Hello friends. It has been a minute. In the interim between now and then I have certainly seen better days, but I’ll save those gory details for that autobiography I might eventually write. Lots of stuff has happened though. Let’s run down a few things:
- I initiated a program teaching music to youth through the art of sampling records. It’s called Beat Roots Ottawa, and it starts in January.
- I’ve been working with the CHRA getting them all socially networked and improving connectivity within the Youth House.
- I went to Aspen to present at an international cultural policy symposium with WESTAF. As the only Canadian, I’ve never felt more Canadian.
But last, and perhaps most important of all:
- I GOT A JOB!! For now and the foreseeable future I will be working for the City of Ottawa in a cultural planning capacity. The project, as I’ve chosen to accept it, is to renew the 20-year arts, culture, and heritage plan for the city by designing and executing a very broad and deep consultation process. All related to a much broader sustainability planning initiative for the National Capital Region called Choosing Our Future.
So this is interesting. From waxing philosophic in cyberspace to on-the-ground work for the municipality. I have not had much time to adjust, but going to work at city hall every day has certainly been a serious change of pace from my impoverished-dilettantish-freelance lifestyle. I’m sorta getting used to it. The other day I was leaving city hall and helped direct a gentleman to the gallery on the first floor. He ended up asking me what I did there, and when I explained it to them he looked at me curiously and said: “Well you don’t look like a bureaucrat…” Let’s hope that never changes.
In the spirit of theory-to-practice I wanted to share the work of Windsor Ontario’s Broken City Lab with you. These folks are doing the real, arts-based, on-the-ground work that engages people with their city in ways that might cause them to think about it differently – perhaps as more than the sum of its parts. Plus they tie their event-based activities to research. This is a genuine attempt to mend a broken place with a lot of youthful energy and ideas. Take note. I certainly am.
So a bit more stability should bring about more consistent blogging. I’ll keep the CCE abreast of what’s going on around here, now from a slightly different perspective, and hopefully we can share the kinds of ideas that will help to make this place the kind of city that it can be.
And with that, I’m back.
Music, please.