KITCHENER, Ontario (October 31, 2017) — As part of its strategic planning process announced earlier this year, Arts Awards Waterloo Region has retained Janis A. Barlow & Associates to assist the Arts Awards Board of Directors as it pursues this important work.
The scope of Janis A. Barlow & Associates’ involvement will include conducting a series of interviews with arts practitioners and organizations, three community consultations which will be held respectively in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge and a survey of the arts community to determine the needs of the sector in relation to Arts Awards and its program.
“Janis Barlow and her team bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in providing consulting services to arts organizations,” said Board chair C.J. Allen, “and it was important for us to work with a consultant that is coming into our Region and community with a clean slate. We wanted an unbiased perspective to help guide us through this process of community engagement and we believe we have that in Janis.”
Individual interviews with members of the arts community were completed in September and the three community consultations, which will be open to the public, will be held on February 7th, 2018 in each of the Region’s cities. Further details about the times and locations of each community consultation are forthcoming.
“Providing the opportunity for members of the arts community to be heard, for this process to be transparent and thoughtful are incredibly important to us,” Allen said, “we’re excited to learn from artists and arts organizations and to position Arts Awards Waterloo Region in such a way that best serves Waterloo Region.”