Creative Calgary Congress — Exploring ways that the arts and artists can play a leadership role in making Calgary a more curious, compassionate and creative place for all citizens.
Colin Jackson
Community Leader
We are called at this time in history to be big and bold…
There are many conversations like the ones we are having today happening around the world. Conversations about how to live together in a creative, peaceful and prosperous way, about how to live well into the future.
We humans, as a species, we need to accelerate our rate of adaptation if we are to be successful in creating a prosperous future for ourselves and our kids. One bright spark is the need to foster innovation and entrepreneurship is being engaged across the community for example our school of engineering at the University of Calgary—the Schulich School—has added a music and a fine arts program to the teaching of engineers. Calgary’s Ambrose University hosted The Soul of the New Economy a few months ago. And Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) has funded a major investigation over the next 12 months into imagining the future of Canada and what the role of the humanities and of the arts and social sciences is in creating that future. Big work, deep work, inspiring work.
The organization StartUp Canada has, over the last three months, hosted conversations with 1,000 people across Canada including artists, content creators and social entrepreneurs. They have collated their findings into a series of recommendations which was released in a report called Building a Creative and Entrepreneurial Canada for presentation to Minister Joly, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, who was the sponsor of this work.
There are many recommendations — 16 I believe — but part of what I found particularly interesting was a focus on telling a story about ourselves where we see ourselves as entrepreneurial, creative, innovative, generative people. So the report’s first recommendation has to do with the story of Canada and how Canadians contain and share being curious, generative and creative people.
So to all of you in the room—artists, storytellers, story-makers, myth-makers—you can be central to this work should you choose. We Canadians are on the path to a renewed narrative. Help shape that story of what we can become!
One last thought. Trump and other sources of disharmony seek to divide us, to turn us against “the other” the person who is in some way at odds with our sense of self. I propose to you, this it the time we need to dig deep into building empathy, understanding appreciation with and for those “others.”
There are many people who are feeling a deficit of meaning in their lives. This disconnection is often framed as an economic issue. The loss of a job is shocking, painful, deeply disruptive. But, I propose to you that in many cases it’s not just loss of a job but it’s loss of purpose that is a deep toxin. If I was a steelworker and I am no longer a steelworker and I cannot provide for my family, it’s not just the groceries, it is who am I in the world, for others for myself? This is a deficit of meaning, a deficit of purpose. To condemn the person who voted Trump shows a deep deficit of empathy on the part of the accuser.
We as creative people and as citizens, have to stand loud and proud and strong and say: “No! I don’t agree with wedge politics. I stand against hatred. But, I am going to listen to you, I am going to hear you, I am going to try to have a conversation with you. I am going to try to make art that will move you and I am not going to condemn you.”
This is our clarion call: To dig deep, build empathy and uplift each other. We are called into this time in history to be bold and big and brave.
Thank you.
Colin Jackson
Colin Jackson currently serves as Chair of Rosebud Centre for the Arts, Chair of imagiNation 150 (an organization dedicated to the celebration of Canada’s Sesquicentennial in 2017), Chair of ArtsSmarts (a national arts education advocacy organization), is a board member of the National Theatre School of Canada, as the Executive in Residence at the Haskayne School of Business and a member of the Ashoka Support Network.
He was the founding Artistic Director of Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg). His work history includes being a current affairs and drama producer for the CBC, on air host for a Global TV current affairs show, Executive Director of the Confederation Centre of the Arts (Charlottetown) and President of The EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts (Calgary). He has served as a member of the Prime Minister’s External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities, a member of the Mayor’s Panel on Urban Sustainability, a member of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce Strategic Council for the Renaissance City, a member of the Executive of the Canada Council for the Arts, a member of the Executive of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, a founding board member of the Calgary Arts Development Agency, Development Chair for the International Society for the Performing Arts, Alberta Chair of Culture Days, a member of the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary Senate and as Calgary Chair of Harvard’s Schools and Scholarships Committee. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal and a Canada Council Senior Arts Award.
Colin holds a BA from the University of Manitoba and a MPA from Harvard University.
About the Creative Calgary Congress
Calgary Arts Development produced the first Arts Champions Congress in 2011 as a meeting place for people who make Calgary’s arts sector a vibrant and exciting place to work and our city a great place to live.
Renamed the Creative Calgary Congress in 2014, it returned on November 22, 2016 as a place to share ideas and explore ways that the arts and artists can play a leadership role in making Calgary a more curious, compassionate and creative place for all citizens.
