01 August 2018

It’s hard to believe summer is heading into its final month and autumn will be upon us before we know it. This has been a busy summer for the PACE office as we continue re-building the organization to serve our members better going forward.

MEMBERSHIP

One of our principal tasks has been conducting a membership drive – getting expired memberships renewed and seeking new members for whom PACE can be a relevant and supportive organization. We have had good success to date in rebuilding the membership and will be reaching out to everyone with important news about our Fall 2018 activities in the near future. If you are an artist or represent an Arts organization based in Edmonton, consider taking out a membership. Be a part of our collective drive to strengthen the ecology of the Arts in Edmonton and to make professional engagement as an artist in Edmonton more sustainable and satisfying.

ARTS AWARDS

We are continuing to engage in discussions with organizations that administer key Edmonton Arts awards to see if we can build a new gala model for honouring Edmonton’s creative elite. Earlier this year, PACE decided to step back from producing the annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts in order to thoroughly assess the event and what it needed to be going forward. We had been doing this event for 30 years and some aspects were feeling stale and not as successful as they should be. Early signs are that there is still a lot of enthusiasm for doing a celebratory event but we still have a ways to go before we can announce something specific.

PACE SALONS

For the first time last year, PACE held quarterly salons on topics of strong interest to people professionally engaged in the Arts and the salons were absolutely a success. We will be holding two salons this fall. One will feature Edmonton Arts Council executive director Sanjay Shahani discussing the new 10-year plan for Arts and Heritage in Edmonton. The other will be in partnership with the Citadel Theatre and its new World Café series, likely in October.  We’ll have more details on both events for you in the very near future.

PACE STRATEGIC REVIEW

As part of re-building PACE into a reinvigorated and relevant organization for modern times, we will be holding a one-day facilitated strategic review September 26, 2018 from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. We are still working on finding the best possible venue for the review. We hope to see ALL PACE members at this important event.

So, get back to enjoying summer, and we’ll see you in the fall.

Ken Davis

Chair, PACE

 

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