Wednesday, January 4, 2023: Zoom, at noon Pacific / 1 p.m. Mountain. (Click here to learn more.)

The subsequent events are primarily for questions and discussion. Before the event, we’ll send you the following link to a video about the programs; we ask you to watch this before you attend the session, as this information will only be covered briefly. Then come to the session with your questions. The sessions all take place online through Zoom, at noon Pacific / 1 p.m. Mountain.

• Thursday, January 12, 2023 (Click here to learn more.)
• Wednesday, January 18, 2023 (Click here to learn more.)
• Thursday, January 26, 2023 (Click here to learn more.)
• Wednesday, February 1, 2023 (Click here to learn more.)
• Wednesday, February 8, 2023 (Click here to learn more.)

If you have questions about your specific project, rather than the programs themselves, contact us directly instead of asking them during a session.

The upcoming application period for CKCA grants opens January 16, 2023, with deadlines on March 3 or 10, 2023, depending on the program. So get ready now: register for a grant-writing workshop!

You spoke—and we listened.

In fall 2022, we asked arts and culture practitioners in the region what help they need when it comes to having strong arts practices. The result is a series of free online workshops that will help you effectively showcase your creative work and build a more sustainable practice. View the recordings below.

Know your worth: pricing your artistic work

From ticket prices at the box office to festival presentation fees, it can be hard to know how the value of your work stacks up against similar offerings in the cultural marketplace.

VIEW THE RECORDING.

Moving online: tips and tricks for a successful digital event

Between safety concerns, regional accessibility and the ease of incorporating multimedia, there are plenty of reasons to consider transitioning your next event to an online format.

VIEW THE RECORDING.

Paper trails: an introduction to contracts and invoicing

While it can be intimidating to ask your artistic collaborators to sign onto a contract, it’s a critical tool to ensure that deliverables, timelines and payment terms are clearly outlined and agreed to at the start of your next project.

VIEW THE RECORDING.

Building your digital toolbox for LGBTQ2S+ artists

Join Heidi Nagtegaal and Jenny Lee Craig for a conversation about the top online tools that can help your artistic business flourish. This workshop will cover setting up successful social media channels, strategies for audience engagement and managing your digital to-do list.

VIEW THE RECORDING.

Alternative revenue streams for LGBTQ2S+ artists

We tend to tie-up creative success with financial success, but even the most accomplished artists generate income from multiple sources. Hear from LGBTQ2S+ artists who are using tools like Patreon to reach audiences and customers in new ways, and creative makers who manage portfolio careers composed of teaching, activism, content creation and more!

VIEW THE RECORDING.

Embodied connections are worth the added logistical challenges

I’ve planned my fair share of conferences; I know how stressful it can be to plan for unknowns at the best of times, let alone in this very messy phase of the pandemic. I’ve also had the pleasure of attending some very well-organized and rewarding fully digital conferences (shout-out to Magazines Canada for their last MagNet event), but I’ve just returned from the Arts BC conference in Richmond, BC, with a renewed sense of the value of in-person events.

I believe it was Elliot Hearte, Arts BC’s Director of Programs and Services, who called hosting an in-person event right now “courageous.” The requisite level of flexibility and adaption is higher than ever, yet so are the rewards. Here are three things I took away from this past weekend that could only have come from convening together in shared space.

Chance Encounters Allow You to Discover Unexpected Affinities and Shared Goals

I went into this conference wearing the hat of a regional arts funder in the Interior of BC, yet I came out having unearthed so many other layers of my connection to the arts in this province. As a dancer and former dance scholar, I was thrilled to speak with at least four individuals who are passionate about building audiences and programming for dance in diverse and rural regions. A professional dancer / choreographer and I connected about our shared love of dance research and the way that embodied practices help us to understand the world.

These ad-hoc conversations — squeezed into the gaps between formal sessions or in the lineup to grab lunch — even with colleagues who I speak with frequently by email or Zoom, have helped me to perceive my network differently. These individuals no longer exist in an abstract mental map of the sector and industry I work in; they are creative, unique and trusted colleagues that now form an embodied web of relation to one another.

Bearing Witness to Injustice is Harder and More Vital in a Live Forum

The entire nonprofit sector, including those of us in the arts, are reckoning with the roles that our organizations have in furthering racial equity, Indigenous reconciliation, and increased accessibility for a number of equity-deserving communities. Simultaneously, vital conversations about rebalancing funding to equity-led organizations, responsible community engagement and consultation, and doing the hard work of embedding principles of equity in every level of operational processes, have been mediated by a screen. It’s been all too easy to quickly check our inbox while completing digital EDI coursework or review organizational policies off the side of our desks amidst more “urgent” tasks.

Holding space in a literal way, by devoting plenary time and attention to these conversations, forces conference-goers out of the emotional stasis that can come with confronting difficult truths in social media snippets or a fleeting board meeting agenda item. During Future Visions: Considering a “Decolonized” Sector, panelists Cathi Charles Wherry, Senaqwila Wyss, Chase Gray, and Eli Hirtle (moderator), spoke generously about their experiences as Indigenous artists and cultural producers encountering friction with Euro-centric art institutions and envisioning new models for the sector. Unusually, the panel was structured with no option for questions from the audience. By removing the opportunity for audience members to center the conversation around their own experience or organizations, forcing us to simply listen and observe in a distraction-free space, remarkable potential for learning and reflection was opened up. This simple format change allowed for focused, contextual and solutions-driven conversation.

We Desperately Need to Connect and Process the Past Two (Plus) Years

There’s the painfully obvious shared experience of the past few years, but alongside the global pandemic were more localized challenges. In BC, specifically, arts organizations who had barely begun to find their footing after forced closures and delays found themselves altering operations yet again due to forest fires or flooding (or both). I appreciated the facilitation style of Nate Gerber from Voice of Purpose. Leading the session Becoming the New Imprint: Community Arts as an Incubator for the Future, he gently nudged us to acknowledge the weight of our organizational challenges over the past two years, while celebrating our resilience and adaptations to continue serving our communities.

Can you imagine casually ending an email to a colleague with: “Hey, how are you feeling after losing all sense of stability and having every assumption about your work, organization, and community needs turned on its head”? Probably not. Gathered together in one room, seated in a circle, felt like a safe and productive space to unearth not only the challenges we’ve faced recently, but also the areas of growth and learning that came out of them. Sidenote: I loved the prompt to consider what kind of “relationship event” may have emerged within the past two years. How did our organizations find themselves relating differently to our audiences or communities in the midst of major constraints? I’ll be mulling over that question as my organization enters a strategic planning process next weekend.

A necessary caveat to everything above is that ensuring alternate modes of participation where possible is also of utmost importance at this moment. If you have the capacity to successfully pull off a hybrid event, or to offer conference presentations online asynchronously after the event, please do! Due to the cost of travel, caretaking requirements at home, and ongoing health concerns (both pandemic-related and otherwise), there will always be barriers to people within your network and within your organization’s mandate to serve.

That said, every added mode of participation requires additional costs and systems of support; I applaud Arts BC for their acknowledgement that they didn’t have the resources to do hybrid well, so they are looking instead at ways to provide select conference materials digitally in the weeks to come. I may just revisit some of that material again once it’s released online, but I am so grateful that I took the time to travel and convene in-person too.

Kallee Lins is the Executive Director of the West Kootenay Regional Arts Council.

You love arts, culture and heritage—and we do, too. So please, become a member now!
 
Your dues to the West Kootenay Arts Council help us support this sector throughout the Columbia Basin. This includes valuable resources like:

• ARTiculate magazine
• Kootenay Arts E-bulletin
• Kootenay Festivals and Events brochure
• Workshops and other professional development opportunities for local artists.

Plus, you’ll be helping us administer the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance granting programs, funded by Columbia Basin Trust, which provide direct financial support to artists and arts organizations in our region.
 
As a member, you can also have your say at our upcoming Annual General Meeting, taking place virtually on October 28, 2022.
 
It’s a great contribution to arts, culture and heritage in the region, so don’t delay!

It’s what enlivens building exteriors, theatre stages and living room walls. It’s what we read, listen to and ponder. Arts and culture adds vibrancy to people’s lives, entire communities and the region as a whole.

Now, 147 new arts and culture projects are receiving more than $562,000 in funding from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance (CKCA) in 2022/23. The CKCA is a project of the West Kootenay Regional Arts Council and distributes funding on behalf of Columbia Basin Trust. See all the projects here.

One of the recipients is ArtStarts in Schools. It is piloting a new residency program that will see each participating school host an Artist in Residence. ArtStarts acts as the intermediary for logistics and funding, allowing the schools and artists to focus on curriculum and collaboration.

“We have taken feedback from our community and the changes brought by the pandemic as an opportunity to reimagine our programs and how they can better support young people, artists and schools in the Columbia Basin” said Lily Cryan, Program Manager, Grants. “By reducing the work for schools and artists to start their projects together, the residency creates a streamlined process to bring artists into schools for in-depth, hands-on learning experiences with students. It also helps provide more stable employment for artists.”

Another recipient is Nelson-based dancer, choreographer and actor Hiromoto Ida. He will create, produce and perform an original contemporary dance theatre work, alongside local artists. The piece will be based on contemporary Japanese theatre artist Shogo Ota’s play SARACHI (Empty Lot).

“I find that sometimes contemporary dance is too abstract, but when I use a story line as the foundation, I believe the piece is more accessible to wider audiences,” said Ida. “I would like to give the audience an exciting new theatre experience they have never seen before. As well, I want to keep proving that good-quality performing arts can be created and seen in rural small towns.”

CKCA funding is available to both individuals and arts and culture organizations. All arts disciplines are eligible (including visual art, theatre, music, dance, media, literary and inter-arts), as are cultural projects like traditional cultural practices and preserving languages. Separate granting streams target different focuses, such as individual and group projects, master classes, touring and major exhibition projects. Overall, the goal is to help build long-term sustainability for artists and to strengthen and support arts and culture organizations.

Each granting stream has one deadline per year. Next year’s information will be available in early January 2023.

Learn more here.

Stephanie Fischer, Chair, CKCA
“For many years I have been impressed by the scope of projects for which applicants seek funding, and those which were funded by the CKCA. We are very fortunate that we have a thriving arts sector with so many professional artists in our rural areas who create work for all to enjoy. The support for Basin non-profit organizations is also important, because they exist to exhibit art works, safeguard archives, put performers on stage, and employ artists to engage people of all ages and abilities in exploring their creativity. The CKCA Steering Committee members are excited to see the projects from diverse artists and organizations who successfully bring their efforts to fruition. We are also very pleased to continue our relationship with Columbia Basin Trust which, by fostering the arts, significantly contributes to livable communities across the region.”

Justine Cohen, Manager, Delivery of Benefits, Columbia Basin Trust
“Thank you once again to all the artists and organizations that are working to fulfill individual goals while helping create dynamic communities and celebrate life in the Columbia Basin. Projects like these boost the joy, meaning and attraction of living and visiting here, positively affecting personal, community and economic well-being.”

How have we supported arts, culture and heritage over the past year?

We’re excited to explore this answer with you at the annual general meeting of the West Kootenay Regional Arts Council, taking place online through Zoom from 12 to 1 p.m. Pacific / 1 to 2 p.m. Mountain on Friday, October 28, 2022.

Join us to hear what we’ve been up to, along with the key takeaways from our current strategic planning process. Members and non-members are welcome (see details below). Better yet, if you’re a non-member, become a member now! 

Additionally, the AGM is a great venue to share your own efforts, voice your needs and seek advice on issues your organization may be facing. Plus, you’ll connect with other arts-focused people and organizations across the region to hear what they’re doing, learn from one another and exchange information and resources.

RSVP by email to [email protected] by Wednesday, October 26, 2022.

We’re excited to introduce our modern, well-thought-out, cohesive website, logo and newsletter. These now better reflect who we are and how we serve the arts and culture sector in the region.

• You’ll notice streamlined navigation of this site, so you can more easily find the information you need. Here are some highlights:
  • NEW! In-site information about funding from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance (CKCA).
  • NEW! Easily readable ARTiculate magazine full issues and individual feature stories.
  • NEW! Comprehensive and searchable listings of events and workshops.
  • NEW! All our news compiled in one location.
  • Plus favourites like access to information about the Columbia Basin Culture Tour, and more.
• Our logo now better ties to the updated logo of the CKCA, since delivering its programs (with funding provided by Columbia Basin Trust) is a large part of our mandate.
• We recently consolidated our Facebook and Instagram presence, so they’ve become one-stop spots for updates.
• We launched a more thorough, well-thought-out newsletter in November. If you’re not already on the email list, sign up for it here!

Also, please support our work within the region by becoming a member or providing a donation.

We look forward to continuing to serve you!