Pathways Project: How we got here

BC Arts Council is grateful to be partnering with Arts BC, BC Museums Association, Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance and Rural Arts Inclusion Lab on the Pathways program.

This partnership developed out of a shared vision and commitment to creating a more equitable and inclusive sector.

The BC Arts Council launched Extending Foundations: Action Plan 2022 – 2024 in Spring 2022. The plan is intended to support the arts and cultural community as it navigates through a period of renewal and recovery, emerges from the impacts of the pandemic and addresses calls for social justice. The Action Plan incorporates commitments and actions from the New Foundations strategic plan alongside significant new activities driven through seven key action areas.

Following the launch of the Action Plan, the BC Arts Council and the Parliamentary Secretary for Arts and Film, Bob D’Eith, hosted a series of roundtables where we heard clearly from the sector about the need for training for staff, volunteers, and boards around reconciliation, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Participants called for practical implementation help with equity training, actions towards reconciliation, policy development, and resource sharing.

Partnering on a community-led approach and building off the great work already underway by arts service organizations throughout the province made sense to move this work forward in a way that was collaborative and transparent.

Providing financial support for the Pathways program was just one of a suite of activities that we implemented as part of the action to “Establish Diversity, Equity, and Access Program Supports.” We developed our designated priority groups policy and equity data collection to help provide targeted investment in underserved and equity groups. We launched Accelerate, a two-year pilot program for equity-deserving and regional organizations to build capacity. Together, these initiatives are meant to support organizations who are striving to implement more equitable practices, to make more space for those already doing the work, and to enact real change in the sector.

In recent years, our community has become increasingly aware of historic and continuing systemic inequities, and has worked to become more equitable and just, but there is far more we need to do. Our thanks to Arts BC, BC Museums Association, Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance and Rural Arts Inclusion Lab, and both the Pathways’ advisory network and BCAC’s Equity Advisory Network for their leadership, and to the greater arts and cultural community pushing for change.

Sae-Hoon Stan Chung
Chair, BC Arts Council