If you are an artist, performer or consumer of either, the local Squamish Arts Council wants to hear from you.
The Canada Council for the Arts has granted $38,000 to the Squamish Arts Council toward the development of a digital literacy project for the community’s arts sector.
The project aims to provide opportunities for local arts and culture by utilizing and leveraging either new or existing technology to address challenges faced by the sector, said Cydney Lyons of the Squamish Arts Council (SAC).
Now in the first phase of the project — community engagement — SAC is asking the public to participate by filling out an online survey. The survey features questions about the role of arts and culture in Squamish and asks for ideas for how technology and digital innovation can assist the arts’ community.
“We’re looking to figure out locally how people either engage with and consume art or how art is engaged with digital,” said Lyons.
Digital literacy is described as technology that artists use to either produce or to distribute their art, said project manager Alexander Moir of Sky to Soul Services.
Moir said that the grant came after the Canada Council for the Arts identified a gap in the education and the literacy of artists and art groups in modern technology.
Six million was awarded to artists, artistic groups, and organizations across the country toward the development of digital initiatives. Of the 45 recipients, SAC was the only arts council in the country to be awarded a grant.
“Squamish has just come on the map as a tourism destination, but we have a lot of inspired artists and a lot of natural inspiration surrounding us here throughout the Sea to Sky,” said Moir.
“This area is branded for its activity, but there is an appetite for art and culture,” he said.
The digital literacy project provides an opportunity to highlight the arts and culture sector within the corridor, and will help it evolve to the next step and prepare itself for the digital era, Lyons explained.
She describes the current digital era as an innovation race, with all other industries innovating at exponentially quick speeds. The digital strategy fund is trying to move arts and culture into the digital era so that the local arts and culture isn’t left behind.
“For Squamish in particular, this will help keep us in step while the world innovates around us so that our local artists can become digitally literate and move forward in that world,” she said.
Lyons said that they hope to hear back some insights through the survey that they couldn’t anticipate, or that are completely new to them.
A workshop will be held Aug. 23 to identify the role that technology plays in the production and distribution of art in the Squamish community. The arts’ council is asking key stakeholders to attend to communicate challenges, insights, and suggestions.
The council will also be working with KPMG, one of the largest management consultants in the world, to provide insight into what other organizations or communities are doing, said Moir.
As the project’s digital partner, KPMG will help to identify an effective means of increasing technological literacy.
“We’re really hoping to hear a diverse range of feedback from not only artists but consumers of art, people who appreciate art, people who engage with art,” said Lyons.
“Filling out the survey will help provide us with the information that we need to move forward and make a project that will be successful for all of us.”
The survey will be online until mid-September at www.surveymonkey.com/r/SXJYXJH.
