Our organization has shifted through numerous iterations from workshops to reports to remote workshops across several regions. This project started small in 2016 and has now grown slowly over time with different mentors and leaders participating through its various iterations. You can read more about our origin story here.
As an organization that shifts with the current local landscape, it only feels right to develop a more concrete strategic plan to shift our organization forward.
In 2023, our small team worked with Roots and Rivers Consulting to develop our 3 year Strategic Plan. Roots & Rivers gathered input on key questions from the Future Arts Network community including past program participants. This engagement included:
- Strategic Planning Input Survey for past participants (21 responses)
- Strategic Planning Input Survey for community members (1 response)
- Key informant interviews (7 interviews)
The following strategic plan is the final goals and objectives that will shift our programming for the next three years.
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Strategic Plan
2024-2027 Goals and Objectives
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Goal 1: Cultivate Artists’ Practices
Objectives
1.1 Deepen our mentorship programs and explore how our community can share knowledge and mentorship in different ways.
1.2 Explore avenues to have a physical hub for Future Arts members to share space and engage in their practice.
1.3 Build relationships with community partners to support the Future Arts’ capacity for hosting artist residencies.
What Does Success Look Like?
- We continue to evolve our mentorship offerings based on community needs, and centre different ways of participation to bring through the wisdom of our community.
- We have developed data collection practices that help us stay updated with the journeys of the artists we support (e.g. grants artists have pursued, published pieces).
- We continue to deepen accessibility practices to best support artists in our programming.
Goal 2: Deepen Internal Governance Processes
Objectives
2.1 Explore an organizational model that challenges hierarchical structures and centres equity.
2.2 Develop opportunities for current members, alumni, and other community members of Future Arts to be a part of its shared direction.
2.3 Cultivate organizational processes that promote openness, collaboration, and sharing power across the organization.
What Does Success Look Like?
- We have created a conflict resolution process that outlines how we respond to conflict and strengthen accountability.
- We have explored options of different organizational structures to host Future Arts, such as a collective or non-profit with a Board.
- We have evolved our organizational structure in alignment with our values and supports a healthy structure for the Future Arts.
Goal 3: Champion Community Building
Objectives
3.1 Build spaces for connection, rest, and recharge among the Future Arts community.
3.2 Convene our community through a signature event that centres celebration and space for reconnection.
3.3 Foster communities of care through ongoing practices.
What Does Success Look Like?
- We host a retreat which incorporates rest, community check-ins, and collective sharing to understand our shared needs.
- We host an annual interdisciplinary artist showcase event.
- We host an annual gathering around celebration and food as Future Arts’ signature event.
- We make time for community care, connection, and support by having quarterly check-ins with our community, to encourage vulnerability and transparency.
- We explore possibilities of developing mutual aid strategies to support BIWoC and Queer artists in the network.
Goal 4: Advance Advocacy and Research
Objectives
4.1 Create shared understanding around what advocacy means for Future Arts as a collective approach.
4.2 Co-create strategic research plans with the input and support of our community.
4.3 Share knowledge with our broader community around what the Future Arts is creating, learning, and imagining.
What Does Success Look Like?
- We have defined resonance around the following areas:
- What is advocacy? (Given that it changes over time and is context specific).
- How we apply an intersectional lens to capture the diversity and intersections in our community.
- How we build opportunities for mutual growth and learning.
- We have built a three year research cycle and plan which includes writing grants and sharing the learnings of Future Arts Networks evolution, good practice, and challenges.
- We continue to harvest new ideas, sharing, and building capacity for Future Arts to grow to support intergenerational art creation.